Bush’s Legacy Is Bankrupt Across the Board

The presidency of George W. Bush can safely be called unique. It began on a happy note, but it is coming to an extremely sad ending.

When Bush took office as president in 2001, after an election that was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, he became the leader of a superpower that had its finances in pretty good order. Nine months later, he became the leader of almost the entire world when terrorism, as a result of 9/11, took on a new, global meaning. His use of military means to snuff out terrorism was hardly challenged, and all the old geopolitical differences of opinion seemed instantly insignificant.

While the war on terror in Afghanistan continued, Bush chose in 2003 to take a leap forward with the invasion of Iraq. He let himself be fooled into thinking that modern warfare doesn’t cost very much. The immediate reason for the adventure, Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, was made up. Even so, respect for the U.S. was still so great that the Netherlands and other allies joined in the military strike.

But the invasion of Iraq led to even chiller relations with Russia, which was still an ally in Afghanistan, and to a break within NATO. Germany and France remained outside the “coalition of the willing.” The American reaction was rhetorical: punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia. Equally imaginary remained the reconstruction of Iraq and the predicted democratization of the entire Middle East. Still, Bush was re-elected in 2004.

Only after November 2006, when Republicans lost the majority in Congress, did Bush adjust his policies. It was too late. Even one of his highest priorities, a liberal immigration policy, died in the Senate. It was mostly out of politeness that people even listened to him, until the symbolic moment when an Iraqi journalist refused to listen, and made his point with two shoes. Bush had nothing more to say.

The neglect of the public domain was also a consequence of his fiscal delusions, and this became apparent after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Then the credit crisis caused the collapse of the financial house of cards last year, and the Republican loss in November 2008 was the final deathblow.

In Bush’s party a battle now rages among three types of conservatives: the fiscal conservatives, who strive for a thrifty government; the social conservatives, who place priority on non-material issues; and the neo-conservatives, who were the dominant ideologues under Bush.

America is and remains a dynamic country, but Bush’s estate is bankrupt across the board. The president who inherited a budget surplus of almost $130 billion will leave a deficit of $490 billion in 2009. In foreign policy, Bush showed himself at the critical moment to be not a statesman, but an adventurer. Domestically, he neglected the cautious tradition of his own party, and the U.S. is paying a high price for that.

Bush was a pleasant man, a man in whom many Americans recognized themselves. But what they didn’t know was that he was also a political alchemist who thought that he was the president of Monopoly.