The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:21 PM

OUR VIEW: For The Sake Of All Mankind Can We Stop Giving The Bushes and Clintons A Microphone

In a book, titled “The Last Republicans,” the elder Bush revealed that he voted for Trump’s Democrat rival Clinton in the 2016 White House race adding that he is not too excited about "blowhard" President Trump.

The new book, by author Mark K. Undegrove, consists mostly of interviews looking back at the Republican Party over the past few decades and explores the connection between the elder Bush and his son, former President George W. Bush.

The younger Bush told Undegrove that he voted for “none of the above.”

Well no disrespect to either Bush, but in retrospect most of America wasn't too excited about either one of you.

Do we have to remind the elder Bush of what happened in 1992 when a no-name Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton came out of no where and sent his Israel-hating administration back home to Maine? Then after a disastrous Iraqi-war the younger Bush will go down as an all-time failure when it comes to bogging American foreign policy down in the Middle East for decades to come.

“I don’t like him,” Bush, 93, says in the book, according to a review by The New York Times. “I don’t know much about him, but I know he’s a blowhard. And I’m not too excited about him being a leader.”

The truth is that Bush Sr. is right about one thing. He knows little about President Trump and his style of leadership because he was never much of a leader. Neither was his son and that pains me to say that. I had tremendous respect for both men until now.

I was one of the minority back in 2003 who supported President Bush's decision to go into Iraq but quickly saw an administration that was more interested in revenge over a dictator than protecting America.

I don't think Bush lied about the weapons of mass destruction as most in this nation and national media did. He was given the same intelligence that Israel, Jordan, Britain, and Canada were given and all of them believed the late Sadaam Hussein had them in his arsenal of weapons.

We found nothing. The U.S. prestige was damaged and Bush will always be cast as a liar by most. At least until now, because he's become the darling of the same media that called him a liar then simply because he, along with his father, has chosen to trash our current President.

Just a few weeks ago during a policy speech on North Korea, the younger Bush directly attacked President Trump, saying "bigotry seems emboldened.” "Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.” Well, uh, sort of like YOUR administration was given to during the Iraq years!! Pathetic.

The former Republican president never mentioned Trump's name, but journalists, political pundits, and just about everyone with functioning ear drums understood the identity of the target.

This is where things get really puzzling to me and others.

The same President Bush 43 who found it ok to trash the President never once publicly criticized President Obama -- ever. "You won't see me out there opining or criticizing my successor," Bush said in 2010.

"I don't think it does any good. It's a hard job. He's got plenty on his agenda," he said in 2013, defending his decision to remain silent about the Obama administration. "A former president doesn't need to make it any harder."

And in 2014 Bush told Fox News Channel, "I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president undermine a current president; I think it's bad for the presidency for that matter."

Wow, guess the younger Bush found Jesus and caught amnesia because he has had no problem with his daddy unleashing on President Trump.

All of us would expect Obama to undermine Trump -- that's what he does -- he's a community organizer. It's in his nature - he's an agitator and it's probably painful to see his legacy being dismantled daily by our current President.

But George W. Bush's blindside against the president has been mighty disappointing and his recent comments in this book with his father has made me lose total respect for a man I held in great esteem for his efforts in leading this nation after 9-11.

I knew he was never perfect. He, like his father, was part of the establishment we now call the "swamp." But in spite of that he took care of our military -- he looked after the troops. He defended religious liberty.

That speech the younger Bush gave on the pile of rubble after 9-11 was one of the best speeches in modern presidential history.

Despite these moments the Bush presidency is seen by some as one of the worst in American history. I wouldn't go that far but I'd say it was full of failure.

He and his administration helped facilitate the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

They led this country into a war that cost tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars without an end game to get the U.S. out and without trying to nation build, something no empire has been successful at doing since the days of Jacob and Esau.

Bush's crew botched the response to Hurricane Katrina, costing 1,800 lives while Bush talked about his FEMA director doing a “heckuva job.”

Those failures are historical fact. That part has never bothered me because being President as in life can sometimes take crazy turns.

What has been maddening has been both Bushes' silence over the past eight years which has been deafening when this nation was almost lost due to the communist-Islam loving policies of one Barrack Obama as President and Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State.

When Obama shoved Obamacare down our throats both Bushes turned the other way.

When Obama and Clinton both apologized for America on foreign soil both Bushes were silent.

When Obama declared a war on police officers - both Bushes offered nary a peep.

When Obama waged war on religious liberty - both Bushes went AWOL.

And when Barack Obama vowed to fundamentally transform America and he certainly did for the time while he was in office both Bushes stood down.

Yet they decide to go off on the President who has swung America back the other way in such short time it's been mind boggling.

It's telling that the Bushes' main problem with President Trump is that in their mind he has essentially blown up the GOP to the extent they feel the New York businessman and first-time politician could be the party’s last Republican president for a long while, according to The Times review.

They also suggest that Trump has wrecked their longtime efforts to continue to build a political party committed to free trade and immigration and the continuation of United States as a world leader in democracy.

What President Trump has wrecked is a corrupt system where America has been screwed up her backside for the past two decades thanks to the morons in office we have placed there like these two, Bill Clinton, and Barrack Obama.

Our President has also pressured the DOJ and Congress to expose the dirty dealings of the Clintons behind closed doors though their money-laundering scheme known as the Clinton Foundation.
On the foreign stage let me be clear. When America is hated, it's usually because we're being respected by our enemies. The people who hate us would hate us no matter what or who is in office.

The people crying for our leadership in this world are glad to see President Trump’s no-nonsense approach to U.S. policy. It's been said, when America leads, the world usually rejoices. When America doesn’t the world weeps because without America's leadership evil men run rampant and cause untold war and bloodshed.

These comments simply reveal two, establishment, bitter, Swamp Republicans that have had their moments in history and maybe see their legacy also being displaced just as has Barrack Obama.
Either way, I have lost all respect for both. George H.W. Bush should deal more with his own personal failings as three separate women have come forth this week claiming he sexually harassed them in his past.

Maybe he should address that and look in the mirror before calling our President a "blowhard." Guess that's why he voted for Hillary. He and Bill probably get along great because both tend to have a problem with sexually assaulting and harassing women.

The Bushes had their five minutes in the sun and America is tired of them just like they are the Clintons. If we'd wanted another Bush to run the country, we'd have elected Jeb. He didn't make it out of two primaries before quitting after getting thumped by President Trump. There's your legacy.

I just hope the book with their comments falls on the Wal-Mart give away discount shelves fast.
It's where it belongs as do the worthless comments of two failed Presidents.
 

Christopher McDonald, Publisher, Editor in Charge

Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Subscribe To The Great Smoky

Mountain News Network Tube Channel