Leaving a Legacy

Time to jump right in with both feet. I have heard President George W. Bush called the worst President in US History, and I'm sure that if you watch the news very often, then you have heard that as well. I have also heard others voice this less strongly, saying that his legacy is tarnished. While I would be in, at least, partial agreement with this second part, it's not for the reasons that most others have said it. I think that when future historians look at W's legacy, it is going to have very little to do with Iraq. When viewed in the stark light of history, by honest historians, I think that the Iraq debacle will be seen as something that President Bush really, and truly, felt had to be done. I don't know for sure if future generations will agree or disagree with the decision to go into Iraq in the first place, and they will almost certainly see that the operation was terribly mismanaged by the top levels of the Government, and indeed that does land on the Presidents desk. Even still, I think that they will see that the war against global terrorists had to be fought, and that this is the battlefield upon which he chose to confront the enemy. To clarify, I call this the war against global terrorists because it is impossible to fight a war against an idea, which is what a war on terrorism is. Even if we were to kill every terrorist in the world today, new ones will rise to take their places, the best we can hope for is to cripple their networks and severely damage their ability to carry out their plans, and thwart their dastardly deeds. This is a laudable goal, and must be done. But I digress. What I actually wanted to talk about is the reason why I think that the Bush legacy is tarnished. I don't think President George W. Bush will be remembered as the worst President in US history, but he will not be remembered well. However it will not be for the things that he tried to do, even if those things are seen as a failure. His legacy will be tarnished because of all of the things that needed to be done that he didn't even try, or that he did a little something with, but nothing meaningful. First, let's look at education. The education system in the country is in terrible shape. I know that he did try the "No Child Left Behind" strategy, which was an abysmal failure, though still claimed as a great success by the administration, and nothing has been done since then to try to fix what is wrong with our education system. I think that what needs to be done is to put together a commission, made up of teachers, parents, and unfortunately, Politicians from both sides of the isle, and have them look at what the other countries of the first world do in their schools, not to copy them, but to see what idea's they have that could be implemented here in order to make education better for all students. The Bush plan should have been called "Every Child Left Behind." Next, let's look that the health care crisis that we all hear so much about. Health care is in crisis in this country, the cost of it is outrageous. We don't need a plan for the government to take over health care for all of us, or even to pay for it (let's remember where the Government gets all of it's money... from us!!) but we do need regulation in place to keep costs lower. Lawsuits do need to be limited in order to lower costs, but that is only a small part of the problem, and if lawsuits are indeed limited then we need another way to hold doctors and hospitals accountable for their actions. We do now have prescription coverage for seniors, which is better than nothing, but in reality is just a showpiece to be able to say, see we did do something. Of course, we are paying for that too. And, let's not forget about immigration reform. We do have a bill before congress at the moment, but it's likely to do a lot more harm than good. Bush has never been serious about curbing illegal immigration, or securing the borders, which doesn't mesh well with his image of being a great homeland security President. Don't get me wrong, I am a great fan of legal immigration, but our borders need to be secured, and any non-citizen, in the country legally or not, who commits a crime, of any magnitude, needs to be sent packing. There is no easy answer to how to handle the 12 million illegals that are already here, since we have spent decades not enforcing the law, which, by the way, is called anarchy, but we first must secure the borders, and stop more from coming in. Open borders will destroy our country, period. In summary, there are many problems in the world that need to be dealt with, and cannot be ignored, but there are many issues, only three of which I've touched on today, within our country, that have been ignored. This, I believe is what will damage the Legacy of our 43rd President.