43
Ben Everidge for Thomas
A study in comparisons …
When he peacefully passed his presidency over to his successor, George Walker Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, it became an immediate comparison point between what was and what would come.
At first blush, it was assumed that the comparisons would promise to be dramatic. After all, Barack Obama was America’s first African American commander-in-chief, not to mention a more liberal politician—a Democrat.
Mr. Bush was an avowed Republican. Conservative. A former Governor of Texas. A National League baseball club owner.
Little did we know that George Bush would also become the apparent comparison point when Donald J. Trump took the keys to the Oval Office in 2017.
Time has revealed that George Bush is more like his immediate successor and previous occupants of the West Wing than his fellow Republican, the 45th president.
In temperament, Mr. Bush was more like Obama than Trump. More like Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry S Truman. More like his father, George H.W. Bush, and his father’s boss, Ronald Reagan. Not a hothead. Not a complainer. No absence in a crisis, a pandemic, a hurricane.
Unlike another GOP White House occupant, Mr. Bush would not lie intentionally, not 20,000-plus times. Mr. Bush honored integrity for the American presidency and brought a superbly talented and honorable group of associates to help him run his Administration.
Tested in war on American soil like Abraham Lincoln, George Bush would be steadfast in his approach to ending direct threats to United States citizens in their homeland. Whether you agreed with Mr. Bush or not, no other attacks on the United States happened during the remainder of his watch.
The mission was accomplished, albeit maybe a little later than initially imagined.
Sure, Mr. Bush made his fair share of mistakes. All presidents do, and all future presidents most assuredly will. But, like those chief executives, and not this current Republican president, George Walker Bush respected the United States Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and the intent of the American Declaration of Independence.
Mr. Bush, it can be argued, was more like George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe, too, than is 45.
Unlike today, President Bush respected the American voter and our voting process. It was, after all, the United States Supreme Court that ultimately determined whether or not George Bush had defeated Vice President Al Gore for the presidency in 2000. He did. By the slimmest of margins, but a margin he managed to govern by anyway.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Bush did hold his own on the litigation front to ensure his win, but that would be expected. Mr. Bush, unlike the 45th president, did not threaten the American public with hollow complaints about rigged elections.
Neither did Mr. Gore, for that matter.
thomas invites you to read: President’s Ranked
Mr. Bush would collaborate with his fellow members of the former Presidents Club when needed. He could be an American first and a party loyalist second when the times called for such priorities.
George W. Bush would serve two terms as president of the United States because the American public entrusted that hallowed office to him for faithful service rendered and promised.
When Mr. Bush spoke at the memorial service for the iconic civil rights statesman, the late Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, the former president received a standing ovation in the same church where Martin Luther King, Jr., preached and was buried.
Such was the power of President Bush’s thoughts on behalf of a troubled nation in remembrance of such a treasured public servant, with whom he clearly had differences on occasion but respected nonetheless.
In his retirement, George Bush continues to work for the benefit of the American people. He remains constant and consistent. The 43rd president remains committed to his nation and all of her people.
He is a study in contrasts worth celebrating.
A compassionate standard that any future American election might value.