Karen. No.

The GOP and I go way back.

A direct line can be drawn from Nixon, Reagan, Bush to Trump. They were all allowed to govern with extraconstitutional impunity. Their worst crimes are now being visited upon all of us.

And the response from the DNC was that it needed to become more like the GOP, rather than push back. See also: DLC (Democratic leadership council), Third Way, "New Democrats", etc.

Yep, Dems always tack right instead of left when they lose. Why? See: Citizens United.

These days, that definitely has an impact. But Reagan predates that ruling by 30 years.

They were presidents in name only. The real power was with the people behind the scenes, except for Nixon. He was just a creep.

Exactly! I've been watching this shit my whole life, knowing this was their plan. How the hell did the Democratic politicians miss it? This Karen's take is insane.

They didn't miss anything. They have been actively helping all along, in full knowledge of what they are doing.

You seriously just defended Bush? Jesus. I was a kid when he was president and even I knew he was a bastard.

How old are you? Because anyone born before 1985 would know how stupid this post is.

95 even.

I don't even remember 9/11 and I still know Bush was an anti democratic bastard. What's that quote again, "Dictatorship sound pretty sweet long as i'm dictator"

This was the GOPs first successful stolen election. It literally brought about our now reality and is why those of us who were young & stupid & voted 3rd party back then tried to teach today’s youth not to make our same dire mistake, because we can’t fix a broken system if we lose it to fascism….

Ma'am...

everyone thought I was catastrophizing when I’d talk about how terrible the bush administration is going to be long term. when I was in college. I hate that I was absolutely right. and that dinguses like you still exist.

lmfao ratio the likes of which nobody has ever seen

Karen, how can you be retired if you have absolutely no memory of how fucking awful GWB was for democracy

im neither old enough nor even american and know this is false lol do better

He, uh, literally overturned an election

Ma’am he was quite literally the end of “normal” politics.

You cannot be serious.

??????

off the top of my sleep-deprived head "free speech zones" and a funny little thing called the PATRIOT act disagree with your idiocy

Yeah. Google "Brooks Brothers Riot" That shit should have been shut down then. Hard.

Karen is most definitely a Karen

Well, no moreso that Reagan, Bush Snr...and Clinton, Obama...

try again

I don't think that's true

[Looks up who created DHS and ICE] ah,

If you believe that then log off and shut the fuck up. You're ignorant to basic facts.

He literally stole the 2000 election, Karen

Did a goldfish write this?

George W. Bush’s presidency is one of the foundation blocks all of these horrors are built on

i'd take issue with that, given the circumstances of his initial "victory" + after the 2000 election, republicans came to understand that the democratic party would rather eat shit than put up any sort of fight against the gop.

lol

Begone, bot account!

🤣🤣🤣🤣 Is that why we’re STILL dealing with the fallout of his 20 year colonialist “nation building” efforts in Iraq?

I'm an immigrant and I know more about American history than you do.

. . . You said that out loud.

oh COME ON

He ran black site torture prisons.

Every repost is a quote, lol

Hey, are you dumb?

Frog: this broth is pleasantly warm. Sure hope the temperature doesn't go up.

Guess who created ICE…

Everything Trump is doing has Bush policy as precedent

You should lay down. You have to be tired from having been born this morning.

He lost in 2000 and used a corrupt judicial system to openly steal the election

And then created ICE.

You guys have lost the plot

He absolutely did. Jesus tap-dancing Christ.

Sure, aside from nominating the justice who gutted the constitution from the bench while employing the gerrymandering pollster with the blueprint for permanent minority control of the House.

And who could forget Dick Cheney, the guy who pushed the Unitary Executive theory into mainstream awareness while claiming the vice president‘s office was a previously unrecognized fourth branch of government with virtually no restraint.

It’s a long game, these people are on the same team, and they’ve been playing the whole time

Did you not hear about the Patriot Act?

He absolutely did! The 2000 election, the Texas gerrymandering scheme that got Tom Delay sent to prison, the politicization of the justice department to push a voter fraud narrative, etc. Nothing quite to Jan 6 levels, but it’s part of how we got here. Why are we lying to ourselves about this?

I was going to assume you were just too young to remember what Bush did to democracy, but being retired in your 30s seems unlikely

The Supreme Court made them stop the recount because it probably showed that he lost

It is so cute to display such ignorance.

lmao check your house for a gas leak

Yes, we should appeal to the status quo of one step before the current status quo that is really bad. The step before the step we're on won't lead to the same step again, no, because I was ignorant and complacent then, and that is truly the Path to Goodness.

He literally did but ok

can you point to iraq on a map

He passed the Patriot Act which directly undermines the democratic foundation of the country. I was there, I remember it very well, and you are beyond incorrect.

you have brain damage

You’re living in Bush’s USA

I am ordering you to read a book.

He killed one million Iraqis. A one with 6 zeros. Come on dawg.

Huh? Of course he did. This whole enshittification process got a much push forward from the man and the lickspittles he installed in the government.

to be blunt i'm going to guess you're too young to have lived then

Google "Bush v. Gore", Patriot Act and "extraordinary rendition"

He stole an election, Karen.

His administration created ICE. Before that it was a much smaller and less militarized agency under the Department of State His FBI also spied on Muslims in the U.S. someone in the town I was living in was hauled off by them The NYPD actually developed an international intelligence network

Remember how his administration lied about WMDs in Iraq and made up fake claims about Saddam Hussein having some kind of link to Al-Queda in order to invade the country, take their oil and kill I think about half a million Iraqi civilians? Remember CIA blacksites? Enhanced interrogation at gitmo?

The foundation of the US. Did you really think genocidal enslavers gave us a democracy? 🤦‍♀️

The dude that brought us the patriot act? 🤦🏾‍♂️ we are so lost

Biden and moderate Senate Dems were even more enthusiastic about all of those laws than Bush and his admin; Bush didn't even initially want to create DHS and ICE

obama's the guy who promoted tom homan and homan's shitty ideas on immigration

And yet he did

the point is that Democrats could have easily prevented him from doing so; instead - they egged him on

Oh yeah, Democrats are awful, but don’t let Bush off the hook

the post I was responding to implied he was uniquely responsible for the awful policies which passed after 9/11

You lived in a different reality. The same as the op who said bush wasn’t a threat to democracy.

Bush very clearly didn’t care about democracy given his support for the brooks brothers riots; the point is that he is not singularly to blame for DHS and ICE and the patriot act; all were supported by tons of very prominent Democrats

The President is responsible for the laws they pass. Others contributed. Others made it worse. No one is denying that part.

Just trying to obscure it because y'all don't get that accountability is what is needed, not preservation of optics. Stop caping for people with no integrity, no principles, no strategy, and a firm commitment to preservation of the status quo. Brunch is covered in blood. Shine a light on it.

I'm not even from America, you shine a light on it.

Okay Sylvie, will do

without which - those agencies and laws would not have been created

lmao yeah they totally twisted his arm. definitely a thing that happened

Biden and Lieberman tried to own Bush for not being tough enough on national security by pushing for creation of an entire new government agency

Bush pretended like he didn't want DHS to be created because he was a slimy complicit piece of garbage.

from what I have read, this is very wrong; Bush and his people were legitimately coming at it from the conservative small government POV; then once the focus groups and polling showed them that the terrorist fear was their best way to win 02/04, he went all in with it

If they abandoned their ideology so quickly why assume their feelings were legitimate. It makes more sense to believe they thought, "this won't poll well with our base, oh shit, guess we were wrong".

I totally agree; just important to note that senate democrats were just as responsible for the patriot act and DHS and ice; bush didn’t create those through executive order

obviously they were correct to not want a government agency like this LMAO imagine a authoritarian left wing Government using it as such

Neocons were not "small government". They just wanted to end invesgating crimes. Trump perfected their efforts.

really because y’all sure as fuck seemed to think so at the time

Oh sweetie, this is just wrong. Are you 15? Do you not remember the patriot act? Do you not remember torture? What are we doing here?

you can, and should, excoriate trump without letting dubya off the hook. just because rotting garbage smells better than a shipping container full of dog turds does not mean the garbage smells good

*Patriot Act has entered the chat*

Turns out? Karen, in fact, *is*... a Karen.

How wrong can a post be

Someone forgot Katherine Harris

Americans get that Men In Black flashlight shone in their eyes every time a new president gets elected

*white Americans

**neuralizer

(not a flashlight)

*circling back, not all Americans, by far. White Americans, by indoctrination and birthright.

How old are you?

He literally became president because Republicans broke the law to stall counts and the supreme Court appointed him despite him getting less votes. They fully overturned the will of the voters. Trump is not an aberration, but a continuation of GOP actions and goals stretching back decades.

Karen I'm confused here. Did you not pay attention to politics during the 2000s?

He absolutely did.

LOL You can't possibly be that fucking stupid.

LMAO

He stole an election with the help of Roger Stone, lied to get us into a war, and formally made mass surveillance a part of the US government. Bush was just a dumber Trump.

Oh, buddy

homeboy brought on the patriot act, stole an election and helped end the ban of owning semiautomatic weapons. bro blew this country to shit

also tanked the economy in that fine gop tradition!

ahh yes! a classic move

i know everyone says he was a big ole dummy, but he followed that GOP textbook super well!

Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo.

(Madonna Bogue voice) Hurricane Katrina we love you

*Vogue voice lol

He absolutely did! He stole the 2000 election!

Lmao

lmao holy shit

Joined Nov '24

you better be 20 years old you stupid hog

Lol how old are you?

This reality is only possible because of the many ways Bush degraded democratic institutions and norms and the absolute failure of the Democrats to hold Bush and friends to account. Many of those same Democrats are still calling the shots today, and have learned absolutely nothing.

#1

with liberals like you, who needs conservatives?

Swing and a miss

You can’t be serious

lol that’s a good one

You'll be saying exactly this about Trump when the next guy takes office.

He just started a war for fun that lead 5000+ American deaths, perhaps a million Iraqi deaths, the rise of ISIS, a massive refugee crisis... oh and his first election featured a riot to delay vote counting and the Supreme Court handing him the office. Fuck off.

It’s been a while, but he absolutely fucking did Karen.

You must have the memory span of a goldfish

He literally stole an election, you moron!

Lol

You are getting an F on your history exam

someone wasnt paying for the past 25 years

Fucking hell shut the fuck up you moron.

Bro stole an election

Patriot Act, enough said

Hanging chads, patriot act, are we just forgetting this stuff now or?

DO WORDS NOT MEAN THINGS ANYMORE

bsky.app/profile/fuzz...

he literally set up the end game we are experiencing now

I remember having hushed conversation about the government because we were afraid of the government during bush, beside Obama being our first black president we cried he won because it seemed like we had hope of a less violent and controlling government.

karen, probably: what do i think about john yoo? mission impossible 2 and face/off are two of my favorite movies!

Yes he did

Show me PATRIOT ACT! georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/patr...

Remember the Florida recount fiasco? The Patriot Act?

Come on

Ummmmmm he most certainly did.

The things Trump has done are different from the things W did in degree and brazenness, not type.

Yes he did. The Patriot Act and the Roberts appointment were as bad as anything Trump is doing now. So was the Iraq War. Without Bush, there would be no ICE.

The Tea Party president? Come on Karen let’s be honest with ourselves here

Just came here to say L + privledged take + ratio + read a book

Did you know that the Patriot Act, signed into law by Bush, allows for searches without reasonable cause within 100 miles of our land or maritime borders? That's where 50% of Americans live. We have "border checkpoints" 90 miles in from the border. That was established under Bush.

He started the first war of choice in our lifetimes and lied about the justification, he tortured people and suspended habeas corpus.

I guess, if you forget how he got elected the first time

There is still time to delete this post

John. Roberts.

What was it like? When that horse kicked you in the head?

HIS ADMIN SET THE FOUNDATION FOR ALL OF THIS! Also he appointed John Roberts! THIS IS ALLLLLLL ON BUSH!!!!

...look I'm not going to make any assumptions about your age, but as someone who voted against that man twice let me tell you Bush was absolutely a threat to our democratic foundations and the only reason he wasn't the biggest threat at the time was Cheney was VP.

However much you get chewed out for this take it's not enough.

that horseshoe print on your head must be really deep to write something like this

He was literally appointed president in defiance of both the popular and electoral vote. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v....

Unbelievable

THEN HOW DID WE GET HERE

No?

Hahahahahahahaha what?!? Were you conscious during those 8 years?

A lot of people are dunking on you or calling you stupid, and I just want to chime in and say that they are absolutely correct to do so

What, are you 15?

Go read against all enemies by Richard Clarke

He literally laid the groundwork for everything that is happening in the US right now what are you talking about? He created ICE, he established the PATRIOT Act, this is all the long hangover of the War on Terror.

Extraordinary rendition, 'free speech zones', suppression of protest, the long-planned ideological programme: the list is endless. The open extremism was deeply shocking and had clear implications for the future of USA's foreign and domestic politics at the time.

Not to mention Florida 2000, literally a subversion of democracy.

If there’s one thing being a liberal requires it’s having absolutely no political object permanence.

If they weren't around for 2000 fine, but it's not like records don't exist en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Un...

Thanks for letting us know that you don't see the mass erosion of civil liberties and the construction of the surveillance state as a serious threat to the Democratic foundation of the country. It's useful to know when someone is fundamentally unserious and doesn't know much about democracy.

You mean the guy that stole a election and installed the patriot act?

And created ICE.

that was actually Rahm Emanuel - still under Clinton/Bush/Obama's presidencies, tho theintercept.com/2019/07/17/r...

Barry's chief of staff! Even worse.

Obama's Stephen Miller, some may say

tell me you have the memory of a goldfish without telling me

Have you heard of the patriot act

Stole 2000 election. Lied to go to war and kill a million Iraqi people. Created ICE. The patriot act... Bush crawled so Obama could walk so Trump could shamble.

were you an infant when he was in office

short memory you have there

He appointed the justices that ended the voting rights act.

The Patriot Act has entered the chat.

He did. From torture to lies about WMD's to the Patriot Act to the very fact that the Supreme Court inserted itself to throw him the election, much of what is happening now happened during the Bush years and is just taking the next steps deeper into fascism.

there wouldn't be A Donald Trump without Bush.

Right he let 9/11 happen so he could create the department of Homeland security which is why we have ice agents all over this country kidnapping people illegally and deporting them to third countries.

Yep! This.

WE LITERALLY WOULD NOT BE WHERE WE ARE AT HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR BOTH OF THAT EVIL FUCK'S ADMINISTRATIONS

lol how do you figure? the GWOT, a farce, has predictably made more "terrorists" than it ever got rid of

Brooks Brothers riots? Katherine Harris? Bush v. Gore? Any of that ring a bell?

Republicans have been trying to steal elections and undermine democracy since Nixon.

Google "free speech zones"

He nominated John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the bench for the direct purpose of having them continue to use the Supreme Court to help republicans cheat in all elections.

Bush picked Roberts. That's a whole lot of reason for the problems we have now.

wrong on so many fronts... the SC deciding the election without the full Florida vote count over the Brooks Brothers riot & the subsequent Patriot Act, torture programs at foreign blacksites, and normalization of aggressive domestic surveillance were all threats to basic democracy.

Unless getting the SC to steal you an election counts.

Were you created in a lab?

He planted disinformation in the NYT and used that story to justify a bloody oil war. He created an offshore illegal prison where torture was used and people held for years without charge. He used tax rebates (bribes) to pump up sagging poll numbers.

lol no, he openly stole an election and Dems just rolled over and let him

jfc are you drunk??

Holy fuck I am too old for this nonsense

lol

Lmao, thank you for demonstrating you don’t actually oppose threats to the foundation of the country like fascism by trying to run defense for the guy who literally built the prototype of what we’re seeing.

Only had SCOTUS help stealing an election, but sure whatever

The guy who tried to put American citizens in Guantanamo Bay?

Karen, the biggest difference between Bush and Trump is that one had better PR. Trump is able to do what he does, and gets away with now, because of the groundwork of Bush and many others before him and after him. This power didn't come out of nowhere, it took generations to plan out.

But good job showing all us that you are, in fact, a Karen Karen.

I mean, aside from the coups, illegal wars, and other anti-democratic actions, I guess that could be considered true by a newborn kitten.

I guess this is technically correct since he actually did damage the democratic foundation of the country instead of just posing a threat to do that.

He appointed John Roberts to SCOTUS.

PATRIOT Act

He literally stole an election with help from his brother and supreme court justices put in place by his dad.

Ok but other than that???? ;)

Except that’s exactly what he did. Everything happening today, you can draw a straight line to the 2000 election, ‘Homeland Security’ in the wake of 9/11, and the Iraq war decision. Read a fucking book, my dude.

Almost all of the terrible shit Trump is doing and is allowed to do was directly set up by the Bush Administration. You have to understand this has been a multi-decade power grab, and Bush was the most prolific at getting all their ducks in a row. Trump is just another guy in this machine.

are you fucking high

i know 2000 is 25 years ago now (fuck) but it is insane how much people have forgotten already how evil Bush and his administration were, get your head out of your ass

HE STOLE THE 2000 ELECTION

Hey, you remember that whole thing with the DOJ…Alberto Gonzales? Ring any bells in there?

Please read a book.

You are horribly incorrect.