While Dick Cheney has endorsed Harris, there have been no comments from other senior Republicans from Bush’s era

The MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell this week hit out at George W Bush, the Republican former president, for refusing to weigh in on America’s looming presidential election.

“All any decent person wants him to do is to say, ‘Don’t vote for Donald Trump, and here’s why,’ and he won’t even do that,” O’Donnell told the Fast Politics podcast, of the Republican president who was in office from 2001 to 2009.

Increasingly, Bush – and some other top Republicans from his political era – are looking lonely in their ongoing refusal to take a side in an election in which many have warned that US democracy is under threat from Trump’s open sympathies with autocracy.


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  • 474D@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Dubya was actually quite intelligent, just a shit speaker and an asshole.

    • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      People keep repeating that, where was this intelligence when he was president?

      And on that note, what actions have ever displayed this “quite intelligent” side?

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        W was an actual Yale graduate and if you look at clips from his governorship of Texas you will see a person who could speak coherently in complete sentences and everything. Republicans have long targeted people with a fifth-grade level of comprehension and fake being that stupid. Trump’s only real innovation is targeting people with a third-grade level of comprehension.

        • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          That doesn’t really provide evidence of him being smart. Which goes back to my point, there isn’t enough actual examples out there of him being smart. Being able to talk just means you’re not very stupid, smart is a higher bar.

            • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              Well my original comment was about people saying he is smart. Not being dumb doesn’t not automatically mean you’re intelligent.

              No one is saying he is actually stupid, but I’m calling BS on him being “smart” given how there actually has never been any evidence of that.

              • Minarble@aussie.zone
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                2 months ago

                He was a fighter jet pilot in the National guard. You have to be at least above average intelligence to be left alone to fly one of those things no matter who your connections are. The folksy dumb guy was mostly just an act. No doubt Cheney was the evil genius behind the administration but George was right in there and aware of what was going on.

      • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        George Lakoff is on record saying he heard him give a speech displaying masterful rhetoric. Then he lost an election to a “bubba”, and vowed, quote, “I’m never gonna get out-bubba’d again”.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Not sure he was even a shit speaker if we compare him to Trump. His sentences at least made sense. I’m sure he just wants to be done with it all. He retired from office 15 years ago, and he lives in Texas I thought. If he endorses Harris, Trumpees will lash out at him. We can call that cowardly to not speak out do to fear of retribution but he is 78 years old. 78 year olds shouldnt be key factors in planning for our futures, they should be relaxing and planning their next health care visits that we have figured out a way they can access. The average male in the U.S. dies at 74. Let the old man paint a few more pictures on canvas if so chooses and pass in his time. That said… Wish Trump would do the same.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        The question we should be asking is: is our children learning?

        Edit: apparently some missed that this is a literal quote from Dubya.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        The poster did say he was an asshole. Bush was elected to be the governor Texas and held onto the presidency - he wasn’t a dumbass.