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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Damning Indictment Of G.W. Bush's First Term In Office!, 13 Feb 2005
Editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, has written some excellent columns and letters for his magazine over the years, and for some time now has been expressing his concern with where the Bush administration has been leading America. In "What We've Lost," Mr. Carter consolidates his grievances against the Bush administration - documenting the ways, he believes, the present government has weakened our democratic process. Listed, and the book is long on lists, are the names, dates, numbers and details of American losses due to President Bush and his colleagues' zeal to further their political agenda. Carter cites national and international policy failures as a result of President Bush's 1st term in office: the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent, seemingly never-ending war; personal rights; woman's rights; the economy; the environment; the accumulation of a huge deficit, including pork barrel spending; jobs; the respect of old allies and the international community, etc., etc. The author claims that it would be difficult "to point to a single element of American society that comes under federal jurisdiction that is not worse off now than it was an administration ago, from civil liberties to the economy, foreign affairs to the environment." All that is alleged is documented here with facts and anecdotes. Each chapter opens with a statement by the President in "Bushspeak," i.e., "I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation" - George W Bush, (August 2002); and "It's clearly a budget. Its got lots of numbers in it." It all boggles the mind! The author apparently researched thousands of reports and documents for his book - one of the many "Bush Bashers" to be published last year. Although those in G. W.'s administration surely have explanations and rationales about how all that is cited as major losses are really "wins," Mr Carter wonders if the President really believes his own spinners' spin. For example, he questions how Bush can institute a tax system that clearly benefits a minute percentage of extremely wealthy people and does so little for the middle class. This is obviously not a work by a political pundit, but it is an impassioned argument by a fellow American citizen against reelecting the President to a second term of office. Although this is not my favorite political book of the year, I did enjoy it, (if "enjoy" can be employed here), and found it to be quite informative and disturbing. I think folks should peruse this at their local bookstores, if they don't want to purchase it. One should be as fully informed as possible before the November elections.
JANA
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