Rush Limbaugh's declaration that he hopes Obama fails--and the ensuing controversy, denials, apologies, and acceptances of said declaration--provokes an interesting question: what about all those liberals who wanted Bush to fail? Isn't this just normal partisan bickering? I suspect it isn't. After all, mainstream Democrats--public figures, anyway--weren't saying those words during any point during the Bush Administration. Many Dems felt it, but this isn't the same thing. I guess I should talk about my own experiences, as that is what I am most qualified to do. As I spent the early twenty-aughts as a Repub-leaning indy I was obviously not hoping that Bush would screw up, as I supported him. I was conflicted about the Iraq War--I signed a petition against it early on, but as it drew more imminent I decided I'd support it, largely because the only opposition seemed to be among Berkeley types vomiting in the streets because the thought of the war made them sick.
I turned against the war pretty quickly--I mostly voted Republican in 2002, but by 2004 it was the other way around. After Abu Gharaib and the worsening of Iraq I decided that these people didn't really know what they were doing, and that we ought to switch leadership. I was a full-fledged Dem a year later, and I haven't voted for a Republican in some time and doubt I will for national office soon (though I might in a local or statewide race--it would depend, as local issues are different from national issues). For a while I was quite a bit further to the left than I am now, but I'm more or less a mainstream Democrat.
As the years passed I became more and more enraged with George W. Bush. I don't suppose I have to summarize why Bush was bad--we all know that now. But there were times when I thought to myself that the economy going under or Iraq getting much much worse would be good because they would show just how awful Bush was--I wanted people to see what I saw, to feel the revulsion at the abomination of this man's reign. I would think these things at times, but I would push them out of my mind very quickly, because I would then think of all the people who would die in Iraq if things got worse, or all the people who would suffer from an economic collapse, and I would realize that wishing for these things revealed how small and petty I was for thinking them. Honestly, if I had a choice between this and an alternate reality where Bush was still at 9/11-era popularity but Iraq had never happened and the economy was at Clinton-era heights I'd choose it in a heartbeat.
So it is with some wisdom that I can say that wishing that a leader fails is the sign of a petty and sad person, a person who would gladly have suffering inflicted on many people out of some sort of desire to be proven right. Many Democrats probably felt these things too, but few with any sort of microphone said so openly, because of this very reason. Also because it isn't terribly patriotic. I know, I'm wary to throw around the p-word after a decade of Republican messaging that not supporting the president is unpatriotic. I'm aware of the irony. But it's one thing to oppose a leader's values and vision while still hoping that he'll do a good job, or at least hoping that he doesn't make things worse. It was a difficult line to define with Bush, an unworthy man who should never have been president and whose failures make him, in my opinion, the second worst president in history after James Buchanan. It was a difficult thing to live as we heard about secret prisons, for example. But I can honestly say that I never for a moment allowed myself to think that it would be constructive to wish pain on others simply to justify my own moral indignation.
And, as you see, wishing wasn't necessary. Bush's corruption, stupidity and ignorance did him in, and now it's the Republicans who are in the same position. I rejected hoping that Bush would fail, ultimately, because I decided that I was better than that, that such thoughts were unworthy of a right-thinking person. Time will tell if Republicans are able to come to the same conclusion.
