Can we separate George H. W. Bush the President from "Poppy" Bush?

[guillaumeb]

That seems, to me, to be at the heart of the discussion at DU about George H.W. Bush.

Yes, he was a husband, a father, and grandfather. And he might have liked baseball, Mom, and apple pie. And dogs.

But he was also a person who committed treason by negotiating with the Iranian Government to keep US citizens hostage until after the election.

And he was a racist, as was his wife. He approved the Willie Horton campaign ad.

And while he initially called supply side economics voodoo economics, he had no issue with embracing it when he was chosen by another racist to be the Vice President.


So how does all of this weigh when we talk about him?

[thewhollytoast]

1. Nope. Simply put the man had poison running in his veins.

Millions and millions of people have suffered because of his, and his little gang's, fuckery. I'm glad he's put us out of his misery.

Toast

[ananda]

8. Agree

And I'll say the same thing about Bush Jr and 45, aka Individual 1.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. What it means is that people are complex

and that they are rarely either completely good or completely bad,* either personally or professionally. While GHWB did all the bad things the OP mentioned, he also did some good things: as chairman of the RNC he was one of the people who urged Nixon to resign, and as president he signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, approved increases in federal spending for education, childcare, and advanced technology research, signed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, reauthorized the Clean Air Act and the Immigration Act of 1990, which led to a 40 percent increase in legal immigration. He resigned from the NRA. He made a bad Supreme Court appointment - Clarence Thomas - and a good one, David Souter.

I don't mean this as an apologetic for GHW; I didn't like much about his presidency either. I'm just pointing out that you have to look at the entirety of a person's life and discuss all of it.

*I might have to make an exception to the general statement that nobody is all good or all bad. WRT Trump I can't think of a single redeeming quality. When he dies I doubt we will see the sort of hagiographic media discussion that normally occurs when a president or other major figure dies. There just won't be enough material.

[thewhollytoast]

4. Sorry, but no.

I walked on my commission after Panama. Ask all those civilians buried on Fort Clayton how they feel about "Poppy" Bush. Sweet Olde Grandpa. Bullshit.

Toast

[guillaumeb]

5. I understand your point,

and agree with it, but the corporate media will only focus on the saint.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Yes, because of the cultural norm that one doesn't speak ill of the dead,

not to mention the fact that everyone looks at dead presidents through their own ideological prism. When Jimmy Carter goes you can be sure that the righties will be pissing on his grave just as enthusiastically as some of us are pissing on GHWB's. But the media will eulogize him, too, because that's the norm.

[guillaumeb]

7. But when this mythologizing affects what is taught as history,

it results in history being replaced by mythstory.

[milestogo]

3. He may have been a good man to his family but he was rotten to everyone else.