The Duality of Empire: Bush, Biden, and the Meaning of Legacy

This week on the corner of hope and despair we meet up with the fall of empires and consider what it means to be at the twilight of the “American Century.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about George W. Bush lately. It’s something I try not to do unless I’m watching the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour which is still hilarious (and sadly, still relevant). But every day I see more Bush-Biden parallels, and it’s making me damned uncomfortable.

George W. Bush, PEPFAR, and a Warning

George W. Bush represents the duality—or hypocrisy—of the US in its age of Empire. Did you know Bush created PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief? He faced political opposition doing it, and he didn’t take a huge victory lap to promote it or pat himself on the back. But by conservative estimates, he saved more than 25 million lives.  Or, as the MSNBC headline would say, “Bush puts Coffin Industry out of Business.”

Of course in addition to fighting AIDS, Bush is also responsible for the torture memos, Abu Ghraib, the war in Iraq, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, “enemy combatants” and erosion of our rule of law, Guantanamo Bay, and a host of contemporary economic and international security disasters.  And that’s the thing, isn’t it? Having a good heart and doing what’s right by signing a single policy and putting some money towards solving a problem, doesn’t negate a decades-long concerted effort to destabilize the global order for the sake of American capitalism and supremacy.

Somebody better tell Biden.

Biden and “the Soul of America”

I love my country in the way I love my family: there are some great things here, there are some faults I need to help work to fix, and there are some yahoos we should go No Contact with. When Biden started talking about the “Soul of America” and getting back to what makes us good, I imagine I felt a lot like those No Contact family members did when Trump promised to “Make America Great Again.”

I never wanted what Trump thought made us great. But I was very interested in Biden helping us do some soul searching. Being that bridge be said he would be in his tacit promise to be a one-term president.

Biden is a father who knows what it is like to lose a wife and child, a father who knows what it is to have a child deployed in war and then later die from a cancer associated with the conditions of that war, so I thought he might do better when it comes to the military.  Biden and Trump were far more similar in attitudes towards the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than either were to Obama or Bush. I thought this could be a nice few years without a war.

Then comes Gaza, and Mr. Joe Biden who shouts about Ukrainian children being bombed and displaced and kidnapped goes silent when it’s Palestinian children. Biden uses my tax dollars to murder babies, and I can’t get over the fact that he knows what some of those fathers are feeling.

Return to the Middle East

Whatever the partisanship of today may gain him, Biden’s legacy will inevitably be bound up with “Genocide Joe” no matter what his domestic successes. The same way that George “The W Stands for War Crimes” Bush will be remembered for the destruction he wrought.

Biden thinks he’ll be a hero for his Build Back Better policy. My friends are facing layoffs again and budget cuts, but I’m told to rejoice for the Biden economy is great. In fact, I shouldn’t complain about those Palestinian kids because interest rates went down on houses. And liberals who would lose their minds at the thought of Bush or Trump putting more military in the Middle East are happy to hear Biden’s building a dock.

There are plenty of ways to get into Gaza to deliver aid, including removing the Israeli civilians who have said it is their “right” to starve Palestinian children.  We don’t need to spend the time, money, and effort building a floating dock. (Not that I don’t think the Sea-Bees (Construction Battalion) can whip up something in a pinch, their catch phrase is “we build, we fight”)).

What can you do?

If you’re my age, you remember the numbness of realizing democracy doesn’t matter because the president is going to get a war if he wants one.

Today there is room for hope. Congress is starting to listen to pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist voices. They are more hesitant to allow Biden to get into the Middle East. So, make some calls.

Fight attempts to ban TikTok. I have never used TikTok (because I’m with the Boomers on not wanting to learn new technology). But they addressed a majority of the security concerns that were unique to them when Congress first wanted to ban it. The security concerns today are the same as security concerns across internet and social media platforms. Congress is targeting TikTok because of its affiliation with “pro-Palestinian” youth movements. Don’t support that. And tell your member of Congress not to support it either.

Hit them where it hurts: in the wallet. Refuse to watch news that sucks. Send letters or emails to the news organizations that you’re not longer going to watch, and let them know why. Support the BDS movement, a movement to boycott and divest from organizations that send money to Israel. This includes companies like McDonald’s (my kids are annoyed), Starbucks, and others. There are apps and lists that makes this easier for you.

On the Hope-o-meter, we’re looking surprisingly good. Around the world, ordinary people are working together to say no to genocide and to censorship. This is an amazing thing. But the propaganda and lack of accountability is strong. So, keep up the work and do what you can.

It’s harder for us to shape the legacy of our time than it is for the president, but as Robert Kennedy said about apartheid in South Africa:

Few will have the power to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is through numberless, diverse acts of courage and daring that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, strikes out against an injustice, or acts to improve the lot of others, he sends for tiny ripples of hope. And those ripples, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring can sweep down the mightiest walls of resistant and oppression.

Let’s go make some ripples.