For the last few days the nation, or at least most of it, has mourned the passing of George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States. This includes the talking heads at CNN and MSNBC who have spent much of their time portraying the man as a bipartisan saint and the epitome of how a politician and president should conduct himself.
Obviously Mr. Bush loved his wife of 73 years and his family deeply. He was loyal in the extreme to them all. In addition he did possess a reserved, perhaps regal, demeanor during his single term as president. There is also ample evidence he never considered the opposition party and media as, "the enemy of the people."
Those factors have caused older on air journalists to wax nostalgic about the good old days and, without mentioning a certain someone, bemoan the savage vitriol and demonization of political enemies which currently infects the body politic. Bush, the elder, they've told us over and over again, was the consummate gentleman who, in later years, was happy to work with Bill Clinton, the man who ended his presidency.
What they haven't mentioned is he was also the guy who made Willie Horton a household name during his first presidential campaign. Mr. Horton, who was and still is black was featured in a TV ad so racist in nature the backlash was immediate. The Bush campaign, quickly said the ad wasn't their idea, but rather that of an independent pro Bush organization. However, the disclaimer didn't stop George Herbert Walker Bush from talking about Willie Horton throughout the rest of that election season.
For those who don't remember, Horton was a convicted felon who was on furlough from a Massachusetts prison thanks to a program championed by democratic governor and presidential opponent, Mike Dukakis. While out he skipped the state, then stabbed a man, beat him half to death and raped his fiancée twice. The ad and later, Bush in speeches across the land, none too subtlety hinted that if Dukakis was elected he'd release mobs of crazed black men just like Horton from prisons every where so they too could wreck wholesale mayhem on innocent white people.
The Horton shit came after the Iran-Contra scandal which erupted during the last years of Ron Reagan's second term in the Oval Office and Bush's service as Vice-President. At its simplest, the affair involved a deal to sell arms to the Iranians in exchange for the release of American hostages held in places like Lebanon by Iranian backed militants. On the side, the money collected from the Iranians was used to help fund Nicaraguan rebels who were attempting to bring down the newly minted socialist regime in that country. The whole thing was so fucking illegal, after the news broke, Big Ron told associates he might be impeached.
During the 1988 campaign Bush claimed he was, "out of the loop," and didn't know a thing about Iran-Contra. Later, according to Wikipedia, in one of his private diaries he admitted he was, "one of the few people that know fully the details," of the goings on. Just to ensure no one ever connected him to the subterfuge, in the last days of his presidency, Mr. Bush pardoned six of the ten people indicted in the scandal. The lucky six included a Secretary of Defense, Assistant Secretary of State, a national security advisor, the head of the CIA's Central American task force, a CIA chief of covert ops, and another senior agency official.
Besides cashing in on racist stereotypes and being, at best, a criminal co-conspirator, he could also be downright cruel. As President, the Bush answer to the AIDS epidemic was to tell victims of the disease to, "change their behavior." It was sort of a darkly cynical echo of Nancy Reagan's, "Just say no," solution to drug abuse.
On the upside, unlike his kid, he at least knew better than to invade Iraq. Even to the point of letting a bunch of Shiite rebels in the south of the country go it alone against Saddam after the first Gulf War ended. Sans American aid they were quickly overwhelmed and dealt with in ways no one who has a weak stomach wants to think about.
Yes, if Trump didn't exist we can only wonder how the reporting of G. H. W. Bush's passing and legacy would have played out. One has to think at least some of his grievous acts wouldn't have been ignored like they have in the last few days.
Of course, The Big Orange Guy does exist and as we all know he is a brutal neo fascist--a man so crude, corrupt, and obscene he should be locked away on general principle alone. Indeed, his presence in the Oval Office, not to mention the planet itself, tends to make many old pols look good--even the ones who weren't.
Hey, who says history isn't kind?
12-5-18
Bush was the ultimate insider, no question about it. I recall that his famous "Read my lips . . . " statement was made in a condescending, almost sneering manner. It kept him from a second term, perhaps as it should have. He did have a somewhat regal bearing and, again at times, a condescending manner. I once read a piece on him where the author spoke of his "patrician hairline." I suppose you could also say he was the ultimate blue blood. Still, I believe his upside was far greater than his down, and it is a shame he was one of many who human-errored his way out of a second term. As for our current president, I fear he is only the front man for what is a very dark and disturbing portion of the electorate. Carter the Sunday school teacher and Bush the capable Washington insider, both one termers, would appear to be excellent candidates for president in 2020.
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