It's barely even close. Everything that was horrible about Trump was presaged by Bush. He unleashed far more harm on the world than Trump did.

  • DetroitLolcat [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Pre-COVID, it was glaringly obvious that Bush was worse and it wasn't particularly close. I think with COVID you can argue that it's close, but Bush was still worse.

    • Poop [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Yeah I think Trump has him beat in domestic death toll by quite a bit now

      • AKnightAlone [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I don't get this argument. People were gonna die no matter what. Would Biden have gone around and blew everyone's nose for them? Trump just played the negligent Republican daddy role. We would've had that with any Republican.

        • NotAnOp [comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I used to think that early on too, but a little research of mine revealed that even some basic federal guidelines, sharing info from China early on, utilizing the Post Office for mask deliveries, and using OSHA for mask enforcement could have saved tens of thousands by itself. People would have died regardless, but Trump looks like he went out of his way to make sure it was maximum casualties.

          • read_freire [they/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            that's the comparison to competent technocratic government

            now compare to George "Heckuva Job Brownie" Bush and I'm with @AKnightAlone

            this is actually a decent radicalization vector for the americans here--if you've got a lib in your life ranting about orange man, ask them about how well dubya handled katrina, or hell even how well bama handled 08 (riskier move, but if you can drill down into the collapse of black and brown homeownership you might strike a nerve)

            • read_freire [they/them]
              ·
              4 years ago

              we'd probably have had a similar curve to the rest of the euro-controlled world where there was a significant curve-flattening in spring/summer but then shit spiked again real bad in october/november

            • AKnightAlone [none/use name]
              ·
              4 years ago

              My new theory I considered earlier last year, but something new hit me:

              Who got mega-bux easily in America? Bezos. Corona lockdown was pretty much not even a gamble if you were investing in companies and picked Amazon.

              Who makes like 90% of the shit on Amazon? Oh, yeah, that's right... It's those folks that had that military-linked virus lab right around where the outbreak supposedly started.

              My earlier thought was that it was engineered in a Chinese lab. Now, I realize there are some beneficial coincidental outcomes for China.

        • shitstorm [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I'm really, really not trying to sound like a lib here. I'm aware that a hypothetical Hillary/Bernie/Jeb/Biden in his position wouldn't have changed the fact that America was fundamentally unprepared for a global health crisis. That is because of decades (centuries?) of policy and administration.

          But I think it's pretty fucking obvious that having a President in office who wasn't actively peddling conspiracy theories would have led to fewer deaths. How many fewer? I don't know. Would somebody else (possibly a failed Trump with his own media network in this scenario) have taken up the anti-covid shit? Of course, it's AMerica. Governors would resist or be inadequate. But the head of the federal government and the loudest mouthpiece in America fought coronavirus regulations at basically every step. Of course it was worse with Trump.

        • spectre [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          People were gonna die no matter what

          No matter what part do you mean?