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Matt Malone, S.J.March 04, 2015
President George H.W. Bush takes the oath of office in January, 1989. (Wikipedia Commons/Library of Congress photo). President George H.W. Bush takes the oath of office in January, 1989. (Wikipedia Commons/Library of Congress photo). 

My first foray into Republican politics was in the winter of 1980, when George H. W. Bush was battling Ronald Reagan for the presidential nomination. At the invitation of Marty Flynn, a local Republican and an old Central Intelligence Agency chum, Mr. Bush made a whistle stop on Cape Cod en route to the New Hampshire primary. Well, it wasn’t literally a whistle stop, but rather a quick speech at the Red Coach Grille near Barnstable Municipal Airport. My dad was a friend of Marty’s and a fan of Mr. Bush and, with his 8-year-old son in tow, he set out in our yellow AMC Pacer to meet the future president.

I don’t remember anything that Mr. Bush said that day, but I do recall some of the tidbits I picked up from the buzz that filled the room: “He’s a family man, a true American hero,” they said, “a guy who can put the country back on track.” The “family man” talking point was in part a veiled critique of Mr. Reagan, who was divorced. The United States had never elected a divorced man as president, and many people were asking whether we could or even should. In any event, later that year we settled the question by electing the man who, with Mr. Bush as his vice president, inaugurated the Reagan Revolution.

This was all on my mind when I visited the George Bush Library and Museum last week in College Station, Tex., part of my effort to visit every presidential library before I shuffle off to the big Buffalo in the sky. Regrettably, but understandably, Mr. Bush’s trip to the Red Coach Grille does not feature in his library and museum, nor does much of anything else from his unsuccessful run for the 1980 nomination. What’s interesting, however, is how the museum’s narrative is built on the very same themes he stressed that day on Cape Cod: duty, family, country. Is this a singular example of consistent political messaging across three-plus decades, or is it simply an accurate reflection of Mr. Bush’s true character?

I suspect that it’s somehow both. To my knowledge, no one has ever really called his character into question. Sure, his worldview stems from an old-fashioned (some would say naïve) way of thinking about the world, one in which faith, know-how and neighborliness can tackle even the toughest problems: “There is a God and He is good, and his love, while free, has a self-imposed cost: We must be good to one another,” he told us in 1988.

On the other hand, Mr. Bush has made some very questionable public choices, about war and peace and right and wrong, especially his decision to launch a barely credible, unrelentingly negative assault on his opponent, Michael Dukakis, during the 1988 presidential campaign. That wasn’t very neighborly. It also helped to usher in our contemporary slash-and-burn politics, and it should be included in any discussion of Mr. Bush’s public character.

No one should travel to College Station, however, expecting to see a balanced assessment of the politics of the Willie Horton ad. Fair enough. It’s his library, and it reflects Mr. Bush’s self-understanding. Still, he must have a regret or two, even about his public life. Why not share it with us? It might help us to understand better the people who govern our country. It would help us to see that while politicians like Mr. Bush might be decent folk, they are just as imperfect as the rest of us, and we should be reluctant, therefore, to invest in any one of them our messianic hopes, whether they originate with the duty-family-country crowd or with the so-called liberal elites. It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. As Dennis O’Brien writes in this issue: “The temptation of conservatism is that of wandering off into outmoded historical formulae that are as distant from living reality as the liberal’s utopian projects.”

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Vincent Gaitley
9 years ago
A really balanced assessment of the Willie Horton ad must include the fact that the original injection of the inmate into the campaign came from Al Gore, then a senator, trying to defeat Dukakis in the primaries. Nothing in the ad was false, but it did throw into relief the soft and rather indifferent nature of Dukakis' attitude towards crime, and the more law and order Gore, and then Bush. Why should the Presidential Libraries be self-critical? Did you expect so-called academic integrity--a myth--there? That sort of critical look at oneself doesn't exist anywhere including in the government, academia, or the Church--and especially our Church.
alice bluegown
9 years ago
Your statement in the last paragraph, "It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other" - and later, "“The temptation of conservatism is that of wandering off into outmoded historical formulae that are as distant from living reality as the liberal’s utopian projects.” Differentiating between "conservatism" (Republicans) and "liberalism" (Democrats)? That appears to be obvious - please forgive me if I am incorrect in that conclusion. RE: "six of one, half a dozen of the other" - problem is... the "conservatives" (Republicans) have sanctity of life as a part of their platform, whereas the "liberals" (Democrats) have free and unapologetic abortion as a part of theirs. In God's eyes, in the eyes of the teachings of the church, there is actually a dramatic difference in belief. One is holy, one is evil.
James Richard
9 years ago
Well, being from Massachusetts, I can say I'm still happy Mike Dukakis was never elected as our president. He was probably the worse governor during my lifetime, spending the state into junk bond status, not to mention his arrogance of not listening to the people in the communities he was out to destroy.
John Omniadeo
9 years ago
"To my knowledge, no one has ever really called his character into question." Read "Family of Secrets" by Russ Baker, a responsible journalist with impeccable credentials who carefully documents numerous assertions that call GHW Bush's character into question. Even if you disagree with the book, and it is hard to see how one disagrees with documented facts, your statement is simply false.

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