So I’ve been reading a bio on George H W Bush written by the great presidential historian Jon Meacham, The American Odyssey of GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH: Destiny and Power, and wanted to share a thought on the contrast of the modern era. Yes, I hearkened back to the time when I could disagree, sometimes even angerly, with a conservative politician, but still come away with the over-all feeling that the he or she is a decent person. Poppy Bush was one of those people. A decent man and a true patriot in the strictest sense of the word. A man whose intentions were for the betterment of the country, and democracy first. He actually cared about people.

I’m bringing this up however, because one chapter in particular got my attention. It was the end of Ronald Reagan’s second term, and Vice President Bush was running for president. He was running against the mean spirited Bob Dole and the right-wing religious extremist Pat Robertson. Bush was too much of a gentlemen to get down into petty name calling, and he resented the ugliness of the other campaigners. He specifically didn’t like the extreme right, which brings me to the point. In 1988 he wrote in his personal diary a prophetic entry about the religious right after a particularly nasty meeting with a Pat Robinson supporter (I was reminded of the time John McCain took the mic away from that religious nut at the town meeting he held). What then V.P. Bush, candidate for president was afraid of has come true. He wrote:

Still this staring, glaring ugly, — there’s something terrible about those who take it to extremes. They’re crazy. They’re there for spooky, extraordinary right-winged reasons. They don’t care about Party. They don’t care about anything. They’re the excesses. They could be Nazis, they could be Communists, they could be whatever. In this case they’re religious fanatics and they’re spooky. They will destroy this party if they’re permitted to take over. There is not enough of them in my view, but this woman reminded me of my John Birch days inn Houston. The lights go out and they pass out the ugly literature. Guilt by association. Nastiness. Ugliness. Believing the Trilateral Commission, the conspiratorial theories. And I couldn’t tell — it may not be fair to that woman, but that’s the problem that Robertson brings to bear on the agenda.

In the same chapter, as Bush was still looking to name a running mate, he instructed his people to “keep his options open”. But as the book says, “…not totally open: The New York developer Donald Trump mentioned his availability as vice presidential candidate to Lee Atwater. Bush thought the overture “strange and unbelievable”.”

As the MAGA’s love to erroneously say about Trump, I’ll rightfully say about President George H, W. Bush: Bush was right about everything.