Miserable Failures
By Judson Cox (09/26/03)
At the urging of Congressman Dick Gephart, "miserable failure(s)" of leadership must be addressed. Instead of lending credence to his attacks on President Bush, we should examine the records of a few other leaders. As they say, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the Gander, so let's begin with former President Bill Clinton.
Clinton was president during several attacks by Al-Queda and its affiliates, including the bombing of the World Trade Center, the attacks on the USS Cole and the Khobar Towers. He refused to punish those responsible, even refusing to take Osama bin Laden into custody when Saudi Arabia offered him. He chose to view terrorism as a criminal matter even when terrorists declared war on the United States. His refusal to deal with bin Laden, his refusal to take Islamic terrorism seriously, his handling of Somalia, his hampering and gutting of Intelligence agencies and his callous disregard for the security of our nation allowed the 9/11 attacks and necessitated the War On Terror. Clinton pledged to bring peace to the Middle East, but by having Yasser Arafat as the most frequent foreign leader invited to the White House, he legitimized him in the eyes of the world and led to the current Intifada which has killed thousands of Israelis. His refusal to overturn the regime of Saddam Huessein allowed the funding and training of Islamic terrorists world wide.
Clinton entered office in the midst of an economic recovery, and rode that wave of expansion through most of his presidency. By the time he left office, our economy was in a full fledged recession. He promised to have the most ethical administration in history and to uphold the law; his two terms were filled with scandals, including charges of rape, sexual harassment, affairs, the renting of the Lincoln Bedroom, and shady dealings with the Chinese government. Bill Clinton was impeached for committing perjury. During his term, his party lost control of the House and the Senate, and reduced our national political dialogue to its most base level. On all counts, Bill Clinton failed as a leader.
Failure is not unique to Clinton, as evidenced by Jimmy Carter. Carter's policies gave us an energy crisis to which his remedy was to wear a sweater. His foreign policy allowed American hostages to be taken in Iran, and lost us the Panama Canal. His economic policies gave us double digit inflation and record unemployment. The presidency of Jimmy Carter plunged America into a "malaise," and his post presidential legacy is one of supporting blood thirsty dictators such as Castro and Daniel Ortega against the wishes of the people suffering under these tyrants. President Carter said, Americans have an "irrational fear of communism." All the Habitat for Humanity houses he builds can never erase the failed policies of his administration, and his affinity for a political system that is responsible for the deaths of over 200 million people. Carter failed as a leader.
Even in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, failure is evident. President Kennedy's scandal ridden term entered America into the Vietnam War, the only war America ever failed to win. President Johnson waged quagmires of his own, namely the social wars of the Great Society. Johnson waged a War On Poverty that has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and had no positive effect. The only tangible result of the War On Poverty is the creation of a welfare state that subsidizes joblessness and encourages illegitimacy, leading to higher levels of poverty and crime and an ingrained hopelessness. His public education programs have had similar results. The amount spent on education has increased annually to $745 billion (over $10,000 per student) last year for education funding alone. The results of this expensive failure are test scores that get lower nearly every year and greater illiteracy rates than have existed in America since the Civil War! JFK and LBJ failed as leaders.
In the last fifty years, every democratic president has been a miserable failure. At best, republican presidents have been flawed leaders, but if the negative effects of every republican president over the last fifty years were added together, it could not match the damage done by a single democrat. With the exception of JFK's tax cuts
no single democratic policy has had a positive effect on our nation.
In the end, we cannot blame our nation's ills on our leaders, because we (the voters) are responsible for putting them in power. If we elect another democrat, the failure will be our own.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Judson Cox
