George W. Bush's Silent Surrender: Moral Abdication in Democracy's Twilight
George W. Bush's Silent Surrender: Moral Abdication in Democracy's Twilight
The apotheosized Founders risked the hangman's noose and utter destitution for eight brutal years but Bush won't even issue a statement on the Internet.
Of the five living former U.S. presidents, three have condemned Donald Trump's candidacy—Democrats Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. The two Republicans, both 78, haven't: Trump (his own biggest fan) and the tragically myopic George W. Bush (OOO). The fog of Bush insularity isn't new, but as American democracy possibly gasps its final breaths, his monastic silence is a new level of dereliction—and stunning moral cowardice. His voice may not sway a significant number of voters, but it could prove significant by influencing the party he once headed—and preserve shreds of the democratic legacy he claims to revere.
It's fair to assume there are Republican voters who take his silence as tacit endorsement. After all, it was Bush's own "war on terror” that smoothed the road Trump now glides on. As Spencer Ackerman reasoned in Reign of Terror, by leaving its enemy undefined, that amorphous crusade enabled MAGA’s own— a perpetual state of fear ripe for authoritarianism. For Trump, the enemy means anyone and anything--immigrants, Taylor Swift, civil servants, public schools he claims offer sex changes, and far more.
Trump has reforged Bush’s perpetual warfare state into a neo-brown-shirt dogma of national rebirth through sacrificial democracy-cremation. Like all good fascist archeologies, razing Enlightened foundations is an essential first step to erecting a new tower to violent social stratification. For America to be born anew, it must first sacrifice its founding Enlightenment premises on the pyre.
If we take Bush’s silence as quiet featly, it utterly contradicts the spirit of "Freedom Matters," an exhibit as the Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas.1 Since 2023, over 500,000 visitors have paid to see a marquee exhibition that lionizes "freedom advocates" who displayed "profound fortitude" for the democratic cause. Encased in glass, replicas of the Declaration, Constitution and Emancipation Proclamation—primary sources that enshrine American ideals.2
Perhaps Bush justifies inaction by saying former vice president Dick Cheney’s full-throated condemnation of Trump’s "colossal threat” garnered little more than internet "aura points"—an impressive feat considering Cheney's infamous reputation. But in the end, Cheney, wasn’t president. His current-day influence pales in comparison to the GOP's other sole surviving commander-in-chief. He wields exponentially more party influence to counter the democratic crisis—and should face an exponentially graver moral stake.
What’s he got to lose? The apotheosized Founders risked the hangman's noose and utter destitution for eight brutal years—all to consecrate the very democratic ideals Trump now treats with third-rate casino buffet disregard. At best, Bush loses invites to every GOP functions—many of which he’s always skipped out on. At worst, he'll earn a ritualistic leper banishment from the MAGA sect like Cheney and daugher Liz Cheney.
At bare minimum, Bush should have released a forceful statement condemning Trumpist authoritarianism. Without an infusion of civic bravery, the last of the Republican redwoods will squander his lone chance to influence democracy's waning prognosis. At this late hour, he can still act—but he’ll need to go bigger: A press conference. Legacy altering addition: Stand alongside Kamala Harris.
When the rubble of the GOP's democratic demolition is finally cleared, Bush will be indistinguishable from the wrecking ball. No exhibit will be able to whitewash the indelible stain of his moral capitulation while democracy gasped its dying breaths—and his party was in such dire need of a hero. History will cement the 43rd president's legacy: He was a leader who framed himself as a freedom fighter only to cover his eyes as liberty burned.
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The former president's earlier book "Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors," depicting soldiers from his war on terror, represented an initial ploy in this self-aggrandizing image reconstruction project. It was a stunning whitewashing of the millions of lives lost to his imperial wars—which will be impossible when it comes to what’s influenced Trump: the Bush administration’s foundational sins of indefinite detention, systematized torture, and human rights abuses as instruments of power.
A premise thoroughly undermined by Bush's own legacy emanating from his "Western White House" ranch —a portrait of reactionary, anti-pluralistic impulses that actively subvert those sacred founding principles.
Bush’s presidency is a huge reason why we are where we are today - not just the authoritarianism but the war in Iraq led to cynicism toward government’s motives and MAGA isolationism. But, he’s too weak to deal with that.
I think there’s a reasonable chance that Trump spent a fair amount of his time and access while in office digging up dirt on people. I would not be at all surprised if he’s got something on W.