Bush Administration Going Down in History—and Down and Down and Down

If journalists write the first draft of history, historians write the final one. Judging by two polls of historians conducted by the History News Network, one four years ago and the other last month, Bush has gone from bad to worse—and maybe, to worst.

In 2004, 415 historians were surveyed on Bush’s legacy. 81% believed the Bush administration would be judged a failure compared to 19% who believed it would be judged a success. 12% went so far as to say Bush would go down as the worst president in American history.

In 2008, 109 historians were surveyed. 98% believed the Bush years would be judged a failure compared to less than 2% who believed they would be judged a success. A staggering 61% said Bush would go down as the worst president in history.

The History News Network may not be the most objective source, but dismal evaluations of Bush aren’t confined to HNN. Eminent Princeton historian Sean Wilentz wrote in Rolling Stone two years ago that

George W. Bush’s presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace…. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.

Wilentz is joined by presidential historian Douglas Brinkley of Tulane University, who in December, 2006, wrote in the Washington Post that

it’s safe to bet that Bush will be forever handcuffed to the bottom rungs of the presidential ladder. The reason: Iraq … which is an unmitigated disaster.

Many will dismiss the nearly unanimously negative judgment of Bush as evidence of the liberal leanings of historians.

While the field does harbor a preponderance of liberals, historians as a group are notoriously cautious and circumspect, waiting for the historical record before pronouncing judgment. In addition, nowhere near 98% of histrians are liberal, meaning that the vast majority of moderate and conservative historians agree with their liberal colleagues.

Besides, as the most historically grounded conservative commentator, Pat Buchanan, notes, George Bush is anything but a conservative (see here, here, here, here, and here.)

Here’s a sample of the historians’ evaluations of Mr. Bush:

Glib, contemptuous, ignorant, incurious, a dupe of anyone who humors his deluded belief in his heroic self, he has bankrupted the country with his disastrous war and his tax breaks for the rich, trampled on the Bill of Rights, appointed foxes in every henhouse, compounded the terrorist threat, turned a blind eye to torture and corruption and a looming ecological disaster, and squandered the rest of the world’s goodwill.

With his unprovoked and disastrous war of aggression in Iraq and his monstrous deficits, Bush has set this country on a course that will take decades to correct. When future historians look back to identify the moment at which the United States began to lose its position of world leadership, they will point—rightly—to the Bush presidency.

…the paranoia of Nixon, the ethics of Harding and the good sense of Herbert Hoover…. God willing, this will go down as the nadir of American politics.

His domestic policies have had the cumulative effect of shoring up a semi-permanent aristocracy of capital that dwarfs the aristocracy of land against which the founding fathers rebelled; of encouraging a mindless retreat from science and rationalism; and of crippling the nation’s economic base.

George Bush has combined mediocrity with malevolent policies and has thus seriously damaged the welfare and standing of the United States…

His administration has been the most reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, mendacious, arrogant, self-righteous, incompetent, and deeply corrupt one in all of American history.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States enjoyed enormous support around the world. President Bush squandered that goodwill by taking the country into an unnecessary war of choice and misleading the American people to gain support for that war. And he failed utterly to have a plan to deal with Iraq after the invasion…. Mr. Bush inherited a sizable budget surplus and a thriving economy…. Bush transformed the surplus into a massive deficit. The tax cuts and other policies accelerated the concentration of wealth and income among the very richest Americans. These policies combined with unwavering opposition to necessary government regulations have produced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Then there is the incredible shrinking dollar, the appointment of incompetent cronies, the failure to react properly to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the blatant disregard for the Constitution—and on and on.

James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, move over. Your failures appear to have been misoverestimated.

Newsprism