President Bush, should he resign or be impeached

Previously published on January 28, 2008
 
The betrayal of the Bush administration can be documented by a laundry list the size of Texas. Meanwhile, there have been blatantly unlawful events that directly connect to the Office of the Vice President, but the truth is that all of the publicly documented activities of the Bush administration, including the unethical, as well as possibly unconstitutional, proposed legislation is perfectly legal and George W. Bush probably has no verifiable connection to any unlawful abuses of the executive powers.

After the 2008 election, documents demonstrating calescent activities will be uncovered and released; what transpires depends upon not only which party takes control of the Oval Office but what documents have been preserved. Furthermore, at the very most, the public will see a few Congressional hearings and possibly a few criminal prosecutions, but I am certain these will be limited to a few low ranking officials. At the very most, which is highly unlikely, we might see the prosecution of Dick Cheney as he is the one most likely to have orchestrated any illegal activities.

The truth is that politicians, like George W. Bush, believe their policies and behaviors are actually beneficial to America while other people's ideals are not only fundamentally wrong but hinder the success of their policies. Essentially, everyone else is wrong and they failed because their opponents got in the way. More often than not, people like George W. are not necessarily wrong; their ideas simply have more risk with less potential benefit, i.e. the privatization of social security versus raising the taxation cap.

Looking at the relationship between businesses and government truly exemplifies the shortcomings of the Bush administration. Consider that for decades American companies fed the America economy through taxes, payroll, and infrastructure; what was good for big Business was good for America. On the other hand, globalization has changed the dynamics of business and, with a better understanding of the environment, it should now be understood that what is good for big business is not necessarily good for America. Bush Republicans, those who espouse his radical and detrimental ideologies, have been trained to believe in big business without question. It is not that these leaders condemn the poor and the suffering or want to hurt the environment; they simply put the interests of businesses first. They believe once business is successful, all other issues will be taken care of as it is in the interest of these economic entities to curtail poverty, create health care, and maintain the environment.

Moreover, globalization has made ideas like "free trade" beneficial to former American entities, which have become international corporations, due to their ability to manufacture and sell their products around, so Bush Republicans bend over backwards forcing "free trade" through policies such as deregulation, privatization of every government responsibility, and massive outsourcing of US industry and jobs. In essence, they basically rely on the good nature of business to deal with most social issues. However, the difficulty with relying on the good nature of businesses is that businesses tend to do what immediately benefits them, which is exemplified by the poor lending practices that resulted in the sub-prime meltdown.

Looking at additional examples, businesses will only, in general, protect health care when tax cuts benefit them and, when it comes time to cut the budget, they certainly take a very close look payroll before anything else. Furthermore, looking at sound environmental practices as tertiary concerns, Bush Republicans look to businesses for volunteer efforts to safeguard the environment while the nature of business is to put short term profits ahead of long term problems, like Climate Change, that may or may not affect their business in a significant way.

Moreover, some people question why Chinese goods are found to contain so many flaws and pollutants, such as lead, even though it is not in their interest to be found poisoning their costumer, but the answer is simple. Because manufacturers are unlikely to be caught, especially will the lax Bush administration policies, and because the possible health issues of their consumers will not directly cost the manufactures, especially with new children born everyday, it becomes beneficial for manufactures to cut production costs by adding cheaper lead substitutes, thus, displacing those costs onto their consumers, their workers, and the environment.

The overall problem with leaders, such as George W. Bush, is that they view Americans as consumers or, if we are lucky, voters who happen to be workers and live in our environment. We are American citizens and it is the duty of government to protect our rights and freedoms while providing a strong economy and safeguarding us against harmful business practices. Furthermore, there is a misconception that most industries exist in a supply and demand relationship. Because of displaced costs, trading of futures, underlying influences, such as intense advertising, and a lack of transparency, consumers do not readily have the ability to affect change. Frankly, Americans cannot be viewed as workers, consumers, or, for that matter, voters; government leaders need to view Americans as citizens, who they equally serve without regard to political demographics or socioeconomic status.

What is good for America needs to what is good for business and, if they choose to deal with the current largest consumer-nation in the world, they need to mold their business practices to the needs and desires of Americans. On the other hand, businesses are not necessarily to blame for their influence on our society as they are doing what they feel is beneficial to them and, although such behavior can be shortsighted and detrimental to their industry, the government is responsible for ensuring businesses engage in ethical behavior not the other way around.

Bush's greatest sin is that he has not served the American citizen, but impeachment would be a waste of time and resources. Instead, Americans need to learn from his faulted policies and Presidency. Overall, because he has taken his faulted policies and beliefs to such great extremes, we may now see long term changes in the political arena and such change could lead us to a much brighter future.
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