‘Right Policy, Wrong President,’ I Thought. I Was Wrong About George H. W. Bush
He was the president of my college years. Elected the year I graduated high school, defeated the year I graduated college. “Right Policy, Wrong President” pretty much sums up what I thought of him at the time.
Which was silly. I blame The New Republic, which I read religiously in those days. It had long been one of America’s great liberal magazines, now turned hawkish. TNR agreed down the line with nearly everything Bush did, but they hated him anyway. My feeling about him was kinder, at least.
Why Hate George Bush?
Why did they hate him? Because … well, because he was a Republican, I guess. If only Al Gore had been elected to do almost the exact same things! Then all would have been right with the world. TNR‘s editors would have been satisfied. Because he was a Democrat.
A Prayer
We meet on democracy’s front porch. A good place to talk as neighbors and as friends. For this is a day when our nation is made whole, when our differences, for a moment, are suspended. And my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads.
Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your will, and write on our hearts these words: “Use power to help people.” For we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us remember, Lord. Amen.
— George H. W. Bush, at the beginning of his inaugural address, January 20, 1989
Except Gore was not half the man Bush was. He never could have put together that unbelievable coalition Bush assembled in the Gulf War. And no one was more equipped than Bush to preside over a peaceful end to the Cold War. But Bush was easy to hate, if you were a liberal of that era.
Not that they didn’t hate Reagan too, but there was something a little bit dangerous about hating Reagan. Reagan was the first President to successfully complete two terms since Eisenhower, nearly thirty years earlier.
In between Ike and Ron there had been the assassination of JFK, Vietnam, Watergate, the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Reagan’s success was somehow tied to America’s success, to America coming back from the 60s and 70s. To root against him was to root against America itself.
Ah, but Bush, he was safe to hate. Reagan had saved the country and won the Cold War. It was ok now to go back to hating on Republican presidents, even if you agreed with almost everything they did. Even if you elected Bill Clinton to do almost all the same stuff.
I Regret It All
Eight long years of Barack Obama gave me plenty of time to regret it all. The country was in such good shape in my college days. Bush-hatred was a silly luxury, the sort of thing for which the term “virtue signaling” was eventually invented.
Please forgive me, Mr. President. Thank you for your steady leadership of our nation and the Free World at a pivotal moment in history. And may you rest in peace.
Peter Wolfgang is president of the Family Institute of Connecticut.
