The fading Republican establishment remains unable to reconcile its ongoing collapse, and continues to scapegoat Donald Trump for all the GOP"s troubles instead of looking in the mirror.
Two weeks after an outraged George W. Bush lashed out at Trump, accusing him of emboldening "bigotry and white supremacy", on Saturday we learn just how deep the animosity toward Trump runs within the extended Bush household. In a new book to be released this month from historian Mark Updegrove, titled "The Last Republicans", and previewed on Saturday by the NYT and CNN, former President George H.W. Bush said he considers Trump a “blowhard,” only interested in feeding his own "ego." Meanwhile, his son, former President George W. Bush, thinks Trump fans public anger and came to office without any understanding of the job.
When asked about Donald Trump in May 2016, GHW Bush said: "I don"t like him ... 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."
His son was just as vocal: “Wow, this guy doesn"t know what it means to be president,” the junior Bush said, indicating that a president should not “exploit the anger, incite it” but rather “come up with ideas to deal with it.”
Which, of course, is easy for the Bushes to say: after all they - together with the Clinton and Obama administrations - spent over two decades laying the groundwork and building up the "anger" which resulted from the greatest social and political polarization and wealth inequality the US has ever seen. Perhaps the reality - as the election one year ago showed - is that the status quo simply no longer works. Perhaps... the Republican party is broken precisely due to the work of the two Bush presidents.
In any case, both former Bush presidents are worried that Mr. Trump has blown up a Republican Party that they spent two lifetimes building; Dubya also told Updegrove: "I"m worried that I will be the last Republican president."
Ironically, author Updegrove told the NYT that "at the time, I think he was concerned that Hillary Clinton would win ... But if you look at his values and those shared by his father and Ronald Reagan, they are very much in contrast to the values of the Republican Party today, in particular the platform that Donald Trump ran on."
So what happened? Well, as CNN adds, "George H.W. Bush confirmed that he voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton." His son meanwhile voted for nobody:
"George W. Bush told Updegrove he left the top of the ballot blank. "I voted "None of the Above" for president, and Republican down ballot in 2016.""
In retrospect, Dubya may be correct: as Axios" Mike Allen writes, George W. Bush is probably right that he was "the last Republican president," as his family sees the party.
The "Republican Party" is now multiple ideological parties, awkwardly — and probably not sustainably — scrunched under one inadequate label.
Which, considering the previous "label" no longer meant anything to most Americans - except such figures as the Bushes, of course- is probably not a bad thing.
Presidential job approval is a simple, yet powerful, measure of the public"s view of the president"s job performance at a particular time. Approval ratings for Presidents Obama and Trump shown in the Presidential Job Approval Center are based on weekly Gallup Daily tracking averages.
From Truman to Trump...
On day 212 in office, President Trump has a 37% approval rating.
President Truman holds the record for lowest approval rating (for now) at 22% on day 2499 in office.
President George "W" Bush holds the record for the highest approval rating at 89% on day 267 in office
In conclusion, we need popular movements, we don’t need stupidity. If you don’t like Trump’s vision, you better have competing vision and be willing and able to articulate it. The status quo is dead. We are in a populist age, with tremendous opportunity to make the world a better place if we can take the moment and run with it. As it stands, the Democratic Party remains business as usual, and if it stays that way, will continue to lose election after election and become a increasingly irrelevant factor in American political life.
If you don’t want to be an irrelevant victim of history, the time is now to become involved in powerful political movements. This doesn’t include covering your ears, smashing windows and complaining about the Russians.
I’m not a big fan of litmus tests, but here’s one I think is entirely appropriate. If you’re a self-proclaimed “liberal” who’s suddenly fawning over George W. Bush, you’re a fraud and should probably never speak again.
Unfortunately, this most recent demonstration of mindless, unprincipled liberal “ideology” continues to make the term completely useless, and the people who use it to describe themselves, increasingly irrelevant. When you stand for nothing, you’ll allow anything, including the whitewashing of war crimes. This is precisely the direction celebrities, fake liberals and the corporate media are taking us in, and it’s no accident.
Think about it. If the public can be convinced that George W. Bush is some sort of hero just because Trump is in office, what can’t we be convinced of? If torture and the destruction of a nation based on false information can now be overlooked, what can’t be overlooked? That’s why this intentional resurrection of George W. Bush seems like a psychological operation against the American public. It’s a way of saying, who cares about the horrific crimes committed by the American elite class over the past 20 years, we have to unite against Trump and Putin! To this I say: Never.
The people who knew Trump could win all along were precisely the people most aware of the endless series of crimes commented by the American elite class against the American public. Now, the people who committed these crimes and their corporate media mouthpieces are trying to brush it all under the rug in the name of fighting Trump. They’re starting with the legacy of George W. Bush, but it won’t stop there. The country is in the state it’s in because of the elitist class, not because of Trump or Putin. If we take our eye off the ball at this key moment, all will be lost.
Eight years ago, amid the financial collapse known as the Great Recession, America broke up with its 43rd president with such relief it might as well have dumped his clothes on the White House lawn and screamed from an open window “get out!”
In 2008, at the close of his second term, President George W. Bush’s approval ratings had plunged to 25 percent, among the lowest in presidential history next to Harry Truman and Richard Nixon. His would-be Republican successor, candidate John McCain, actively distanced himself from the Bush administration and comedians relentlessly mocked the man.
But in the first few months of 2017 and amid a book tour that landed him glowing spots on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” and in People magazine, Bush is at least getting a little more respect from some who deeply disrespected him.
“A little respect,” that’s putting it mildly. Ellen actually said to Bush, “I love your whole family.”
Some of the rethinking of Bush stems not from anything Bush has said or done but simply from the contrast with President Trump, a comparison bolstered by his recent appearances on talk shows and in news segments.
After the “Ellen” show posted a video of the former president joking about his inner “Rembrandt” and learning to paint, viewers flooded the comments with unexpected praise.
“A few years ago I would have rolled my eyes at the [sight] of this man, but 6 weeks of Trump makes W look like a pretty decent guy,” one woman wrote. “Perspective is a funny thing.”
Added another: “I used to be a big critic of him and still don’t agree with much of what he did while in office. But, given who is now in office and how scary 45 is making the world, I’ve come to actually like this man.”
It was an idea comedian Aziz Ansari explored in January during his monologue as host of “Saturday Night Live,” the same show that spent years writing unflattering skits of President Bush and has since turned its humor to a new GOP target.
“George W Bush made a speech after 9/11, and it really helped,” Ansari said. “Things changed. … He said Islam is peace.”
Yes, wonderful words. Unfortunately, that’s all they were, as he proceeded to murder half a million Iraqis based on false information.
“What the hell has happened?” he said during the monologue. “I’m sitting here wistfully watching old George W. Bush speeches?’ Just sitting there like, ‘What a leader he was! … He guided us with his eloquence!’”
What the hell happened? I’ll tell you what happened. You lost your fucking mind.
Joy Behar, the liberal on the daily talk show “The View,” noted after Bush’s comments that though she was “after” him for eight years, she just might purchase one of his paintings because of Trump.
“The thing about this,” she said, “is that Donald has now done something I thought he would never do. I like — I like the fact that George Bush — I like George Bush now, is what I’m trying to say. I’m having trouble saying it.”
Star Trek’s George Takei also weighed in: “You know things are bad when George W. Bush starts sounding like a member of the Resistance.”
Wrong. You know things are bad when “the resistance” is so ideologically weak and castrated it eagerly embraces George W. Bush.
At this point, I want you to watch the Ellen clip. The dancing is nauseating enough, but it’s the embrace that really sticks with you. There is a look of affection from Ellen that simply cannot be faked. It’s utterly creepy.
Moving forward, what can we do about it? I think we need to start thinking about celebrity boycotts. I’m not sure what the strategy could be though, because no one reading this actually watches The View, and the people who do are probably beyond help. So how can we strike back in a non-violent, creative way against these celebrities and their shows? I’m not sure, but if anyone has ideas, please share them in the comment section. We need to start thinking in such terms.
(INTELLIHUB) — A new book by New York Times bestselling author and presidential historian Dough Wead is promising startling revelations about the 2016 election, including a freak-out inside Clinton headquarters and details of the Bush family working against Donald Trump.
The book, Game of Thorns, is billed as “the first complete, detailed, historical account of the election,” with insider access obtained by Wead after his reputation apparently earned him the trust of Trump as well as access to Clinton’s headquarters.
According to Breitbart News, in the book Wead claims that after “growing concern” over Donald Trump, the Bush family actively worked with the Clinton’s to stop the will of the American people and insert globalist puppet Hillary Clinton into office.
“Wead claims the Bush family, feeling “growing concern” over Trump, actually colluded with the Clintons, presumably to derail the Trump campaign. He also hails Reince Priebus for urging Trump not to drop out after the Access Hollywood audio hit, against the advice of other operatives,” Breitbart noted in an exclusive write-up about the upcoming book.
President George W. Bush during the dedication of the US Air Force Memorial (David/Flickr)
The Breitbart report also revealed that there was utter chaos inside the Clinton headquarters as it became apparent that they had lost the election, including sounds of “heated shouting” and “smashing of glass”.
Considering Wead’s reputation and the long history of the Bush family, the idea that they actively worked with the Clinton’s to destroy the staunchly anti-globalist Donald Trump makes clear sense and would once again confirm that segments of the Republican Party are absolutely against the new president. (To this day)
Here is the first, insider, account of the precipitous fall of Hillary Clinton. How the scandals of a lifetime finally reached critical mass. How, in the last few days of the campaign, some on her staff saw the ghostly shroud of defeat creeping over them but were helpless to act, frozen by the self-denial of the group.
Here is an explanation of why the national media and their corporate owners kept Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren out of the race. Why they wanted their investment in the Clinton’s to work and how they were willing to go to great lengths to make that happen.
Don’t have time to read the thousands of leaked emails from inside the Clinton machine?
The author has done it for you and has come back from the experience with a stunning peak into the world of a political leader who privately declared that she wanted a hemisphere “with open trade and open borders.”
Finally, here is the story of the rise of Donald Trump.
How his opponents sought to derail him.
This is the story of how Donald Trump’s message and brand transcended the traps laid by his enemies. How, against all odds, he won the presidency. And here are the details of his plan to make American great again.
It seems as if each and everyday new information is revealed that paints a clear picture of the entire establishment on both sides actively working against Trump on a level not seen since at least the days of JFK.
