The Trump era did allow the outright crazies to take over with out a doubt.
FFS. I remember the Bush administration to be crazies. Neocons, evangelical dominionists, deregulators galore. Cheney, Rumsefeld, Condi, Powell- all war criminals for their actions in Iraq. Ashcroft built up a surveillance state with the Patriot Act. Yoo and Gonzales penning torture memos. Bolton, Wolfowitz, Perle rigging the nation for forever war. All of these people were more competent and stayed on for far longer than Trump's revolving-door cabinet.
I just feel like when we overstate the degree to which the current Republican Party is different from what it was pre-Trump it sort of let's them off too easy for the race baiting and "law and order" rhetoric which paved the way for Trump. Not to mention that W literally launched a war which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and literally founded the institution that's carried out Trump's immigration policies. Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes may have been more likely to respect institutions but judging by the amount of human suffering they caused I don't think you can say they were any better then Trump.
You're absolutely right.
Holy sh**t it's like no one remembers how insanely bitter politics were during the 2000s, even Democrats who would be considered milquetoasts today were raging against Bush. The Republican Party has been obstructionists and gaslighters since like Reagan, but the 2000s is when they really cut their teeth with Fox News going into overdrive drumming up support for the war, polarizing the nation between those for and against it, splitting American civil society, while millions died overseas and
trillions of dollars of treasure was wasted.
Trump's greatest crime has been causing us to forget how crazy the Bush administration was- and that same administration laid the groundwork for our current era! The brink-of-civil-war partisanship I'm talking about- that was Bush! The post-truth big lies- that was Bush! The dirty political tricks and weakening of our democratic system in the 2000 (and quite possibly 2004) election- that was Bush!
Bush and Trump are in the same category of terrible presidents! And Reagan too, he gave them the blueprint of Republican presidential malfeasance! Maybe Nixon too but he's sort of too far back to precisely compare.
regarding Bush, you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to him". He is not a FF, has never been a FF, and should be as denounced as badly as Trump.
