The George W. Bush Presidential Center publishes a podcast called The Strategerist. In this week’s episode, the podcast interviews the big 43 himself, President George W. Bush, who talks about, among other things, the importance of humor, humility, and optimism in leadership.
It’s very important not to take yourself too seriously…. If any time you’re part of an organization where one attempts to advance their own interests, it undermines the culture of an organization.
It is very important for society and individuals to either collectively or individually laugh, because laughter is such a part of a light spirit, and a heaviness on a society or a heaviness that clouds an individual’s vision can be very weighing. It’s hard to be optimistic if you’re not able to smile. One of the jobs of a President is to create an optimistic vision for the country, and I don’t see how you can be optimistic if you’re, like, worried that somebody’s making fun of you [President George W. Bush, Episode 22, The Strategerist Podcast, 2019.05.17].
President Bush says in the program that one way to keep your optimism amidst all the grim madness on 24-hour news is not to watch 24-hour news.
Seriously, President Bush says that by paying for PEPFAR, a program passed by a bipartisan Congress and signed into law by Bush in 2003, the American taxpayers saved millions of lives in Africa that would otherwise have been lost to HIV/AIDS. That’s something that can make all of us optimistic about America’s ability to do good in the world.
One of the great oddities of the Trump presidency is that it has given greater credence to Bush43’s tenure as president, and so soon. Well, that is if you can forget about 9/11, two wars, Katrina, and the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression. But the fact that many can do this now days truly speaks to the severity of our times and all the more reason that we cannot tune out to what is going on amongst us during this bizarre domestic period in our nation’s history.
Although, too much of anything, even if good, is not good for anyone. It is the potential tuning out that we must fear more than the ailing that may come from watching and or consuming 24-hour news. A democracy must be informed and those who are a part of that democracy must also understand their duty as citizens to stay informed. Because when the citizenry begins to fail at this mission, or duty, then it only welcomes a worse news cycle in the future, which could even cause us to even miss Trump some day, if that is at all fathomable at this time, that is….
I have mentioned this before, but, every successive wingnut candidate for potus has been richer, whiter, less intellectually curious and even more clewless than the preceding ones.
I should mention dumber, too, but, I don’t think the world can survive something even less intelligent than Drumpf.
What Claussen said.
The irony!
What is there to laugh at- https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/the-senate-will-not-vote-on-any-election-security-bills-gop-senator-says/
We now know Russia hacked at least 2 Florida counties won heavily by Drumpf and John Bolton has wanted an Iran war since back before IRaq was invaded.
Normalizing George W Bush makes it impossible to correct our foreign policy mistakes. The failure to prosecute W and Cheney for the illegal invasion of Iraq means we will likely follow the same neocons into a war against Iran.
“As of June 29, 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Defense casualty website, there were 4,424 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile) and 31,952 wounded in action (WIA) as a result of the Iraq War.” Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead a trillion or three dollars vanished. W. Bush saved no millions, he squandered them without a care. Sending ill prepared national guardsmen into the meat grinder of war was not in the best interest of South Dakotan’s and we paid a blood price for that. Bush and Cheney have a special place in hell for what they knowingly did. My youngest son was one of those wounded in action, he pays the price daily for the humor.
I joked–if only slightly–about the Bush attempt to rehabilitate his image. I now say I agree with Jason and Jerry. It’s no joking matter. Bush and Cheney will almost certainly suffer no official disgrace nor punishment for their sins, but they were sins, and crimes, nevertheless.
I do feel uneasy about participating in the lowering of the bar to deem Bush II a model President. I nonetheless maintain that replacing Donald Trump with George W. Bush right now would make the world a safer place… which is perhaps like saying Germany was better off under the Kaiser than under the Führer.
We can also point to the failures of the Bush-Cheney Administration (perhaps that is the more instructive way to distinguish the son’s reign from the father’s Bush-Quayle) and still recognize that the points George W. Bush makes that I quote above are accurate and worth applying to any critique of the current Administration.
Prosecuting Bush and Cheney for war crimes is a long reach that will require a far different American Administration than perhaps any viable candidate is offering. (Has any Democratic candidate for President advocating turning Bush and Cheney over an international war crimes tribunal?) I’m not even doing Presidential politics yet, but when I turn to that, I have two goals: convincing every Democrat that we must unite behind and turn out for whomever wins the nomination, and convincing half of Republicans to be patriots first and partisans second and vote for the best person for the job… who will be anyone on the ballot other than the incumbent.
W was a rotten president–stupid, ignorant, cruel, uncaring. He ranks 44th among US presidents.
I despise more and fear Darth Cheney. He wasn’t incompetent. He was and is a cruel and heartless psychopathic monster.
Neocon chicken hawks just can’t rest until they’re getting more people killed. Americans, non-, they don’t care who dies as long as it’s not them and the $ keeps rolling into their war mongering pockets.
Political cartoonist Marty Two Bulls knows it too:
https://www.gocomics.com/m2bulls/2019/05/19
White-washing the facts. It is what we do. White supremacy only succeeds with violence and fictionalization.
Bush was less capable than Trump. Trump is completely unqualified. Today he declared himself the most transparent president in history after Speaker Pelosi levelled coverup charges. We all can see how this is going to end. Impeachment. That is hard to white-wash.
General Harney had 50 years to white-wash his legacy from Blue Water baby killer to friend of the Indian. SDSMT and Rapid City are now romanticizing, 100 years later, 1890s resident Valentine Magillicudy, to attract tourists and commerce. He was a civilian surgeon along with civilian scout Bat Pourier employed with Gen Crook at his defeat at the June 1876 Rosebud battle. Crook chased down Crazy Horse at the September Slim Buttes attack, and shot Miniconjou Lakota Chief American Horse. Magillicudy tended fatal wounds. Later he was appointed Indian Agent over Red Cloud’s lengthy objection and eventual ouster, but when Crazy Horse was arrested and bayoneted at Ft Robinson in September 1877, he tended his wounds and told the fort officer that a riot would occur if the body was housed in the fort’s jail. Oglala Lakota American Horse said the chief should not be so dishonored. French Canadian Big Bat Pourier also anticipated a riot and delivered the news of his death to Crazy Horse’s father.
There is not much other historical documentation but Rapid City is painting Magillicuddy as a “best friend”, according to buffalo rancher Dan O’brien and western author Larry McMurtry, apparently.
White-washing white supremacy?