Recently, Mr. Bush has been allowed to rehabilitate his image, particularly on Reddit. My belief is that this is happening because of younger generations commenting in a contrarian way on his presidency, perhaps some of which is influenced by the absolute state of the Republican Party today.
For most of those of us who lived through his presidency, it was always clear that Bush was a religious and sexual bigot, but not a racial one.
It was always clear that the evidence for invading Iraq was scant at best. The war was protested by the biggest international collaboration of protesters ever.
Days after 9/11, there were plenty of us ACLU types decrying the USA PATRIOT Act. Many of us felt that Pelosi, Clinton, etc. had few inviolable beliefs about civil rights at that time. Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders voted against it.
Bush was the worst possible president, so I had thought.
”Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
—GWB
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
-GWB
Sometimes, I miss Bushisms in comparison to Trumpisms.
Two of my favorites:
“Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.”
“They misunderestimated me.”
Bushisms were a fun treat, whereas Trumpisms are like being force-fed licorice multiple times per hour
Now I’m wondering why J. Cole sampled this explicit quote in his song “No Role Modelz”. I get the meaning of the saying, but why sample it when it’s wrong?