Just watched the Boy Boy video on George Bush’s Masterclass, and they made me think about which U.S. President was actually worse.

  • amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz
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    8 months ago

    Definitely Trump. Tried to subvert democracy, wholly unprofessional attitude as president (in my opinion the first president to not even attempt “rising to the office” at all), handled the economy with the tact of a middle schooler, and (allegedly) divulged / kept classified documents. He is also a civilly liable rapist. All of this I think makes Trump the third worst president of all time, behind James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce.

    George Bush is easily the second worst president in modern history, his initial response to 9/11 was a highpoint, but afterwards he started a useless war and, although he incorrectly wouldn’t see it this way, bent at the knee to terrorism by subverting constitutional rights for the purposes of mass searches and seizures of information without a warrant or reasonable cause. (i.e. Patriot Act). It’s been a while since I hashed out a whole list, but I believe I had Bush somewhere between 7th and 12th worst or so.

    Both are absolute pieces of shit.

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    We joked about W and Cheney cancelling the election. “Bush 2008 - why should the law stop us now?”

    The Idiot was responsible for a failed coup.

    The part where an angry mob invaded the capital, held back by precious few law enforcement officials, with the entire federal elected government hiding in one location? That was the lesser part. That was the visible mushroom emerging from the mycellum organism that permeated his turd of an administration. In the year leading up to that violent assault on the American government, he’d openly suggested “delaying” the election, on account of the plague he also insisted was fake. He had the Postal Service destroy the literal machinery of democracy with the explicit intent of vilifying and preventing mail-in voting. He extorted a foreign ally in hopes of committing fraud, and just about ruined the State Department with his narcissistic tantrums about getting caught doing those crimes.

    George W. Bush was an intolerable authoritarian moron who openly betrayed the ideals of the nation and his duties to its people. We spent seven years constantly terrorized by our own government’s vague-but-menacing warnings and gleeful overreactions to attacks they failed to detect.We still have people trapped in an offshore torture prison because of that motherfucker. He was the worst domestic threat the United States had faced since the Business Plot. There was no excuse for ever electing anyone so brazenly corrupt and dishonest ever again. And then The Idiot was worse. The Idiot was orders of magnitude worse, on every possible front, without one god-damn iota of ambiguity or disguise. Republicans nominated and installed an incompetent criminal fascist.

    They are trying to do it again.

    The party is complicit and must be dismantled.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    8 months ago

    Bush was worse internationally, Trump was worse domestically. If he got one more term, who’d know?

  • Yerbouti@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    For the US, Trump tried to destoy democracy so that’s hard to top. And if he gets elected again, he will certainly succeed. For the rest of the world, both are clowns with nuclear weapons so equally dangerous. Trump just didnt had enough time to make as much damage, but what Trump did that Bush didnt, is inspiring right-wingers around thw world, with is deinfornation tactics.

  • Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Anyone who says trump was worse should not be taken seriously about politics, all they care about is feeling good about their country and being able to ignore politics. Bush killed half a million Iraqis in service of oil company quarterly earnings, it’s not even close.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      8 months ago

      1: A million 2: COVID. 3: Trump would have glassed the entire Middle East on 9/11. He’s called for it this year.

      He’s just too stupid to make it happen.

      Is that actually better?

  • Melllvar@startrek.website
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    8 months ago

    Bush was bad. But Trump was dangerous.

    Like, if Bush were somehow to be elected again I wouldn’t be alarmed, I’d be annoyed.

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Way to downplay warcrimes and actual wars 👏👏👏

      Nobody who understands what Bush did thinks Trump is worse.

      Edit: ITT- People justifying senseless wars

      • vivadanang@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        No one is downplaying what Bush did, we’re accentuating how excruciatingly bad Trump’s actions were. See you comprehend that Bush’s crimes were horrible, you’re simply incapable of understanding that Trump’s were much, much worse.

        Many executives get their countries embroiled in foreign conflicts. Few actively attempt to subvert their own government upon their dismissal; they literally are the worst of the worst, and your inability to fathom this is either feigned or revealing.

        • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          The US deserves to fall, and I’m glad trump did so much damage on his way out.

  • tunetardis@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    Speaking as a Canadian, the Bush presidency was certainly wince-inducing. I was genuinely surprised he got re-elected after that clusterfuck of a first term. By the end of the 2nd, I was fairly convinced the best days of America were behind it.

    But the difference between him and Trump is the wounds were more self-inflicted on the country with Bush. Still not great for Canada, whose fortunes rise and fall on what happens on the other side of the border.

    But Trump had a genuine animosity for freedom-loving, democracy-respecting American allies and a love for oppressive dictatorships. He tore up trade agreements, levelled tariffs, etc. against Canada and Europe while advancing diplomacy in person in the likes of North Korea.

    And on a more social level, he poisoned public discourse and stoked right-wing authoritarianism all over the world. I have family members I can’t talk to anymore. And the lunatic fringe came out of the woodwork under his term. We even had a mosque shooter here in Canada who was quite candid about Trump being his inspiration.

    Within the US, Americans hate Americans with a passion. What a mess. Another civil war is not out of the question. As such, I am coming down on Trump being far, far worse.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      I think all those things are good. Trump didn’t cause any of those, he exposed them to naive liberals like you.

  • Spacemanspliff@midwest.social
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    8 months ago

    I feel like while bush was a much worse president then most people realize, with some of his policies and things like the patriot act still in effect and gumming up the works, trump did more damage in erroding the facade of democracy and empowering fanatics

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Which is a good thing. Liberals pretending Bush wasn’t so bad, is what is going to allow fascism to win.

  • Nonameuser678@aussie.zone
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    8 months ago

    Not an American but Trump was far more embarrassing to your international reputation than Bush. They’re both 2 of the worst presidents you’ve ever had but Trump is a whole different level of shitty. He’s like fascist shitty, whereas Bush was neo-con shitty.

    • OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      He’s like fascist shitty, whereas Bush was neo-con shitty.

      Corporate would like you to find the difference between these two pictures.

  • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    If Trump leads to the end of America and it’s sham democracy, he will be the greatest president the world has ever had. But liberals can’t stand to call America the bad guy.