My President

I became eligible to vote 4 months into Clinton's first term. My first presidential election was anticlimactic as it was clear Bob Dole had no chance to defeat Clinton. That made the 2000 election as my first meaningful presidential election where I could really connect with a candidate that could be president of the United States. George Bush was this man, and he was this man largely through his Christian faith. He spoke of a compassionate conservatism, school vouchers, faith-based initiatives and his love of Jesus Christ. While we had had two Southern Baptist in the highest office, and Reagan was deeply but very personally religious, GWB was the first truly evangelical Christian in the office, and that was exciting.

There were two other significant events that deepened my affection for him. The first was the Florida recount and the second was 9/11. As often happens in politics, you get caught up in winning an argument/vote/election and forget what is so important that you are fighting for in the first place. The recount became an easy fight against the other side rather than a pursuit of applying our laws and their intent to find a president. Both sides were going against each other, and I got caught up cheering for my man. Finally, we came out on top even though conservatives have long argued against activist courts, but the whole process brought me closer to my president. We did not know the seeds of such anger against my president were sown then or how they would come to choke his administration and legacy later.

9/11 was much easier to appreciate in its deepening of my affection of the President. Heck, virtually everyone was wanting to support him during that time, and his response to the Taliban in Afghanistan was right and good. We had entered a new world with new dangers, and my president was up to the challenge of facing them. I remember those months after 9/11 and the patriotism that was almost palpable in the community and the country as a whole. The anger of the Florida recount seemed to be forgotten and forgiven. We had a chance to really pull together and do some great things as a country. My president had the political capital to resolve some of the tough problems we were facing internally like Social Security or healthcare. Instead, my president choose to use his political capital to expand the war on terrorism and invade Iraq.

As will all significant events, it will take the time and perspective of history to fully judge the Iraq war and its consequences, both good and bad. However, it seems hard now to see how it can be considered a net positive. The debt our country incurred to finance it, the handling of the war itself, the international community's response all put together are tough negatives to overcome. Add the fact that the outcome of the new Iraq is somewhat in doubt and the value in preventing terrorism from the invasion is questioned make it much harder to find the good in this war.

The war became the defining aspect of the Bush administration. It became my president's white whale that dwarfed all other issues. A war is the top priority for a commander-in-chief and takes precedence over other issues, but if the war is going bad in the eyes of his constituency, they won't be happy with his handling of the other aspects of his government. Even issues that were beyond the direct control of my president, like the recent financial crisis which is much more in the lap of the Legislative Branch than the Executive Branch, assign him blame. Thrown in Katrina, the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture and abuse and some other problems, you suddenly have a very unpopular president.

As I look back at my president, the one whom I voted for twice, it is hard to see much beyond the Iraq war. It colors everything, and at this point, I consider it a great mistake. We would have been much better served to finish the war and rebuilding in Afghanistan first, which is showing signs of unraveling now. We would have been better served to reduce our spending, especially with Social Security and Medicare outlays. As recent months have shown, our federal government is the financial backstop for our economy and one its very top highest priorities is to keep it solvency and manage financial crisis, but you can't do that if you don't money which is our future if we don't change our course.

As his presidency approaches its end, it has become the fashionable thing to bash Bush, and not just criticize his policy but  hyperbolize his faults and use language like "hate" or "tyrant". Sadly, it takes us full-circle back to the view of the Florida recount. The seeds of anger have brought forth their fruit, and the view of politics as this fight against an opponent rather than a set of ideas is crystallized in the harsh rhetoric and demagoguery toward my president.

One of the personal lessons I have learned in these last 8 years and take away from them is that a vote for your candidate does not make their future decisions infallible or require unwavering support from you. Changing your support or criticizing a candidate who got your vote does not diminish you or your past actions. We vote at a set moment in time with the information we currently have at our disposal to select an individual whom we feel will best serve our country. However, the world around us does not stop then but continues to place new obstacles and choices and factors in front our elected officials. Sometimes they don't act as you believe is best, and this new information can lead you to reevaluate  your position. Looking back at my own attitudes and those of other evangelicals, we have been too willing to support my president when his decisions did not deserve that support.

But I will also take away the lesson of political fickleness. While a changing world, a voter may wish to take back his or her vote, but the politician may likely wish to take back the changes he or she now faces to the time when he or she was actually elected. However, they don't have the luxury and must make the best choices he or she sees fit. With that in mind, while you can criticize your candidate, you must also keep yourself from getting caught up in the political tide of unpopularity. Just because others are piling on does not mean you have to join in. Just because you don't like one issue does not mean you have to not like the elected official. The phase "tempered loyalty" may be thought of as an oxymoron but in the political realm I believe it not but a good attitude. Blind support is dangerous, but turning on someone just because it is popular or from a knee-jerk reaction is harmful as well.

My president has done things I disagree with, but he has done many good things. As I mentioned, the response to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan immediately after 9/11 was excellent. In turn, the efforts led by then Secretary Rumsfeld with the so called Rumsfeld Doctrine to make our military more streamline and capable of fighting in multiple hotspots of guerrilla warfare is the direction we need to take in our world. I generally find education initiatives largely shallow and self-promotional, but No Child Left Behind was a positive step to make our education system more accountable. Both Justices Roberts and Alito are excellent choices to our highest court and a large reason I backed my president was to select solid conservative judges.

I think my president's finest hour was his decision on not allowing further funding for new lines of embryonic stem cell research. The decision to continue support of the existing 60 or so embroyonic lines currently in use but to deny futher funding was a complicated decision, but my president gave a thoughtful and measured response to a challenging issue. What I found so proud about his decision was its reflection of a Christian worldview verse the humanism belief system of much of the secular culture. A belief system which makes science its religion that trumps any moral concerns. A Christian recognizes science is possible in our universe because of the order our Creator gave it and thus it is good. However, we also see that it is wrong to make science as carte blanche over moral decision or as some blind driver of our actions. Opponents criticized that he was turning back on those with illnesses, yet there has been several recent examples of medical breakthroughs using adult stem cells to achieve the same goals critics believed were only possible with embryonic stem cells. The ruling showed wisdom and decisiveness in the midst of an angry storm from both sides of the argument.

As his presidency ends, the first evangelical president leaves a legacy of some good and moral decisions overshadowed by several wrongs ones. In that, he reflects the type of man that evangelicals see in mankind: made in the image of God capable of wonderful things but also tainted with sin and fallenness. For those who have supported him and those who have vilified him, and there seems to be little middle ground, his depature from the Oval Office will be meet with relief. It feels like time to move on and cut down the angry weeds that grew back in Florida's recount to start anew. As we move to elect a new leader, we look forward to a new administration and a new phase in American life. Before we do, I just wanted to say I support my president, and I thank him for his leadership. Just as I choose to criticize him on the bad courses of action he has taken our country on, I also choose to not let those color all his leadership as bad. I salute him for his best, and I appreciate him for what he gave our country. He is my president.

* * * UPDATE - 11/04/08 * * *
I forgot to add a very significant accomplishment of the Bush administration: funding to fight the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Even critics of his administration have greatly praised it. It will be a huge part of his legacy.