I was reading today about the Bush administration's plan to increase logging in Oregon's old growth forests by 700%. For those of you that don't know, old growth forests are forests that have not been logged for at least 200 years. They contain a variety of different tree species of varying ages, including some very large trees that are hundreds, or even thousands of years old.

Here's a handy little diagram of the state of old growth forests over the last few centuries:



You see that tiny little black patch? That's the 1% of old growth forests left, and ol' Dubya is planning a preemptive strike against the weapons of moss production. So I got to thinking, "Holy fuck! Is there anything positive this douchebag has done for our country in his entire time in office?"

It's a hard question to answer isn't it? I can only think of one thing I can thank George W. Bush for -- making me and many other Americans finally care about politics and allowing a discourse of true change in our nation's policy.

I remember the 2000 primary elections; I was attending my freshman year of college, Bush and McCain were battling it out on the Republican side, Al Gore and Bill Bradley on the Democratic side. Despite having daily discussions about it in my US Government class, the most I can remember thinking about was how McCain easily had the hottest wife.

Ultimately the election was "won" by a far right fringe Republican advocating smaller government, strict constitutionalism, and decreased US military involvement in world affairs.



Wait, that...sounds familiar.

Anyway, fast forward to the 2002 midterm elections, which came and went with nary a thought. In fact, the only thing I remember about the 2002 midterms was The Daily Show's School House Rock homage explaining how little importance I should be giving it.



It wasn't until Dubya had a full four years to completely fuck our country up that people finally started to pay attention. Despite comments of being "a uniter, not a divider" the 2004 elections were the most divisive in my lifetime. The ridiculously misleading concept of red states and blue states, terms never used before Bush's first run had now become ubiquitous.

However, it also produced the highest voter turnout since 1968, the tumultuous year that led to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the height of the war in Viet Nam, and civil rights protests at home. So I guess that's one feather he can put in his cap.

The Republicans scored huge successes in all three branches of government that year, but it would only raise the pendulum higher in one direction to swing it to the other. After two more years in office with stellar results; the bloodiest year in Iraq still to come, dwindling support from The Coalition of the Willing (to Get the Fuck Out), a plunging dollar, threats of recession, and scandal after scandal for the Republicans, the nation finally woke up out of its retarded slumber and rallied for change.

The 2006 midterm elections didn't just have a slightly higher turnout than previous years, but significantly higher, the highest since 1970 and brought about the first major changes in Congress since 1994. It was the first time I personally had voted in a midterm.

Unfortunately not much has happened since then. More people died in Iraq in the year after the midterms than in any year prior. The Speaker of the House rolled over on every important piece of legislation promised, refusing to impeach an adminitration that had committed endless atrocities. The president of the Senate, a Mormon Democrat against abortion, gay marriage, and with mixed views on gun control and Iraq has tabled legislation even his own party was adamant about.

But at least I know about all of these things. And for the first time ever I'm sitting at the edge of my seat watching primary elections, refreshing news sites for the latest information. For the first time ever every Democratic candidate is preaching a system of universal health care, a reasonable energy policy, and sweeping tax reform, not just the fringe ones. For the first time ever the Republican candidate not considered the corporate whore media darling is raising the most money.

I reckon that if Bush had been a mediocre president -- not great but not the catastrophe he's become -- we'd still be settling for the status quo. Our two party system would still be hammering at milquetoast legislation that reached for the lowest common denominator. Before things could get better I guess they had to get worse, and I for one am anxiously awaiting that pendulum to finally swing in the other direction.

So thanks Dubya, we owe you one.