George H. W. Bush and Why We Despise the Media

President George H. W. Bush is a man of principle, honor and intelligence.  His choice to vote for Hillary instead of Trump is the correct one.  His choice to make this decision public is also correct, for silence would be a cheap and cowardly path.  Silence makes it too easy for the Trump apologists to aver that Bush would, in the end, follow the party line down the path of Trump’s ignorance of and disregard for the Constitution.   Silence is not an option.  If you believe it is, look at Hitler’s rise in Germany. 

Having not buried the lead, let me get on to the second part of this article: why we all do, or should, despise the media. 

            In 1988, Bush beat Michael Dukakis with 53% of the vote and 426 electoral votes.  In that same election, Democrats picked up seats in both the House and Senate, and Bush had to work with opposition majorities.  In 1992 Bush lost to Bill Clinton.   The New York Times couldn’t find its way to endorse Bush either time.  [You have to go back to Eisenhower to find a Republican the Times has endorsed.] 

Instead, Bush ’41 was called a “wimp.”  Never mind that he was a war hero.  He was soft spoken, deferential and the antithesis of the braggadocio that seems to be popular today.  Even the Washington Post admits that “…Bush’s domestic policy achievements were undoubtedly significant… The president signed into law the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, modernized the Clean Air Act and reauthorized the Civil Rights Act. He grappled with the $100 billion-plus clean-up of the savings and loan crisis. And he negotiated a multi-year budget deal aimed at taming the deficit — the same deal that forced Bush to back down from his famous “Read my lips: no new taxes” pledge of the 1988 GOP national convention.”  [Unlike Obama who could wrest a budget even from his Democratic majorities in both houses.]

            During the Gulf War, he stuck to the deal he had made with the United Nations and Congress and stopped hostilities without overthrowing Saddam Hussein, even when there was nothing between our forces and Baghdad but 100 miles of paved road.  George H. W. Bush was a man of restraint, dignity and meticulous honor.  But none of that got him any respect in the press.  They didn’t like him simply because he is a Republican and they are Democrats.  He had honor and they have none.  He has a moral compass and they are hedonists.   

            The lathered left’s despicable treatment of H. W. does not stop with him.  The media were equally nasty, self-serving and manipulative in their treatment of John McCain and Mitt Romney.  But now that these fine, deserving and qualified men are no longer a threat to the medias’ political agenda they are being trotted out like show ponies.  When Bush says he won’t vote for Trump he is suddenly the elder statesman and conscience of the Republican party.  What was he in ‘88 and ‘92?         

You, the press, did everything you could to legitimize Trump as a candidate because you knew how weak a prize Hillary was.  Now you are shocked that this genie you let out of the bottle is giving your girl a run for her money.  It is the height of irony that now, in your time of need, you are sucking up to the men you dismissed as “too far right” to try to solve the problem you have deliberately created.  Hypocrites!

            Unlike members of the press, George H. W. Bush both defines and keeps the faith.