The Bush Legacy Propaganda
President Bush repeatedly argues that neither he nor his contemporaries are yet able to fully assess his legacy. Rather, he and his advisors say, again and again, that history will judge whether he was an effective president. Despite this claim, Bush seems disinclined to leave any of his legacy to chance. In recent weeks, he and his advisers have offered assessments of the Bush era that are increasingly at odds with reality.
Bush recently told a crowd that Donald Rumsfeld did an outstanding job as Secretary of Defense. The White House recently released a report entitled, “Highlights of Accomplishments and Results of the Administration of George W. Bush” that featured a list of “100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration Record.”
The Bush legacy document declares that Bush instituted pro-growth policies that produced six years of uninterrupted economic growth and an unprecedented 52 months of job creation and asks, “ Did you know that President’s tax relief helped fuel the growth that led to the largest three year increase in 26 years ?”
In his legacy document, Bush claims credit for promoting a “culture of life” by banning the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research and instituting regulations allowing health care professionals to refuse to participate in medical procedures that violate their personal beliefs.
The legacy document also tells a story of how Bush “kept America safe and promoted liberty abroad.” Further, while the President claims credit for expanding and strengthening the nation’s counter -terrorism tools, the U.S. military is weaker now than it was five years ago.
