The only reason GHWB got elected was that he was the VP of wildly popular Reagan. In 1992 after four years, that credential was gone and all you had was GHWB himself and that was enough to bounce him . That and his “read my lips no new taxes” debacle.
Politically, the Bushes and the Clintons were cut from the same cloth. GHWB had no vision for America. He called it “the vision thing”. Just government business as usual which meant more government and less freedom. He was a pure Washington politician. All he could see was more government. After Reagan it’s been 28 years of weak Leftism taking America down until the present anticipated reversal with Trump.
GHWB was by far Reagan’s greatest mistake ushering in 28 years of misery and damage to our country. GHWB brought us Clinton the way GWB brought us Obama. But Obama overplayed his Leftist agenda and has brought us Trump. Trump will turn out to be Obama’s only legacy. Lol.
That and granting amnesty to illegal Mexican immigrants, two black marks against an otherwise exemplary Presidency.
In Reagan's defense on the GHWB count, picking a Rockefeller Republican like Bush was a good short-term strategy, otherwise the liberal wing of the party would have defected and voted for Carter, plus he needed the support of Rockefellerite Republicans in Congress to get his agenda passed. The long-term downside was giving the Bush clan a stranglehold on the Republican Party that has lasted for decades.
You summarized the 4 years of #41 so very well. Thanks!
I actually always felt that Clinton was a better president than Bush I. He and Hillary might’ve been radicals in their youth, but it was a dog-and-pony show when they became older (and richer). They pretended to be leftists but they governed and center-right. He was a politician who wanted to be popular and liked. Think about his real record.
-He told Union bosses as he was running for president their demands were too high and uncompetitive and would not work any longer in the modern world; he did not advance collective bargaining and did not cater to organized labor. (All criticized by the Left.)
-He dropped HillaryCare like a hot potato when it became politically dangerous.
-He endorsed an interventionist foreign policy as he intervened in Somalia, Haiti, and Asia; he kept up the “No-Fly Zones” in Iraq and referred to Hussein’s “criminal” regime as being in constant violation of the UN’s resolutions; he attacked them for violations; he destroyed the Iraqi intelligence headquarters when Kuwait found the bombs in Bush I’s motorcade.
-He went after bin Laden and nearly had him assassinated but he escaped.
-He supported free trade agreements better than Republicans did. (NAFTA, etc.)
-He raised the highest tax rates but they remained far below pre-Reagan years. (Criticized by the Left.)
-He paid no lip service to “income inequality” which grew during his presidency.
-He saw record high job growth of 23,000,000 jobs; he saw record stock market growth; he saw increasing wages.
-He cut welfare. (Criticized by the Left.)
-He cut Capital Gains taxes in 1997 and reduced the “death tax.” (Criticized by the Left.)
-He turned the Democrats temporarily into the party of fiscal responsibility by slashing the debt and balancing the budget.
Bill Clinton was not a good person and I’m not really saying he was. Considering the direction the R’s have gone, he was further to the right than either Bush and far more so than Obama. The belief that all R’s are better than all D’s really doesn’t hold water in these days of increasing lurches leftward by the R’s. When you think about it, it should frighten people how further leftward we’ve gone.