Not true. After 9/11, GWB because a hero for many conservatives.
I remember reading comments on FR back in the early to mid 2000s, as well as on other conservative forums. GWB was calling for nation building and the Patriot Act, and all sorts of increases in state power "to protect our freedoms."
There was some libertarian push back, but the majority of self-identified conservative gave GWB a blank check.
I'll never forget a comment on saw on FR over 15 years ago, when libertarians were complaining about the Patriot Act.
One Freeper wrote: "If MY PRESIDENT says he NEEDS this then I SUPPORT him!
Does nobody remember the near worshipful adulation of GWB post-9/11? Not only on FR, but throughout the conservative sphere? Among pundits, on Fox TV, in the conservative opinion journals, websites, and blogs?
I supported him too back then, but I never liked him. They’re just not likable people. The support he received was all about “us vs them”. It was never genuine affection for the man. And 41 was even more unlikeable.
Bush pulled the country together after 9/11... and the alternative choice at the time wasn’t Trump it was Al Gore.
Gore would have been worse.
Which doesn’t give Bush a pass to trash millions of Trump supporters on a day like today. Shame on Bush...