I saw George H.W. Bush give a speech in southern Illinois in early 1980 when he was campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination. His spiel was the usual campaign stump speech, with nothing memorable. However, after the speech, a young student at Southern Illinois University politely asked him about his role in the Trilateral Commission. Bush became unglued, shouting angrily about how people were always hassling him about that connection. Maybe Bush was just having a bad day but I was stunned by his reaction. Reagan thrashed him in the Illinois primary, carrying conservative-leaning areas in southern Illinois by huge margins. Bush’s Establishment style utterly failed to resonate in that part of the state.
I have been vigorously criticizing George H.W. Bush’s policies & career for decades. Here’s a 1991 C-SPAN interview where I flogged his nitwit trade policies: https://www.c-span.org/video/?23521-1/us-trade-policy
Why write about George H.W. Bush's record before his burial? Because, as Willie Brown said, "In politics, a lie unanswered becomes truth within 24 hours." https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 6, 2018
In his eulogy today, Rev. Russell Levenson compared George H.W. Bush to Jesus. I've heard the Holy Ghost is perturbed for being left out.
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 6, 2018
#Bush41 Americans should be wary of eulogies for politicians who violated their rights and liberties. https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 5, 2018
All these tributes at yesterday's funeral to George H.W. Bush's "character" – Nobody recalls how he betrayed the Kurds in 1991, encouraging them to revolt & then abandoning them to Saddam's crackdown. https://t.co/hld4IrWCu9
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 6, 2018
George W. Bush declared today that #Bush41 was "no cynic." But his betrayals on his tax pledge & his debacles at home & abroad turned millions of other Americans into cynics. https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 6, 2018
Shakespeare wrote "the evil that men do lives after them." America continues to be vexed by #Bush41 's protectionist, drug policy, & warring precedents. https://t.co/QDdiij4N8a
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 5, 2018
Stoicism gets no respect these days. https://t.co/rXfUOC0QIC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 5, 2018
George H.W. Bush was lauded today as a "twentieth century Founding Father" but no Founder would have endorsed public beheadings of drug dealers as did Bush's Drug Czar. #Bush41 https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 5, 2018
#GeorgeHWBush kinder & gentler? Asset forfeiture seizures rose 300% during his administration, and his plundering policies continue to vex America https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 5, 2018
Trump calls himself a Tariff Man but President #GeorgeHWBush was the Brassiere Czar, dictating that Mexico could sell us only 35,292 bras per year https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 4, 2018
#GeorgeHWBush "kinder and gentler"? His lawyers swayed the Supreme Court to approve mandatory warrantless searches of interstate bus passengers, nullifying the rights of people who could not afford to travel 1st Class https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 4, 2018
Media tributes to #GeorgeHWBush forget: "Democracy cannot afford to deify deceased politicians whose precedents pose continuing perils." https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC pic.twitter.com/H9JYMYiun8
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 4, 2018
Trump's trade policies are bad but it was George H.W. Bush who ordered feds to investigate when ice cream imports threatened to exceed 1% of U.S. market https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 4, 2018
President Trump boasted today that he is a "Tariff Man." Never forget that President George HW Bush was the most protectionist president since Hoover & helped pave the way for today's nonsense. https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 4, 2018
My @USATODAY oped: George H.W. Bush's disastrous policies and precedents ravaged consumers, decimated freedom, and helped elevate presidents above the law https://t.co/QDdiiiNcgC
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 4, 2018
President George H.W. Bush said the Americans with Disabilities Act "calls upon the best in the American people." The badly-written ADA proved a disaster at helping the disabled find work https://t.co/PHbDyQPA5V
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 2, 2018
President George H.W. Bush promised a "kinder, gentler" America but he exalted & unleashed federal agents, leading to Ruby Ridge & other debacles https://t.co/S6Lqvhcv17
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 1, 2018
Pres. George HW Bush justified the first Gulf War to restore Kuwait's “rightful leaders to their place.” Why should Americans give a damn which Arab dictators control which patches of sand? https://t.co/YgKhKCDIRo
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 1, 2018
The late George H.W. Bush is being lauded as a statesman but his trade policy was a protectionist disaster, with endless pandering, demagoguery, and nitwit bureaucratic dictators https://t.co/rIL0QXoNM9
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) December 1, 2018
[…] folks may have thought I was too harsh on the late George H.W. Bush in my USA Today oped and on my Twitter comments. So here’s some of the articles I wrote on Bush’s protectionist debacles in the early […]