What is the worst thing the bush/cheney years have done to America?

[Philosoraptor]

If you can't pinpoint just one atrocity, maybe the top five or ten.

[LakeSamish706]

1. They destroyed a country (Iraq), actually three countries... US and Afghanistan....

and killed well over a million people in the process.

[Parche]

2. 9/11

With help from CIA

[wildbilln864]

11. yep! nt

[Echo In Light]

18. Agreed

[angstlessk]

3. IF they did not have a hand in the 9/11 atrocity..then the Iraq debacle!

since both 9/11 AND the Iraq war have created so many other problems in America! :grr:

[floridablue]

4. They have destroyed the concept of

The rules of law, and the integrity of the Constitution.

[annabanana]

33. Preemptive war.. torture... suspending habeas corpus (top 3)

followed closely by the utter destruction of America's standing in the world, morally, psychologically, financially and every other way

[texanshatingbush]

5. They have made Americans doubt the veracity....

and trustworthiness of their government, to a degree which will be difficult to repair. It endangers our entire experiment in democracy.

[zonmoy]

25. Democracy is past the endangered point.

I fear it might really be extinct.

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. Katrina tragedy and turning their backs on our own citizens

Iraq
Afghanistan
Stealing Elections (2)
Torture
Guantanamo and children
Abu Ghraib

[Individualist]

7. Did nothing to prevent the 9/11 attacks because they wanted to implement PNAC agenda

They're as guilty of those deaths as if they'd been piloting the planes.

[Mrs. Overall]

8. One among many: they have left us unprepared to face the upcoming environmental

disaster due to global warming and they have left us unprepared for the world energy crisis that is just beginning to hit. And because of their isolationist policies, I fear we will have to come to terms with these issues alone, not in the company of other countries and groups of countries.

[Juche]

9. Just one

Destroyed our ability to trust that our vote counts

Left us with serious concerns that we were duped with what happened on 9/11 and the leadup of the Iraq war

Given trillions in tax cuts to the rich while the country's infrastructure fell apart and people had to stand in line at food pantries and free clinics. If we had spent a fraction of the Iraq war money and tax cut money on infrastructure we'd be so much better off.

I'd say a good deal is just doing nothing to help us deal with the threats of the 21st century. The big problems of this century are peak oil; keeping our competitive edge in manufacturing and science; dealing with the future entitlement crisis of medicare & social security, to name a few. Bush instead did almost nothing about these problems and lied us into a $3 trillion, unnecessary war instead.

Its hard to pick jsut one. This has been an unmitigated disaster.

[dave502d]

10. Supreme Court n/t

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. Habeas corpus

The vast majority of the American public has no idea how dangerous this is to their well-being.

[uppityperson]

16. Habeas Corpus gets my vote, if I had to pick just one.

Trampling the Constitution if a bigger one.

[RL3AO]

13. Since I think anyone who says the Gov't was behind 9/11 is an absolutle fucking moron...

I'll say Iraq.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Reviving torture as a "valid practice"

This one is HUGE.

From now on, every liberal western democracy that supports this practice will have that stain upon them.

And every tinpot dictator will be able to point at the "Great United States of America" to be able to justify their atrocities.

Not to mention that every American serviceman captured can now expect the very same treatment that was dished out to their "enemies".

Way to go, Bush.

[papapi]

15. Creating a false war of terrorism against mankind that has nearly...

...destroyed our nation.

[Philosoraptor]

17. ..............

[windoe]

19. They are weapons of mass destruction.

Our country has become FUBAR'd on every front.
Good news- America still has a HEART and SOUL and will survive their sorry administration.

[bdamomma]

28. a heart and soul on life support right now.

[ColbertWatcher]

20. Made incompetence and torture acceptable. n/t

I guess I should add that they made it acceptable to their followers.

[treestar]

21. Using 911 to undermine respect for the rule of law and for human rights

[Johonny]

22. ended the era of a strong American middle class

[Fireweed247]

23. They have made the entire Country look like evil idiots

They have ruined our reputation for years to come. After all what kind of people would allow that man to stay in power and kill so many innocent people and loot the nation without any accountability?

They have driven us closer to "Idiocracy" then I ever thought possible.

[bdamomma]

29. hmmm....I wonder if people in Germany said the same things

we are saying now. History Repeats Itself.

[kwassa]

24. Promote stupidity, ignorance, nastiness, and extreme partisanship as chief American values

We've gone to war over paranoid fantasies and ignorance.

[hatrack]

26. Eight years of not just inaction on climate & energy, but absolute willful opposition to reality

We could have at least blunted the blow that's coming.

Instead, thanks to the Supremes the first time, and the gay-bashing mouth-breathing denizens of Jesusland the second time, America ended up wallowing in photo-ops, speeches, soundbites, bullshit and lies.

Eight years we will never get back. Eight years that could have made a difference for the better, but instead ended up being eight years that made things much, much worse.

[bdamomma]

30. not only Americans are feeling the affects it does have a ripple

affect on the rest of world. Damn these neocons, I hope to see the day when they go down.

[dysfunctional press]

31. not just the eight years we'll never get back- the $3TRILLION cost of the illegal iraq debacle...

that could have been put to SO MANY BETTER uses, especially in preparing us for life after peak oil.

[bdamomma]

27. spying on Americans among all the other crimes that they have

committed.

[Uncle Joe]

32. 1. The coup of 2000, I list this as number one because

dis-empowering the American People led to most everything else.

2. Reversing him self almost overnight after the selection of 2000 on the need to start regulating green house gases thereby putting life as we know it at risk by wasting precious time. Also the related policies of not promoting alternative energy sources which only made us more vulnerable to the escalating price of oil and using political pressure against scientists that were trying to sound the alarm regarding this planetary crisis. Even going so far as promoting war like policies which exacerbate the price of oil thereby enriching the corporations, they're most intimately tied to.

3. Putting the threats from terrorism on the back burner by downgrading Richard Clarke's input and expertise, not reading, heeding or caring about the Presidential Daily Briefings which led to 9/11.

4. Not listening to their Generals about the folly and true cost of going in to a war with Iraq and how this would undermine the war against the people that attacked us on 9/11. Also not having any plans in place as how to deal with Iraq after the initial invasion, this includes the stupidity of eliminating the Iraqi Army, thereby putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work armed with weapons, which also contributed to the looting.

5. Abandoning the American People on the Gulf Coast and those trapped by the floods in New Orleans created from Katrina, leaving them to fend for them selves believing that picking air guitar and cutting cake with McSame was more important.

6. Shredding the Constitution using illegal wiretapping and destroying the very privacy and freedom, they claim to be sending our troops off to die for.

7. Outing one of our own covert CIA agents and thereby her company; whose job it was to study nuclear proliferation; the very reason they claimed Iraq was such a threat.

8. Lying to the American People through the corporate media and such plants as Gannon/Guckert using them as propaganda sources to deceive the American People about the shape of reality such as the supposed threat from Iraq.

9. Politicizing the Justice Dept. going after political opponents such as Siegleman and firing D.A.s that didn't pursue such reprehensible tactics.

10. Abandoning the Geneva Conventions and promoting torture, thereby losing any moral high ground with the world and putting our own troops lives at additional risk. Also putting people in to detention without regard to any judicial recourse such Gitmo. I believe these policies only serve to work against the very goals the Bush Maladministration claims to be pursuing.

11. Placing them selves above the law by eliminating any form of administrative accountability to the legislative or judicial branches of government. Even after shooting an attorney in the face during a hunting incident the Vice-President hid from the sheriff's deputies overnight, one can only speculate to sober up. They have the gall to contend the Administrations has total privacy on everything they do, no matter how mundane and the American People have absolutely none, Orwell's biggest night mare come true.

12. Promoting and rewarding mediocrity in general while dismissing or punishing integrity and professionalism.

*Disclaimer; I believe other than number one which led to it all, you can place these in whatever order you wish as with most any other administration, anyone one of these could be a number one scandal.

Thanks for the thread, Philosoraptor.

Edit for P.S.

13. Exploding the national debt through irresponsible budgetary policies thereby melting the dollar causing the price of fuel and food to go through the roof. I believe this also had an effect on the housing foreclosure crisis.