• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This really isn’t anything different than any other president has said in living memory. If anything, it’s not as extreme as some of them.

    For example-

    No, I don’t know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God.

    That was George H. W. Bush.

    That said, I will give his piece of shit son credit for one thing. He said this:

    I will be your president regardless of your faith. And I don’t expect you to agree with me, necessarily, on religion. As a matter of fact, no president should ever try to impose religion on our society. The great – the great tradition of America is one where people can worship the – the way they want to worship. And if they choose not to worship, they’re just as patriotic as your neighbor.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheists#United_States

    I can’t remember any other time when a Republican at pretty much any level, let alone a president, would say that about atheists.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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      7 months ago

      Crazy times when the bar fell so low that Bush isn’t even considered to be one of the worst US presidents anymore. US hardliners have all gone so crazy that people like him, by comparison, appear to be moderate now.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Remember the “miss me now?” signs with Bush on them after Obama was elected?

        I hate to say it, but… compared to the alternative Republicans have on offer these days, yes.

        • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Jesus, that was such a weird time that folks wanted Bush back despite the super recession he caused. Obama really rocked the right hard so they said to themselves “never be mocked by libruls again” and are trying to take down democracy. And folks were calling out the fascist direction back with Bush/Cheney too.

        • hark@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Then your memory is lacking, sorry to say. Bush is the patriot act, Iraq war, border fence, torture program, PRISM, secret courts, worst economic crisis since the great depression, too big to fail, surplus-to-deficit, rich tax cuts, axis of evil, no child left behind (deceptively-named act that burdened public schools), global embarrassment guy. He is actually worse than trump, and unlike trump’s fumbling ass, bush was well-connected enough to successfully steal the election in 2000 with help from the supreme court. Don’t help republicans shift the overton window by rehabilitating that war criminal’s image and treating him as some sort of moderate.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Do you know how many worse things I could list about Trump? Shall we start with how he let a million Americans die with his COVID policy?

            • hark@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              Feel free to list them. As for COVID, Biden was just as eager to open things up, he was just lucky that the vaccine became a thing as he entered office, so he could fast-track that (Trump tried to sabotage the rollout on his way out because he’s a sore loser). Lockdowns weren’t popular among the capitalist class because of the impact to business, and you can see they weren’t taken seriously with a number of politicians flouting lockdown rules (including democrats). As a reminder, Bush was warned about a potential terrorist attack happening and then let 9/11 happen on his watch, then used that as an excuse to launch two wars and install a vast surveillance apparatus, secret courts, and a torture program.

    • jaspersgroove@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      To be fair, Dubya said a whole lot of things that no president before or since has said, mostly because his grasp of the vocabulary, grammar, and basic sentence structures of the English language is tenuous at best.

    • QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      Bush Jr was totally a warmonger… but he was also seemed more rational and sane than a lot of republicans comparatively… I wouldn’t say that he’s a good guy, just one of the least bad republicans. I’ll also give it to Romney for having some sense of principles and standing up against Trump despite everything else about him. They seem like the last in a rare breed of republicans that actually have some basic sense of honor. It’s a pretty low bar honestly but they seem to be slightly less lead poisoned? Which is something, I guess?

      • pdxfed@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Dude barely could form coherent sentences. He wanted to be on his ranch, not make hard decisions and coast through life as he always had on his privilege.

        His cabinet on the other hand, of course picked for him, was the Mr Rushmore of military-industrial corpo takeover.Cheney ex Halliburton CEO that directed no-bid contract awards in the many billions to them. They of course still fraudulently over billed the government and had to cop to repayment in a level of awkwardness seldom achieved. "Con"deleeza Rice, who Exon named an oil tanker after prior to being secretary of state may have had oil interests in mid, Rumsfeld who was both the youngest and oldest secretary of defense in Ford and then Shrub administrations directed negative and increasingly antidemocratic military policy from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        He clearly wanted to be to republicans what Clinton was to democrats, the firm commitment to centrism. Instead 9/11 happened and the country lost its damn shit and decided to declare war on Muslims and for some reason environmentalists.

    • pop@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      Why is it always that the US does something bad or beyond logic, it always goes back to “what about that time when x said/did something worse” as if it’s any fucking better?

      • Remember that time when obama bombed a wedding?
      • Remember when bush made up lies about invading iraq and got out scot-free?
      • Remember that time when we invaded countries for no reason other than pushing our agenda?
      • Remember when we funded terrorists that are now terrorizing the locals?
      • Remember when we changed regimes to religious fundamentalists that turned into theocracy?
      • Remember when we supported coups in democratic countries?

      He can say any fucking prepared statement, he’s a piece of shit zionist currently perpetuating a genocide. People trying to present him in positive light comparingto the scum of the nation are maggots that plague the earth.