Much of what I am about to write has been said by others. The contrast between George H.W. Bush’s character and that of some of his successors is so glaring that it could not be missed. His recent death reminded us of what an honorable and gracious man he was.
Bush never insulted people publicly. Today, turn on CNN or MSNBC and you will be treated to a festival of insults. Bush did not tell lies to the nation. Contemporary politicians, especially liberals, do little else. Bush was kind, with impeccable manners. Being crude is nowadays conflated with being genuine.
Incivility has exploded in the almost thirty years since Bush left office. H.W. would never have referred to a woman as horse-faced the way Donald Trump did. Nor would he have promoted uncorroborated accusations to prevent a Supreme Court nominee from being confirmed.
So what happened? Why do falsehoods permeate the media and political discourse? Why are people who have ideological differences unwilling to sit down and hold a respectful conversation? Not only do people on opposite sides not listen to each other; they do the equivalent of spitting in an opponent’s face.
The cause of this decline is to be found, not in the stars, but in our hearts. We brought this decay upon ourselves. Bush came from the old school. His mother taught him never to boast and never to be discourteous. He was supposed to serve others; not think in terms of himself.
Who learns these lessons nowadays? From the tattoos with which we festoon our bodies are to our widespread desire for fame, millions of us do not care how vulgar we have become. What is worse, we are not offended by efforts to outdo one another in crudeness.
So I ask again, what happened? A turning point in our moral decline occurred when H.W. was confined to a single term as president. Despite his amazing record, an untested and patently dishonest governor from Arkansas supplanted him.
Remember that Bush presided over the dismantlement of the Soviet empire and won a nearly bloodless war against Saddam Hussein. Although these were significant achievements, he did not boast about them. The biggest gripe against him was that he raised taxes, which helped extricate us from a recession at the end of his term.
And who succeeded him? Bill Clinton. Clinton was blatantly mendacious and given to non-stop immodesty. He told us that he did not have an affair with Gennifer Flowers, yet he did. He also insisted that he had not smoked pot because he had not inhaled. He may even have raped Juanita Broderick while Lt. Governor.
Moreover, once Bill was in office, the White House went from dignified national mansion to frat house. He literally had oral sex in the oval office. Meanwhile his wife was a screaming Harridan. Those who served Bush and Clinton agree that the Bush’s were uniformly respectful of their staff, whereas the Clinton’s, and especially Hillary, were crassly inconsiderate.
And yet Clinton was loved. His peccadilloes and lack of achievements were overlooked. I have been told that this is because Bill seemed more human than H,W. Americans could identify with him. If this is so, what does it say about us? Are we too brash louts who assume we can talk our way out of any indiscretion?
In my book A Principled Society(which is on Amazon), I argue that our unparalleled prosperity has enabled us to get away with terrible mistakes. We are so rich that we can recover from imprudent behavior. The same may be true of our tolerance of incivility.
We allow lies to flourish because they don’t jeopardize our economic security. We call each other names because we do not fear an invasion by a hostile power. We seek entertainment rather than investigate hard truths because we depend on others to provide for our comforts.
The legacy of George H.W. Bush is currently being reassessed. For the moment he is being praised for his rectitude. But soon we will go back to sniping at one another. He will forget that he set a standard we cannot match. Instead of kindness and gentleness, we seem determined to surpass recent profiles in incivility.
So who is at fault for throwing out Bush and replacing him with a charming rogue? We are. And we keep doing it. If we are to have genuine reform, it must therefore come from us. We have to be more principled!
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Kennesaw State university
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