WHAT legacy?

Yesterday I saw a column headline which asked what Bush can do to preserve his legacy. When I see something like this, and I'm seeing it a lot lately, I want to break something. There is nothing that can be done about the hatred and distrust that Bush has created worldwide against the United States, nothing that can be done about the decrease in national security he has brought about, nothing that can be done about the injured, sick and dead American soldiers and civilians, or the injured, dead and orphaned Iraqis.

And yet, if there were to be some magic solution, some "honorable" way to get out of Iraq, and if things in Iraq were to suddenly go smoothly, many Americans would find a way to overlook the injured, the sick, the orphaned, and the dead. And they would find a way to not notice how unsafe Bush has made us.

And then there is the matter of Everything Else. The ruined environment, the damaged educational system, the multiple lies, the fake science, the tearing down of the wall of separation between church and state, the granting of huge tax breaks to the wealthy, the systematic removal of civil liberties, the medical restrictions placed on women and girls, the placement of thousands of African women and children at risk of death, the poisoning of children--what the hell kind of legacy is that?

Please don't tell me that history will judge him harshly. So far, history has judged Ronald Reagan very, very nicely. Ronald Reagan is a god, and I don't see that changing. And who was Ronald Reagan? He was a mentally dull man who stirred racial hatred, meddled needlessly in the affairs of other nations and caused great loss and destruction, suppressed women's rights, systematically removed our civil liberties, and stood silently by while Americans died of AIDS. Ronald Reagan was evil, but Americans worship him.

So don't expect Bush's "legacy" to go sour.