Brain Lemon

Add this to the warning signs about Barack Obama's arrogance – he is being sworn in using the same Bible used for Lincoln's inauguration.  There have already been numerous troubling signs of this, from the painting of "O-Force One" to look like Air Force One, the modification of the Presidential Seal into a campaign sign, and the absurd farce that is the "Office of the President-Elect".  This guy has been built up and worshiped by so many, and made out to be nigh superhuman.  I think he honestly believes in all of it and has a truly scary vision of himself.  In a time when people are celebrity-obsessed and want their president to be a rock star, we have long left the idea that our leaders are supposed to be humble servants, not demigods.  For all his faults George Bush realized this.  Meanwhile Obama, in a severe economic downturn, sees fit to make his inauguration into a coronation.  Let us hope, for all our sakes, that when reality comes to his desk, he is able to come down to earth and make reasoned decisions.  Let us hope that this offensive revelry soon ends, and people realize he is just human.  And that in the end of the day we all wait and see before engraving his head on freaking Mount Rushmore.

I've spent the last eight years supporting George W. Bush, even in college where such support makes you feel like a leper.  I believe he is a good man who made some hard choices after 9/11.  I thank him immensely for keeping us safe even under intense pressure from political enemies.  The level of hatred, and the purely partisan attacks that have been made have been shameful.  In the end, I believe that Iraq will turn out to be a good decision and we will understand in time why it needed to be done.  In short, I believe he has been spectacularly misunderstood and resented without legitimate cause.

Myself and many other conservatives have certainly had our problems with him.  We are still vexed by his support for expanding Medicare, supporting campaign finance reform, amnesty, and growing government to a truly shocking degree.  We know he is not a true conservative in principal, but rather someone who is conservative on some things but in the end is a politician, and someone highly reliant on his own instincts and "gut," often to deleterious result.

Now the final shoe has dropped.  Any pretense we had of his support for free market principles is out the door.  The previous government intervention has been disturbing and excessive, but at the very least it was justified in that the banking/financial system is crucial to our lives.  However, with the auto company bailout another level has been breached.  This is the government stepping in to bail out private industry that by all rights should be forced into bankruptcy.  This is an industry that, aside from sentimentality, has no business being saved by the government.

In the end, then, I suppose Bush's legacy will be a mixed one.  In the areas where he followed conservative principles, such as in national defense, I will remember him as a stalwart leader.  But in the areas of government size and intrusiveness, border security, and free market principles, Bush will be remembered as a disaster.  He has discredited so-called conservative ideas and helped to usher in an era of increasing socialism, government dependency, and staggering debt.  He has laid the table for the potential end of America as we know it.  With Obama coming in, we are on the verge of seeing the end of prosperity for a long time.  In the end we will hopefully realize that fiscal responsibility is the real answer, but until then we are in for a long period of unheard of government intervention.