George Bush and Obama: "The Destroyer" and "Hope Abandoned"

Though these win the award for my two favorite chapter titles (he was clearly a very unhappy man at this point in his book), Unger gives surprisingly little detail as to the most recent of the American presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush. In fact, he seems to kind of lump them together, which Greenberg feels couldn't be further from the truth.

Unger at this point seems to have given up of distinguishing between the faults of the different presidents. It's like at some point he threw all of his separate ideas into one big basket, shook them up, and it's now just one big lump of hatred for anything and everything that dares to set a pinkie toe across the threshold of the White House entrance. 

So to wrap this up, I have a few cartoons, equally pessimistic, and equally appropriate to the situation. Because after all, Unger approves of no one. :) Adios, folks

Bill Clinton: "Bridge to Nowhere"

Clinton is the first president who was actually born into the American state, and Unger has high hopes for him. However, he quickly proves to be a major, major let down and the victim of the most scathing chapter in Unger's arsenal.

"Armed with the leadership qualities of FDR, the global vision of Eisenhower and Nixon, and a Carter-like suspicion of the emergency state, Clinton nonetheless preferred “enlargement” to downsizing" (Greenberg). In other words, he had so much going for him, and then he just failed to meet any of anyone's expectations. Clinton took the "rouge state" enemy that H.W. Bush had introduced and ran with it, pushing the limits of emergency outward, and increasing the president's, and America's global power. Under the pretense of controlling "rouge states" he convinced the American people that it would be beneficial for the nation to intervene in countries around the world who held little to no interest for the US directly. Unger at least partially blames the people for this abuse of power, saying that "...by 1993 [Americans] were politically addicted to the role of leader of the free world". Unger is infuriated that Clinton would continue the abuse of  presidential power (especially having grown up a victim to it) and would manipulate the misguided public opinion in his efforts to do so. 

But Unger is not through with his criticism of Clinton, so let's move on to some economics. Unger claims that Clinton was somewhat careless with the domestic economy, which "hollowed out the remaining competitive strengths of American Industry" (Unger). 

Clinton is just an all around disappointment for Unger, who credits him with doing literally nothing worthwhile. Greenberg seems to think that this is a harsh evaluation, allowing that while he didn't do what he should have done for the nation, he did not, at least, use the secretive, opaque methods that have characterized the Emergency state to this point. Either way, Clinton is not the friend of anti-emergency-state-americans. 

George H. W. Bush: "Soft Landing"

After the Soviet Union came crashing down, "American's premier rational for military expansion worldwide" was gone. This left George H.W. Bush with an option: to find another international enemy, or to finally dismantle the emergency state for once and for all.

Can we take bets on which one he chose?

He found his enemy in the "rouge states" overseas: nations that both abuse the rights of their citizens and pose a threat to international peace. In focusing the United States target at these nations, and insisting on further spreading democracy to them (regardless of any legitimate direct American interest), Bush led the way to continue the Emergency state.

Ronald Reagan: "The President We Wanted"

Reagan's charisma may have won over the nation, but not Unger. The Emergency State charges Reagan with reinvigorating the weakened emergency state using the same old methods we've seen time and time again: secrecy, deceit, and lack of regard of for the constitution/law.

Particularly with Reagan's National Security Conference and the Iran-Contra Affair does Unger find fault. In the "Iran-Contra Affair", the US planned to offer "friendship" to Iran in return for their resistance to the Soviet Union, and release of American hostages in the Middle east. Unfortunately, Reagan and the members of the NSC "side-stepped" Congress in these efforts, which Congress wasn't all too thrilled about. Investigations and arrests ensued, and as a strong opponent of direct confrontational intervention in foreign affairs, Unger's opinion of Reagan took a sharp decline. 

Jimmy Carter: "A DIfferent Path"

The Jimmy Carter chapter is an unexpected semi-bright spot. Maybe Unger realized the book was getting kind of depressing..




Carter was the one president who called the emergency state out for what it was: destructive and deceitful. He wanted to dismantle it and return functional and legitimate democracy to America. Unfortunately, he was inexperienced in government and therefore, a bit inept in his position. He proved ineffective, and didn't end up being able to make any real substantial changes to the corrupt system. 




I guess the brightness of the chapter is questionable, but it does take a step back from the litany of complaints and accusations against every public figure ever known to be in America to acknowledge that at least this one might be kind of human. That's a step in the right direction, right?