Bob Dole did everything that he could to get his ninety-five-year-old war-ravaged body once again to the U.S. Capitol, this time to pay a final tribute to his friend and rival, George H.W. Bush. There once was a moment of testiness, in 1988 when both were running for the presidency at Dole said words to the effect that “I wish that he would stop being so mean.” What Dole really meant was that he wished that HW had not hired the likes of Roger Aisles and Lee Atwater to run his opponents into the gutter.

Bush won the presidency and Dole was Senate Minority Leader for those four years. Dole recently reflected upon those years, saying in an interview with CNN, saying that under Bush’s presidency, “three-fourths of Congress were veterans and we would stick together and work across the aisle. And President Bush was a bipartisan president. So, we got quite a lot done,” he said.

It is interesting how thirty years later in 2018, both parties tout how many veterans they have brought into their ranks and who have been elected to Congress. But to characterize today’s Congress as being bi-partisan would be false, even farcical.

Bush and Dole fought in World War II. They were in different theaters; Bush in the Pacific and Dole in Italy. But they had a common goal; to help the United States defeat fascism. Their purpose and the tenacity of their commitment ultimately resulted in victory for the United States, first in Europe in May 1945 and three months later against Japan. This was the group that became known as “The Greatest Generation” and truly had much of which to be proud. For the moment, we’ll overlook their omissions in areas of civil rights, poverty, and health care, but their signature achievement was far greater than that of any generation since. They had a bond without a swagger. There was a high degree of mutual respect, and that carried over into the U.S. Congress where Democrats and Republicans alike were able to work collaboratively, not always, but when necessary. That is a far cry from today.

The sense of pride in achievement that the likes of H.W. Bush and Dole had is missing among the men and women currently in Congress who have served in the military. Beginning with Vietnam, the United States has not had a war in which it can claim “victory” since World War II (with the possible exception of H.W.’s Desert Storm efforts in the Persian Gulf). Nothing could symbolize this difference than the varying military careers of H.W. and his son W. H.W. flew over fifty missions in the Pacific and did far more than his part in the U.S. effort in the Pacific. His son, W., was in the National Guard, but weaseled out of going to Vietnam or in any way placing himself in harm’s way. Current members of Congress who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan certainly put themselves at risk, but they lack the sense of bond that comes from shared victory or purpose. This may well play a key role in the lack of unity in both the current Congress and the body politic at large.

A possible solution might be a new war similar in nature to World War II. But we all know that is not only impossible, it is absurd to make war the basis for building national unity. However, there are at least two things that we can do to try to restore the civility of the era of H.W. and Bob Dole:

First, let’s not get in any wars that are fruitless and not winnable (see Just War Theory). Second, let’s find a non-combative way of rebuilding national unity. How about something that should be as a-political as possible – rebuilding and refashioning our infrastructure. Not too long after World War II, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated with Congress the Interstate Highway System. Now we need something more diverse and comprehensive and forward-looking in nature. In the spirit of H.W. and Bob Dole, Congress could do the initial planning now, and in the post-Trumpian era, it could be implemented. Not a bad way to learn lessons from H.W. and Bob Dole, and to move on.

The post H.W. Bush & Bob Dole fought a “good war” appeared first on Occasional Planet.

The Republican Party has strayed so far from “societal norms” or “polite company” in recent years that it has caused some to ask, “Where have the grown-ups in the party gone?” It’s a fair question, particularly when looking at those members of the Grand Old Party who are currently running for president.

But it wasn’t too long ago that there were indeed grown-ups who very visible in the Republican Party. Some would say that when Ronald Reagan was elected president thirty-five years ago that he was a grown-up, even if his politics ranged further to the right than the two Republicans who had proceeded him, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Importantly, Reagan’s choice for Vice-President, George Herbert Walker Bush, was cut from the cloth of proper establishment Republicans.

As we are learning now, with the imminent release of Jon Meacham’s book, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, the elder Bush has been a measured and often cautious man; someone who does not act impulsively and who is not afraid of dissenting opinions in his company. When he became president in 1988, he commanded one of the very few successes that the United States has had in armed conflict since the end of World War II. He put together a coalition of forty-three nations to oppose Iraq’s Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iraq, and the forces were strong enough to remove the Iraqis from Kuwait in four days.

But when Pappy Bush ran for president on his own right in 1988, he made a startling and strange choice for his vice-presidential running mate, one that opened the door for the “kiddy corps.” His selection was Indiana Senator Dan Quayle, someone who was known to most as a mental lightweight before he was anointed, and who pretty much convinced the rest of the world of that after he was nominated. We are now familiar with the term “kiddy table” when talking about Republicans running for office, but to get there, one has to perform poorly in the polls. If you were looking for child-like naiveté as a ticket to the table, Quayle might have been seated at the head of the table. Who can forget him saying, “What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is.”

We all have blind spots, and unfortunately for George H.W. Bush, he was also deaf to the advice of many other Republicans when considering Quayle for Number Two. Quayle may have been the first of the recent cadre of young, energetic, not-too-bright, and generally non-empathetic “rising stars” in the Republican Party. He came to us courtesy of a true grown-up, a war hero, and a very credible president, George H.W. Bush.

As tidbits come out about the Meacham book, we learn that Bush 41 had significant issues with the way his son, George W. Bush, ran his two-term presidency. Pappy saw Vice-President Dick Cheney as many others have, as a controlling force who had a war agenda which was central to his vision of foreign policy. 41 also saw 43’s Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, as somewhat oblivious to facts.

Criticizing the administration of George W. Bush is both rather easy and also sad. He never should have been president of the United States. However, there were enough American voters who preferred him as their choice over Al Gore in 2000 that Bush nearly won the vote and actually won the appointment of the Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court.

So George H.W. Bush wittingly brought Dan Quayle to the national scene and then unwittingly brought us his son, George W. We do not really know if Pappy Bush wanted George W. to be president, but from what we can currently tell, Pappy did not tell his son that the job was over his head and it would not be wise to call upon his political chips to try to get there. The bottom line is that one way or another George H.W. Bush brought us George W. The American people confirmed ‘W’s’ so-called readiness to be commander-in-chief.

After ‘W’ was two-termed out, the Republican Party went back to a grown-up in John McCain as their nominee in 2000. McCain was regarded as a serious opponent to Barack Obama, until he made that fateful decision to ask someone he had not previously met to be his vice-presidential nominee. He called upon Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, who was regarded, again, as a young and energetic Republican firebrand. Unlike Quayle, Palin could rally a conservative crowd, but her knowledge of the news was laid bare when she was asked by CBS’s Katie Couric if she could provide the name of one newspaper or magazine that she reads, and she couldn’t think of any so she blurted, “All of them.”

McCain lost to Obama. Palin soon thereafter quit her governorship in mid-term and has since been somewhat of a darling of the right. Even though she has not sought political office over the past seven years, she has had a huge impact on the Republican party, both its insiders and its voters. She has taken the main stage and said truly outrageous things reflecting huge gaps in knowledge, in critical thinking and in empathy. These characteristics are now common in most Congressional Republicans. The extremism of Congressional Republicans is why the very conservative John Boehner gave up on managing the Kiddie Table in the Lower Chamber of Congress.

Would we have had this brand of Republican had George H.W. Bush not given us Dan Quayle and later his son, and if John McCain had not given us Sarah Palin? The strength of the current extremists is such that they surely would have risen to prominence somehow some way. But the apparent legitimacy that they have in the GOP was greatly strengthened by the nod and a wink from the likes of Pappy Bush and John McCain. They both may well be regretting that now.

The post Pappy Bush and McCain gave green light to GOP extremists appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Do you remember Pat Buchanan, the one-time Republican candidate who challenged incumbent President George H.W. Bush for the presidency in 1992?   As Adam Nagourney reports in the New York Times, twenty years ago Buchanan raised many issues that resonate more than ever today within the Republican Party.  These included abortion “on demand,” homosexual rights, and discrimination against religious schools.  Very rarely does an orator at a convention pave a way that is actually followed by his or her party.  But Buchanan helped motivate and crystallize the Republican Party to advance their extreme right social and economic agendas.  In ways that have been both subtle and obvious, he has succeeded.  Now, we are paying the price through gridlock, and perhaps even worse, one-party right wing control.

Full article

The post Culture wars: Doing it 1990s-style appeared first on Occasional Planet.