Dear President Bush:
I voted for you four times: two times for Governor of Texas, and twice for President. I think you did a good job during your two terms as Governor of Texas, but your performance degraded considerably in your second term as President and even more nearing the end. Excessive spending and your position on immigration and amnesty (regardless of silk purse packaging) were disappointments to many who think like I do. But importantly, you did keep this country safe for the remainder of your term following September 11, 2001, and for that, the entire country owes you our undying gratitude.
I think that you are an honest man and one of conviction. To your credit, you didn’t let public opinion affect your decisions – that is the mark of a true leader. And even though I disagreed with you on several issues, on the whole, you were your own man.
But you made one mistake that enabled Barack Obama to gain the power of the Presidency, you consistently “turned the other cheek” while being savaged by the left. And that mistake may prove disastrous to the United States of America.
You allowed the democrats and their subcontractors, the major television networks and print media, to define the Bush Presidency and to spread the toxic venom of BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) far and wide over the entire eight years of your Presidency without fighting back. You LET them define you in the most vile and slanderous manner and seldom responded.
The widespread indoctrination of the uninformed into the BDS mindset was accomplished with little rebuttal from you and therefore, became an urban legend – assumed to be true because it was repeated time and time again. Lies repeated often enough are perceived as “reality.”
Surveys have shown that a large percentage of voters were voting against “Bush’s Republicans” rather than voting for Barack Obama. And many of the attributes of “Bush’s Republicans” were based on the lies and ridicule spread by the democrat political machine (including the “mainstream” media). I sincerely believe that few of the BDS-stricken Obama voters could have related any real reasons for their stance. If the democrat talking points and untrue Bush-bashing propaganda (“Bush lied, people died,” etc.) were filtered out of their reasons for dissatisfaction with your administration, there’d be little of substance left.
In other words, the democrats were continually throwing rhetorical dung against the wall and a lot of it stuck.
That was to be expected. We all knew that the dems were intent on regaining power at any cost and would do and say anything to achieve their goal. The unexpected activity was that your team allowed lies and inaccurate statements to go unchallenged. We, your supporters, were extremely disappointed to watch rhetorical bombs lobbed at you and your staff, and all you did was “hunker down.”
One of the democrats (and Obama’s) most effective campaign strategies was to never let anything negative go unchallenged. They reacted quickly and vigorously to any and all accusations and even created a website (http://fightthesmears.com/) to refute all claims that could be detrimental. That approach would have served you well.
The good that was accomplished during your two terms is about to be overshadowed by the long-term damage being done to the country by Omama and his Congressional cronies. They are in power because your unresponsiveness allowed them to define you and all Republicans in the worst possible light.
I’m not sure that I can ever forgive you for that.
Even now, as Speaker Pelosi blames torture and misleading Congress on “the Bush Administration,” and Obama’s cabinet members blame the worsening economy and quadrupling deficit on “an inheritance” from the previous administration. The only voice defending your activities is Dick Cheney. Is he the only one with the cojones to speak up? Why won’t you defend your own policies and directives? Allowing the “enemy” to attack without counter is what got us here.
Continued silence will only accelerate further diminution of your Presidency.
You owe it to your supporters to fight back.
Sincerely,
A disappointed “Compassionate Conservative.”