Bush, Blair and Schröder: The Wrong 3 in Power

George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder all left a mark on the opening days of the 21st century: They had a grasp of the right issues, but in retrospect one must ask if they even knew what they were supposed to do. The political dispute burdens them even to this day.

Even Churchill spent his later years painting, and there’s no hope that Berlusconi will be considered an elder statesman any time soon: He’ll spend the remainder of his sentence for tax fraud doing community service, giving “new hope and inspiration” to the physically and mentally impaired, according to a document released by his lawyer. It is both the strength and weakness of a democracy that people make it to the top and then disappear. Democracy has no continuity; political experience fizzles out.

Even George W. Bush and Tony Blair faded from the scene. While not many people wept when they left, it’s still an astounding turn of events: Ten years ago, these three were the most powerful people in the world, and today all three of them stand politically and morally discredited.

They are talked about today for completely different reasons. Bush paints naturalistic portraits of heads of state he met in the past.

The Subjects Bush Painted Also Fell into Disrepute

Blair, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, amassed a fortune of some 70 million pounds, went on to become an advisor to Kazakh dictators, and has had to defend himself against rumors that he had an affair with Rupert Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng. And Schröder can’t bring himself to find a few appropriate words for his friend Vladimir Putin about the latter’s disregard for human rights. Schröder just celebrated his birthday and is the eldest of the trio. Sometimes the wrong people get into positions of power in a democracy.

But sometimes they get involved with the right issues which then, unfortunately, end up being discredited along with them. The causes suffer along with the legacies of the politicians who champion them. George W. Bush’s obsession with Iraq might have led to a basic understanding of when humanitarian intervention is justified and when it is not, but it ended up being a political struggle over blood, oil and weapons of mass destruction; as a result, the Iraq war looms like a crippling shadow hovering over the West’s confusing and paralyzing policies concerning Syria.

In his speech to the European Union parliament in 2005, Tony Blair said everything that needs to be said about Europe: “It’s time to give ourselves a reality check. To receive the wake-up call. The people are blowing the trumpets around the city walls. Are we listening? Have we the political will to go out and meet them so that they regard our leadership as part of the solution, not the problem?” Blair addressed the issues of unemployment, low economic growth, immigration, social and defense policy and the lack of legitimacy in EU structures. But what has transpired since his administration? Nothing. Blair’s interest in the European Union disappeared, and the problems he mentioned have only gotten worse since then.

And Gerhard Schröder’s 2010 agenda has caused damage that has lasted far beyond his term in office. His program, camouflaged as a blow for economic emancipation, was actually designed to disable opponents within his own party. This partisan political enslavement of economic and socio-political aggression persists to this day and makes any meaningful debate about what is right and just in society impossible.

Bush Paints Pictures as Though He Doesn’t Remember Who Merkel and Putin Were

George Bush painted portraits of Putin, Merkel and the Dalai Lama from photos downloaded from Wikipedia — in a way that suggests he has no memory of his subjects, no personal impression of how they looked: as if he had never been president. Tony Blair’s own party wants nothing more to do with him. A former colleague described him to the Guardian newspaper as “toxic.” Schröder says approving retirement at age 63 is absolutely the wrong signal to be sending, but his words no longer carry any weight. And why should they? Schröder himself casually says he’s not Moses and his agenda wasn’t the Ten Commandments.

All three of them practiced politics with a giddiness that in retrospect betrays a lack of seriousness, even a lack of political ambition. What did they intend to accomplish? Wouldn’t each have been better off had Bush become an artist, Blair an investment banker and Schröder a lobbyist right from the beginning? It’s a pity that all three became politically irrelevant within 10 years of governing. And it’s even more a pity that their causes have been discredited along with them.