Ending his presidency Jan. 19, 2009 with the lowest approval ratings in modern history, 71-year-old former President George W. Bush comes out the woodwork lecturing the White House about emboldening “bigotry” in the national dialogue. Unlike other past presidents, Bush has spent his time painting dogs at his Texas ranch and home in Dallas, staying out of the public eye for eight years of the Obama presidency Bush briefly appeared in the 2016 campaign to support his brother before the South Carolina presidential primary, hoping to salvage Jeb’s failing campaign. It was at Feb. 13 South Carolina debate that a brazen Donald Trump, before a partisan Bush crowd, slammed Bush-43 for his catastrophic decision on the Iraq War. A year-and-half later, Bush-43 criticizes Trump for creating a divisive atmosphere hurting the American Dream of upward mobility.
Nothing hurt the American dream more that Bush’s Iraq War, straining the overtaxed U.S. economy to the breaking point from 2003 to the eventual collapse of financial markets in 2008. When the stock market crashed and nation plunged into the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009, Bush left ordinary Americans behind the eight-ball. “The American dream of upward mobility seems out of reach for some who feel left behind in a changing economy . . .” said Bush, making zero sense. With the stock market booming and unemployment near record lows, most Americans have far more opportunity than during Bush-43’s two terms. Bush talked about “sharpened partisan conflicts” when the nation was divided into red and blue states during his presidency. Bush’s oblique criticism of Trump is payback for Trump calling him out on the Iraq War.
Mainstream media outlets, ordinarily disinterested in anything Bush-43 has to say, covered his remarks at the Bush Institute in New York, hearing from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush and U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley. Today’s media outlets scour the landscape for any Republicans critical of Trump, often parading anti-Trump Republicans, like Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), on left-wing talk shows critical of the president. “People of every race, religion and ethnicity can be fully and equally American,” said Bush, swiping at Trump’s alleged ties to White nationalist groups. Despite repudiating all such groups, the left-wing press continues to paint Trump as a white supremacist. Bush had two blacks in his White House, Rice and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, both more or less conservative Republicans.
Bush commented about so-called Russian influence in the 2016 election, calling on the U.S. to “harden its own defenses.” While Special Counsel former FBI Director Robert Mueller investigates Russian influence and Trump’s alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bush raises the conspiracy theory. “Our country must show resolve and resilience in the face of external attacks on our democracy,” said Bush, referring to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Former Secretary of State and Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton blamed Russia for hacking the Democratic National Committee and former campaign chairman John Podesta, turning the election to Trump. Yet Hillary won nearly 3 million more popular votes than Trump, showing that any alleged Russian influence gave her a vote advantage, disproving the Russian conspiracy theory.
Bush’s remarks were designed to highlight vague racism in the Trump White House. Despite the intel community concluding that Russian actors hacked the DNC and Podesta, WikiLeaks’ Founder Julian Assange denied the connection. Assange insisted that whatever hacked emails he put out in the 2016 they were not from Russian sources or intermediaries. “And that begins with confronting a new era of cyber threats . . .” said Bush, referring to hacking in the 2016 campaign. Speaking at a campaign rally yesterday for New Jersey Democrat Phil Murphy, Obama took a swipe at Trump, criticizing the “politics of division.” Obama created the most divisive atmosphere on Capitol Hill, railroading Obamacare on Congress without one Republican vote. Running in 2008 as a post-partisan president, Obama was the most partisan, divisive president since Bush-43.
Piling on the criticism of Trump, Bush-43 and Obama found common ground, ripping the current White House occupant. Bush-43 talks about today’s loss of the American Dream when he crashed the stock market and U.S. economy. Nothing was more divisive than the Iraq War, eventually ending Bush-43’s presidency with the lowest approval ratings in U.S. history. “What we have is the same old politics of division that we have seen so many times before that dates back centuries,” said Obama, referring to the countries long history with racism dating back before the Civil War. Instead of working with Republicans in Congress, Obama chose to railroad Obamacare in 2010, guaranteeing a legacy of partisanship and division. Bush and Obama, like other Republicans in exploited in the mainstream press, have found common ground slamming Trump.
