Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues The Trump Administration The Impeachment of Donald trump

Remember when George W and Mitt Romney were Hitler?

I didn't buy into that nonsense, I just didn't like them.
And I thought Bush 43 was an arrogant boob controlled by chickenhawk neocons. Not much about my opinion of them has changed but I never thought they were Hitler.

I admit that the usual scurrilous memes and comments about then both did exist but in the face of a truly evil despot who really IS methodically ticking off every box in the authoritarian dictatorship request form, those scurrilous Bush and Romney memes have aged very poorly.

I actually believe that both Bush and Romney appear to have learned something from current events.

Evil righwingers? Yes. W seems to have rehabilitated himself once he divorced Cheney, and Romney rehabilitated himself once he stopped tying dogs in cages to car roofs.

It's a fair point that the loudest and angriest of both sides are the most visible, which means that they come to represent their side to the opposition, but don't necessarily accurately represent the entirety of their own side.

From the right side of the aisle, I will say, the left's tendency to describe Every Single Republican as Racist and Every Single Republican as Hitler did a lot to immunize Trump to the (now accurate) charges of racism and proto-fascism. By the time Trump came around, for someone on the left to accuse a Republican of racism was interpreted as "They must be afraid of him, ergo, he must be really effective and conservative".

Trump benefited massively from the backlash to decades of false accusations and some of the more insane political-correctness-pushes. Without that backlash, honestly, I don't think he wins the 2016 primary.

But, he did, and here we are :shrug:

Yeah - ya'll (generally) spent a lot of time and energy demonizing two actually decent (if sometimes wrong) individuals, and it helped give you Trump.

For their part, Republicans spent a lot of time and energy demonizing every single expansion of government as It's The Socialisms!!!, and it helped give us Bernie.

I would say that I hope both sides learn from the errors that come from crying Wolf.... but.... It's probably better not to waste my time hoping for introspection from today's political climate.

I think you can count on us to give it to you straight here at the Rant, at least compared to other places.
My take on Mr. Bush "I didn't like him" and I am putting the generic on that all the way up until 9/11.
In the aftermnath of 9/11 I felt compelled to put my political views aside, and to focus on our issue, the attacks.
Going into AfPak as did initially was A-OK by me, we believed we were on the right track and I supported the move and believed it was absolutely necessary.

I was annoyed at the slow pace and introspection re the Saudis but I bargained with myself that their hold on oil made things much more difficult.
It wasn't until Bush dropped the focus off bin Laden and pivoted to Iraq that I felt we were being intentionally misled.
And CP, as it turns out, we were. Sorry. We were.

Then came the wives and mothers holding bake sales to buy body armor that they should have been supplied with all along, then Rumsfeld's "You go to war with the army you have" speech, which was bullshit, because Iraq was an ELECTIVE.

Then came cascading disasters courtesy of Paul Bremer...you know, at some point the whole thing began to stink to high heaven and I take issue with the whole "decent" tag.
If Bush was still decent at that point, if you really believe that, then you are forced to admit that he was thoroughly manipulated by Cheney, Rummy and the rest of the neocon cabal, who were only focused on the fortune they were making profiteering off the War on Terror.

If we can win a two-front overseas war against one of the most powerful fascist armies on the planet in less than four years with a woefully prepared military, and then proceed to win the hearts and minds of all of Europe in the aftermath, then the only reason we've enmired ourselves as we have repeatedly in Vietnam and the Middle East can only be because we do not allow ourselves to design war plans in the name of victory anymore.
Victory costs too much, victory doesn't bring in profits.

In fact, actual congressionally declared wars CANNOT bring in excess profits, so we don't even declare wars anymore. They are "managed conflicts" starring the very monstrosity Eisenhower warned us about.

Decent. What is decent anymore...
But I guarantee you I did not demonize, I decried the obvious.

That's not demonization. Because if it is, that would have to mean my DoD physicist father lied to me my entire life about values, and it would mean my mother was a fool to marry him and have me.

I spoke truth to the values I'd been taught since childhood by an immigrant patriot war hero father.

In some ways he was a man much like you, he had voted back and forth over the years, sometimes Dem, sometimes GOP. He voted Ike in the 50's but he voted JFK in 1960 and LBJ in 64. He voted Reagan in 80...I do not know if he voted for Jimmy Carter.

Don't say everyone demonized the Bushes if we just didn't like them.
It's just not true.
Reagan, on the other hand....but that is another thread altogether.

I never thought Reagan was a demon. He seemed like everybody's slightly racist, slightly loony grandpa. Just incompetent for the job. I was sad when his dementia got so bad, his wife started running the country with the help of psychics. Sad for him, and sad for the country.

I also never demonized Mitt. I loved his RomneyCare plan, and admired his balls to actually do something congress had been kicking around for decades.

W, again not demonized. Not very competent. Former doper (but me too). Slacker on his National Guard service commitment. I actually liked his Dad. But out of his depth, in terms of being led into silly invasions by evil advisers. I actually suspect he fried his brain with cocaine and booze as a young man, because his father and mother seemed much smarter. But somebody like a few of my friends, who I would light up a blunt with and have some barbeque.

I can't remember demonizing any Republicans until Newt came along. Then Hasturd, and now Mitch. But that's because they insisted on hyper-partisan behavior and sort of wrecked the congress.

That's a recurring theme for Republican presidents. Romney seems pretty competent, but they never ever elected him. McCain seemed competent so they elected Bush. In an effort to prove his incompetence to voters he chose that woman from Alaska as a running mate during his second attempt.

Alas it was for nought. A military man, son of an Admiral, a war hero could never be incompetent enough for Republican voters.

Ever the maverick, he is now shunned by them. Mocked as he lay dying by the one they say is God's Prophet.

I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that Ronald Reagan, the one who was genuinely insane, is the one they mark a Saint.

Yeah.

Republicans eat their young. Trump is even worse: No matter how much of a fellow traveler one of his allies is, he eventually tosses them under the bus. I think Rudy may be next. Of course, some of them don't just lie there and let the bus run them down. It will be interesting to see what Bolten has to say about the White House if he ever testifies.

If Bolton does not testify and waits until he publishes a tell all book, he should be charged with obstruction of Democracy. Penalty ... ostracized to Iran.