Posted on 10/19/2017 5:03:15 PM PDT by SkyPilot
The two most recent presidents on Thursday blasted the state of US politics in events that were separated by less than 20 miles.
First, it was former President George W. Bush. The most recent former Republican president lambasted a political culture that caused "bigotry" to seem "emboldened." The public comments were Bush's most pointed since President Donald Trump took office in January.
"In recent decades, public confidence in our institutions has declined," the 43rd president said at an event in New York hosted by his namesake institute. "Our governing class has often been paralyzed in the face of obvious and pressing needs. The American dream of upward mobility seems out of reach for some who feel left behind in a changing economy. Discontent deepened and sharpened partisan conflicts. Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication."
The forum was branded as being "focused on freedom, free markets, and security." It featured speakers such as former first lady Laura Bush, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. And Bush provided a substantial condemnation of the state of US politics.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The more I think about it. How the hell did no one worth a damn run in 2000 that George Bush’s idiot son was nominated, George Bush who was the first elected GOP President since Hoover not to be reelected. George Bush who signed a dem tax hike into law after vowing not to. Jr. who was a failed baseball executive, with a buried DUI that nearly ended up giving us Al Gore.
The answer of course is the establishment crowned him well before the first primary. And rather than object, conservatives just pretended he was one of us. His main challenger was McStain who was even worse and who’s 2000 campaign would have fit better in the rat party.
Crowning of GOP nominees in backrooms has been the norm but George Bush’s idiot son? That was a bridge too far. These ****sticks became the Republican Kennedys somehow? The Taft family really dropped the ball.
When you think about it, it’s not surprising that the next thing that happened was “Hey elect this light skinned Black guy cause isn’t that cool”?
To follow up: YOU TWO ICEHOLES are responsible for the “state of American politics”.
Oh I agree.
Glaring isn't it, the difference between how he treats our side vs how he treated Obama.
He's the same idiot who helped rehab Bill Clinton, assigning him the task with his dad, disaster relief for the Indian ocean area where that tsunami hit.
I saw his fix for Texas education, simply throwing money at it, and realized he wasn’t one of us.
I didn’t vote for him the first time.
It was obvious how bad he was going to be.
After I voted for him his second run, he spent four years proving my point.
The political elite can all go to hell.
They’ve destroyed this country. Bush is a bald faced hypocrite.
Definitely the Kenyan...
W is at least an American.
Alas, Miss Chastain is a full-on rabid leftist nutter.
It all went so wrong long ago. Reagan selecting GHW Bush for a running mate was his single biggest mistake. He should’ve picked Sen. Paul Laxalt as his running mate and made Bush an Ambassador (to the UN or back to China). Laxalt could then have succeeded him in 1988 as President with perhaps Jeane Kirkpatrick as VP.
But, absent that, going back to 2000, we’d have been better off with a younger Fred Thompson as the Presidential nominee and OK Gov. Frank Keating for VP. Absent the obvious tool of the Deep State/Establishment, one reason Shrub came to the forefront was because he did seem to possess the star quality. He’d knocked off the crazy leftist Ma Richards as Governor and was presiding over Texas’s transformation downballot into a GOP state. He had a gargantuan reelection victory in 1998 over Garry Mauro, the State Ag Commissioner. The other worry for him was making sure a Republican succeeded centrist Dem Bob Bullock as Lt Governor, and that also was accomplished. Had the Dem won, he’d have hesitated to run for President and leave the state to a leftist. That was a huge reason why CA Gov. George Deukmejian shot down any attempts to run for President or VP in 1988, he did not want to turn over the state to leftist Lt Gov. Leo McCarthy.
So again, Shrub looked like a highly successful big state Governor in his own right with few equals. It also helped that boomlet for McQueeg early on (with the theft of the Michigan primary with Black Democrat voters) from the left scared the straights into supporting Shrub. For at least a short time, it appeared Shrub might redeem the family name, but as we saw in policy, it was a fiasco and paved the way for Zero.
Largely agree. I think if he had left office in 2004, he’d probably have been recalled fondly, even with Iraq.
Ah. So she does have a bad side after all. Too bad.
Family.
Failure.
Forever.
Hard to win with an ongoing (somewhat) unpopular and undecided war. If you recall in 2002 and I think in 04 as well, the Rs picked up seats in Congress. I know in 2002, that wasn’t supposed to happen.
I’ll fully own up to Bush convincing a lot of us he was different from his dad.
And I remember the pride here on FR the day he took that mound of rubble in NYC with the bullhorn, or threw a perfect strike at Yankee Stadium, or made one of the best speeches in US history at the National Cathedral.
W attempted, weakly, to reform SS, but gave up. Instead, he drifted into the amnesty debate. Had he gone full GIJOE on Iraq, not holding back on the “Muslim” stuff, and had he not gone into amnesty, his legacy would be much, much different.
Most of all, however, his stupid (Rove’s stupid) decision to not fight back, to just take it, not only destroyed his presidency but really the GOP presidential candidates in 2008 and 2012 who played by the same rules. It also cost us the House and Senate in 2006.
Despite all that, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the W of 2001 who made us proud and who, for a while, held us together.
absolutely agree re: GW - he could have saved his presidency fighting back, but instead gave into the dems attacking from all sides.
remember “worst economy in 70 years”?
You’re getting your Bushes mixed up. that’s what Clinton said about H.W., not George W.
“Despite all that, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the W of 2001 who made us proud and who, for a while, held us together.”
Me too LS. You said this so well. Thank you.
That W turned out to be a phony.
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