In the latest episode of “Saturday Night Live,” Will Ferrell hosted it and took the helm with his iconic impersonation of former president George W. Bush. During the address, Ferrell, as Bush, tried to reach out to the audience, saying that regardless of how bad things seem under the Trump administration, Bush was no better for the United States. This had been created as a response to the recent shift in the public perception of George W. Bush. Throughout the skit, Ferrell reminds people that the current military quagmire was caused by Bush, ISIS was created, and how his administration led to the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
In response to that, the former attorney and host for The Daily Beast, Dean Obeidallah, wrote an editorial for CNN, contradicting the conclusion that “Saturday Night Live” reached. The major difference that Obeidallah came within their rhetoric. Following 9/11, Bush insisted that Muslims were not to blame for the attack; however, Trump has proven to be insistent on implementing a ban on Muslims from attacking a country. After going through the laundry list of how Trump did the opposite of what Bush did, Obeidallah emphasized in his his conclusion that “Trump made it clear he had no interest in reaching out to people beyond his base,” while in contrast, Bush was insistent on upholding the Compassionate Conservative that was established on the campaign trail in the 2000 Election.uu
As this debate of “which one’s worst” has been waged for almost a year now, it feels like the old argument of who was worst between Hitler and Stalin. This usually goes down with people bringing up Stalin’s crimes against humanity within the Soviet Union when compared to the atrocities committed by Hitler and Germany during World War II. Much like that discussion, the bigger question isn’t “who’s worse?” but who was the lesser of two evils. Hitler and the actions of the Nazis were reprehensible, but Stalin wasn’t immediately in the clear; he was just a second thought during the war. Similarly enough, Donald Trump is terrible, but in a more volatile way when compared to Bush’s incompetence.
While many people joke around about how they missed the old days of Bush nowadays, those same people are aware that comparing whose worst is like night and day. Trump’s action keeps lowering the bar, but the legacy of Bush is still standing today.