We didn't defend against Bush/Cheney's onslaught on our freedoms
You're right about that, to no small personal shame on my part. My eyebrows raised over NCLB, the Patriot Act, the illegal alien push, and other GOP transgressions during the Bush years. But because it was supposedly a good decent socially conservative Christian man leading the GOP majority, I found ways to justify.
I pay attention more than the average person, yet I creatively wiggled through a maze of contradictions in principle in order to realize an affirmation of my "side", as well as to stomp on the loathsome Left. But imagine all those millions of voters who DON'T pay attention. It is easy in hindsight to see how the cynical GOP used socially conservative voters to enact progressive domestic policy that has led us straight to the totalitarian coup we are witnessing today.
Coupled with the John Roberts betrayal on ObamaCare, the progressive Bush administration can be viewed as a precursor to the Obama administration in more than just chronology. Whether Obama kicking open the doors that Bush left cracked was an intended result of the Bush progressive agenda is anybody's guess.
My mind goes there more and more, especially since Roberts betrayal. It is as if Roberts installation on the court was for the very purpose he fulfilled. The final nail.