Seeing how the Obamas and still active in politics and are in the news at least once a month someone brought up Bush jr and brought up he’s totally disappeared in public and political circles no asks him for an opinion on anything social or political Its like he’s just gone …
I know it was probably by choice but he’s been the quietest president since well the last half of the 21st and 22nd century (note I might be off on that last bit) and it seems he’s not even mentioned by his own party these days
Trump has a grudge against the Bushes for some reason and puts them down all the time at his rallies, and the Republican party no longer has any platform other than “Whatever Dear Leader says”, so they’ve been erased.
George W. Bush ended his second term with something like a 28% approval rating, thanks to the Iraq War and the financial crisis. So Republicans simply dropped him into the memory hole.
That’s irrelevant. Whether it was part of his name or not, the older Bush is Senior and the younger one is Junior. Using their full name (GHWB v GWB) is an acceptable method but so is calling the young one Junior, (and would be so even if they weren’t both George)
What would they ask him about, even if he wasn’t a pariah due to his low approval rating and Trump’s hatred of the Bushes? He’s an incurious empty suit – he took direction from Cheney, except maybe at the very end. Trump is also an incurious idiot, but he’s a seething ball of rage and revenge, and so always has something to say. W doesn’t have that anger inside him, and would have nothing of interest to say on any subject.
W’s greatest sin was cooperating with the newly elected Obama administration to save the economy by bailing out the banks for the good of the country. The Republicans hate it when one of their own cooperates with the other party and puts country before party.
In republican eyes he helped set up the Obama administration for great success that they could not overcome in the next election. So now he is persona non gratis as far as republicans are concerned.
Tanking the economy and leaving the democrates an even greater shitshow would have been just fine with right wingers.
bush jr was a complete and utter failure. The gop hates him but can’t say so publicly and admit that he did what they wanted. So they blame him for Obama getting elected, and they abandoned the traditional gop responsible principles that were being ignored anyway to head in the direction they wanted all along, facism.
No one from the Bush era of Republican governing is in the party’s graces any more, except fossils like McTurtle who keep getting sent back to congress.
Remember these guys?:
The party moved-on from governing to full-throated culting a few years ago. And besides, Bush has kept a low profile since he left office - I would not be surprised if he has a touch of PTSD after everything that happened during his terms. His incompetence was an embarrassment to the party.
W famously said, after attending Trump’s inaugural address, “that was some weird shit.”
He’s not welcome in the Trump party. And that’s what the current GOP is.
(As for why he wasn’t trotted out before Trump came along - he was an embarrassment for the Republicans. One of our worst presidents, and immensely unpopular when he left).
My MAGA mother speaks of Bush, both Jr. and Sr., with the same venom she reserves for the Clintons, Obama, Biden, and come to think of it John McCain and Liz Cheney.
I think the point they’re making is that George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush are two different people with two different names, so there’s no “Jr.”
Contrast this with Admiral John Sidney McCain Sr, Admiral John Sidney McCain Jr, and Senator John Sidney McCain III. All three have the same exact name, but they’re distinguished from each other, especially the first two, by the Sr. and Jr., because they ended up both as full Admirals.
Not to mention George H. W. Bush was buddies with Bill Clinton after they both were out of the White House. Could you imagine Donald Trump and Joe Biden being friends?
And note that their friendship started because W asked both of them to team up for the sake of the country. The ultra-partisan “the other side are demonic entities that must be burned at the stake” mentality was not part of either George Bush’s personality and is antithetical to the current mindset of the Republican Party.
