Farewell, Mr. President, And Good Riddance

The Bush Presidency is finally over, and none too soon. Today, I am sure there are many who wish, for the sake of the United States and the world at large, it had never emerged from the hanging chads of Florida and the shenanigans of the Supreme Court in 2000 or been resurrected in 2004 by suspected voting irregularities in the crucial swing state of Ohio. It has been a historic disaster that has left the country quite devastated, its economy paralyzed, its global standing poor, its politics polarized, its spirit pitiful.

But history embodies contradictions, it begets unintended consequences. Thankfully, the Bush Administration demonstrated more eloquently than any leftist critique could ever hope to achieve the utter bankruptcy of the treacherous marriage of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism that had enthralled America for three decades. And so deep was the national malaise that the Republican southern strategy of racialized politics was trumped by the election of a black man. That is President Bush's true lasting legacy, he made Barack Obama possible, just as Herbert Hoover, another rigid conservative and poor communicator who ineptly presided over the Great Depression, made Franklin Delano Roosevelt possible.

The Bush Administration will forever be known by that horrific trinity of imperial hubris, managerial incompetence, and unregulated greed: the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, and the Wall Street meltdown. Many historians already judge it a failure, indeed possibly the worst in American history. In a recent Gallup Poll the vast majority of Americans believe his presidency will be judged mediocre-only 13% think it was above average and a fanatical fringe of 4% find it outstanding. The discredited president believes he will be vindicated by history and tried to defend his miserable record in his poorly delivered farewell speech a few days ago. His deluded sycophants echo the sentiments that history will be kinder to their departing boss and judge him more favorably.

Rather predictably, Africa is seen, even among some of President Bush's detractors, as one of the few bright spots in the president's dismal record. Writing on The Huffington Post, known for its merciless lampooning of the lackluster president, one commentator claimed The real Bush legacy may be in Africa for his charitable work there, an argument repeated at greater length more recently in none other than The Washington Post in a story entitled AIDS battle burnishes Bush's legacy in Africa. This narrative of Africa-as-savior-for-unsavory-westerners from faded pop stars (remember Bob Geldof ) to failed prime ministers (remember Tony Blair) and presidents is sickeningly familiar in the western media and imaginary. But it says more about the enduring inanities of the mercy industrial complex than African perceptions and realities.

I have news for those who pin hopes of Bush's salvation in Africa. He is widely despised across the continent.

I doubt there are many admirers of the embattled President among the continent's 412 million Muslims (about 42% of the continent's population and 28% of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims) who loath his so-called "war on terror" as a crusade against Muslims. Certainly, this was not a beloved administration among the continent's policy makers and elites who abhorred the militarization of US foreign policy through the establishment of AFRICOM and were appalled by the continued American opposition to the pursuit of a progressive global agenda to reform the Security Council of the United Nations an organization created when much of Africa was under colonial rule; to restructure world trade under the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization; and to promote environmental protection for an administration more enamored by the science fiction of an impending ice age than the science of global warming.

The less said about Africa's intelligentsia, the better. The dangerous buffoonery of such an intransigent, inarticulate, and incurious president reminded most of us of some of our own worst leaders from Amin to Bokassa to Mobutu, who we collectively detest. This should serve as a cationary note for President Obama. For those of us in the Pan-African world--from Africa to the Caribbean--who have been under the rule of black presidents for decades, Obama will not get a pass merely for his blackness if he continues, like Bush and his predecessors, the descrtuctive proclivities and policies of the American imperial presidency at home and abroad. The early signs are already troubling.

So, farewell, Mr. President Bush, neither America nor Africa, let alone the world at large, will miss you! But thanks for making it possible for Barack Obama to be elected President. May he avoid your mistakes if he is to escape your wretched fate.