Patriot's History: George Bush 1 (Chap 21)
This Land Is Your Land, Anthony Bowman (George H.W. Bush theme song)God Bless the USA, Lee Greenwood (Gulf War song)
Anchors Aweigh, Mormon Tabernacle Choir
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Summary The fall of communism and a dazzling Gulf War victory were boosts for Bush, until he scrapped his "no new taxes" guarantee. Chapter The Cold War ends, less need for military, Mister Bush wins 88's election (for the Gipper) with a push for tax reductions ("read my lips"). A pilot, CIA director, businessman, and patriot, his resumé was good enough to beat the troubled Democrats. The fall of communism happened quickly, and the crumbling wall would symbolize the moral breakdown of the Soviet regime, as Lech Walesa's labor backlash would commit to worker freedom. But despite the global benefit of peace, demobilizing meant we started to omit defense expenses -- inauspicious, for Saddam Hussein decided to invade Kuwait. Despotic, inhumane, Saddam was threatening free markets, and the domino effect arose again -- perhaps Iraq would overthrow the Saudis next. As Bush directed sanctions, anti-war crusaders cried "no blood for oil." But Bush could not ignore the lessons of the past, and used a Reaganlike all-out attack, the "western way of war," a strategy without delays like Vietnam, and led by power from the air, precision laser bombing, an immediate affair that killed a hundred thousand of a shell-shocked enemy at very little cost. But rather inexplicably we left Saddam in charge. And then, back home, a big mistake: recession, and a deficit that's not about to break the budget -- Bush reacts too strongly, with the largest tax increase in history. The public's mad, the press reacts with rancor: "Read my lips, I lied," announced the New York Post. And now his "kinder, gentler" nation seemed an empty boast, his "thousand points of light" naive. He rallied civil rights again, despite the fact that many blacks had reached the heights without assistance (Jordan, Winfrey, Clarence Thomas). Shame on us, allowing miscreants like Rodney King to blame authority and cause a Watts-like riot. Ross Perot arrived in '92, a businessman, but touch-and-go on major issues. Clinton won the race, a moderate, though soon to be revealed, in moral terms, a hypocrite. |