The GOP is under attack from within. A warrior returns to the arena.
George H Bush did not do something new. He did something old. He advocated for the principles Republican voters have supported for fifty years.
This is a fork in the road for incumbent Republicans. Will they praise Bush or will they hide out?
George Bush spoke about "discourse degraded by casual cruelty." About "conspiracy theories and outright fabrication." About emboldened "bigotry." He never mentioned Trump by name, which makes the point even stronger because the target is obvious.
It is well understood that the GOP is in a civil war. Steve Bannon has openly advocated for it. The Trump-style economic and cultural nationalists are going to challenge in primary elections the "old style" Republicans. He is doing it by name, criticizing Mitch McConnell, and celebrating the pending exits of Senator Luther Strange and Bob Corker. Both Arizona Republican Senators McCain and Flake have been named. It is just the beginning, Bannon says.
It is well understood that the GOP is in a civil war. Steve Bannon has openly advocated for it. The Trump-style economic and cultural nationalists are going to challenge in primary elections the "old style" Republicans. He is doing it by name, criticizing Mitch McConnell, and celebrating the pending exits of Senator Luther Strange and Bob Corker. Both Arizona Republican Senators McCain and Flake have been named. It is just the beginning, Bannon says.
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| Bush Speech: 16 minutes |
Republican officeholders on the receiving end of this have appeared paralyzed. They don't want to criticize the president of their own party. They need to work with him and they have seen with their own eyes how Trump deals with enemies. He makes spectacles of their political corpses. Trump criticizes the leaderships of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and their response is to mumble. Trump is the center of attention and he has his base of voters, and these are big, terrifying sticks.
George H. Bush is a retiree, not an officeholder. Trump cannot hurt him politically. He overtly did not mention Trump. He mentioned principles, goals, behaviors, and norms. He voiced ideas that have not been argued forcefully by Republicans since Trump got the GOP nomination over a year ago. But when Bush says "Bully" there is no secret who he is talking about.
Readers can link to it by clicking the caption, but here are the key elements:
1. Gracefully noted that former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and Condalleeza Rice were sharing a stage, i.e. bipartisanship is not heresy.
2. Said that since World War Two Americans have advocated and benefited from free markets, alliances, and democracies, and that it has helped create this long period of relative peace.
3. Said that America was committed to and benefited from democratic ideals and norms, not the authoritarian ones in the Russian and Chinese systems, behaviors which are getting traction in the democratic west.
4. Our democracy is under attack from within from "casual cruelty", animosity, intentionally decisive speech, and demonization of others, and "nationalism distorted into nativism." He criticized "bullying and prejudice in our public life."
5. Our security comes from "wise, sustained, global engagement."
6. American unity comes not from blood and soil but from commitment to ideals, which means "that people of every race, religion, and ethnicity can be fully and equally American."
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| Click: Breitbart article |
Response came instantly from the Trump-friendly Breitbart website's senior editor, calling it a divisive attack against Trump, that Bush failed as president. It is the classic Trump counterpunch: accusing the accuser of doing exactly what the accuser is accusing Trump of doing: Bush the divider. The pushback articulates what Breitbart considers the central issue that elevated Trump, immigration policy. Bush embraced it and Trump does not, wanting fewer and higher skilled immigrants only, who have entered America legally only. .
Trump's campaign and time in office has not been narrowly focused on immigration. Trump reverses the norms of the Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush, Romney understanding of the world: center right internationalism and free trade. Bush takes it all on, including Trump's tone. He said Trumpism is an assault on democratic principles and norms. He said Trump appeals to nativist and color-coded xenophobia. Trumpism is dangerous and outside the American tradition.
The next two days will be a litmus test for the GOP. Will officeholders echo and praise Bush, or will they stay mum and keep their heads down. A great many clearly disagree with Trump and agree with Bush, but Republican voters had lots of chances to support alternatives to Trump, and they chose Trump.
2 comments:
The Irony of Gushing Over Bush
Beside the reality that the GOP base could care less what any Bush (or McCain) says, embracing globalism and illegal immigration are policies that base soundly rejects. They care only what Trump and Bannon say.
The GOP is awakened, but Bush and establishment Republicans didn't do it. GOP voters awoke long ago at the time of the primary debates when Trump pushed the faces of both Bushes in political mud. Their faces, and those of McConnell, McCain, Murkowski, and Collins remain soiled.
There is pathos in how quickly Democrats embrace GOP moderates as saviors, but give only lip service to their lofty words. GOP moderates are now the fringe, and we delude ourselves in passive aggressive confusion that Bush or McCain will rescue our sad and feckless Democratic party. The GOP base doses off at Bush's words while we perk up, but it gives standing ovations to Steve Bannon.
Meanwhile Obama desperately tries to save our nominee for Virginia governor as his polling lead evaporated under the GOP's barrage of illegal immigration sanctuary city ads. That issue and the closely linked issue of economic nationalism were, are and will be the deciding issues in swing states in 2018 and 2020. That is why the most publicized remarks of Bush, McCain and Obama this week focused on the toxic and divisive appeal of those two very issues. Those are the decisive issues. Democrats cannot accept this yet.
Your highlight number 1 of Bush's message is "bipartisanship". Indeed! That means supporting centrists like Bush himself, as Obama is doing this weekend in Virginia-- trying to get a centrist elected. The GOP by contrast is in control and Trump and his candidates need to only rhetorically move slightly toward the center. In policy they don't have to move at all. No, it is Democrats who have a long distance yet to move. They will either get moving or lose the swing states.
The irony is that it's Democrats who need to listen to and do what Bush says in toning down our pitched anti-Trump rhetoric, not the GOP. Their messages won in 2016, ours lost. Time to move.
Bush's speech is rife with hypocrisy and is intended to distance himself from Trump.
To resurface now and disavow the same policies that laid the groundwork for Trump is laughable. History will not allow them to erase the Bush legacy of corruption, most notably the use of the 9/11 attack to promote a needless war.
As far as the politics go, I'll continue my mantra that the center no longer exists. There is no gray area regarding racism, misogyny and bigotry, and finding common ground with Regressives is futile.
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