- Live by politics . . .
- This is not speaking ill of the dead, it is affirming grander consistency and reflections. The often ascribed Bush virtues are arguably problematic
- Sense of honor, loyalty, hard work, “conservative” I’ve known many such families.
- Some of the Bushes expressions of
noblesse obligenoblesse crony oblige are insufferable - Perhaps merely a human frailty, the Bush’s seem to both have limits to their pursuit of harmony (Trump) and unbecoming excesses of it at the same time (brother from another mother Bill Clinton)
- They do not seem to take policy positions as seriously as political camaraderie nor do they respect the effects of good ol’ boy politics on “the troops” that fought for them in the political trenches
- Harmony, is worrisome as practiced by the Bushes, and the selectivity troublesome
- Bush men seem more sentimental than the woman, (a not unusual trait), and the women, at least including Barbara, Laura, and her daughters seemed more subject to politcal correctness, elitism, shallowness and dismissivness towards conservative thought
Three items struck me in the various write-ups of the Barbara Bush funeral. They relate to the after-life and the family persona
I thought it was compelling when, as the Daily Caller reported, George W Bush took to Instagram to share a photo showing members of the military honor guard carrying Barbara’s casket to her final resting place. The caption that he gave the image: Give Robin a hug for us Mom.
Robin is the daughter who died as a toddler from leukemia, a sister who George W would have remembered well. No child ever leaves a mother’s heart and they are buried near one another at the H W Bush Library.
Barbara Bush’s own words were troubling. Her son Jeb Bush delivered a eulogy that commemorated her commitment to raising her children. He listed lessons she taught her children and among those instilled in them to “love your God with your heart and soul.”
Not “love God” with your heart and soul but “your God.” As if there are more than one. Maybe it was just more of the Bush’s famous elocution but the distinction is theologically important and one wonders.
Then there is the group shot. It appeared like it was old home week.
One could caption it “irredeemables to the right”. But more so than any accidental positioning for the photo is the fact that the Clintons and the Obamas are disreputable people who succeeded at underhanded “politics” and who sought to denigrate and destroy much of the cultural underpinnings the supporters of the Bushes, mostly volunteers, worked intensely to protect. The casualness in the photo I find insulting. This is not noblisse oblige on display or appropriate harmony. On what of God’s green earth, the one and only, did the Clintons and the Obamas not impune about the Bushes and their supporters? The Bushes by and large can’t take a ribbing from Donald Trump, but they embrace the likes of the Clintons and Obamas!
But that’s just me. Here is a more complimentary take from Bill Murchison writing at Townhall
Us and Those Bushes (excerpt)
Politics and culture mixed and mingled, as always, but with room, encouraged by the Bushes, among others, for common decencies to act and work on life. A sexual assault or Second Amendment crisis was hard to imagine in Bush times; harder still to imagine the need for national mobilization, with a Bush, or Bush-type, leading the avenging pack. We didn’t use to think so much in those terms as we now do.
The spirit of which the Bushes partook, as mentors, was the spirit of a culture generally content to consult the resources of inner character — getting things done, rather than yelling and scoring points. American culture still had a sense of humor. It didn’t fly into rages. It put a low premium on venomous modes of expression. It appeared to value human achievement, both honoring and promoting it. It had, by present standards, good manners; it tended, with little show of latent Puritanism, to value honesty, dignity, and personal restraint.
I think the Bushes lived — continue to live — in this spirit. They are poor haters, reluctant revilers. They do not storm about looking for people to beat up and malign. They would rather encounter people to work with, or to help.
And that’s unfashionable now, as are geniality and courtesy. It wasn’t that way so very long ago. The attributes of the Bushes — for all their salt-flecked, Down East leanings — were widespread in the culture of half a century ago.
R Mall with DLH
