I can never join with my voice in the toast
which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes.
I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country,
in a cause where she should be in the wrong.
Fiat justitia, pereat coelum.
My toast would be, may our country always be successful,
but whether successful or otherwise, always right. -
John Quincy Adams
RIP, George HW Bush
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| Courtesy of Marshall Ramsey via Washpo |
Bush was the first GOP POTUS nominee I ever voted for as a young college professor. He made mistakes (e.g., the Iraq intervention) and lost reelection as the scapegoat of a recession, but he was an uncommon man of character and grace. "George H.W. Bush"— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) December 1, 2018
It's actually surprising to me I didn't lead last night's post with a tribute to George Bush 41, because I had earlier tweeted an acknowledgment of his passing (above). He was particularly savvy in how he approached the first Iraqi intervention in terms of fashioning a truly international effort in response to Saddam Hussein's aggression against its (western) neighbors. (I don't think many Americans had reservations over Hussein's war on eastern neighbor Iran.) There was no ideal solution to the end of the war, given sectarian tensions, as Bush decided the international mandate against Hussein's invasion or hostilities against his neighbors was limited to disabling future aggression. Many Shiites who had suffered under Hussein were under the mistaken notion Bush would protect them. This would later come back to bite Bush 43 in his ill-advised invasion to finish the job against Hussein.
Bush in 1993 became the target of a failed assassination attempt, allegedly backed by Iraq operatives.
Ironically Bush had such stratospheric public approval ratings in the aftermath of the successful conclusion of the first Iraq, many leading Democrats for the 1992 nomination, like NY Gov. Cuomo, took themselves out of the running, opening the door for an obscure, charismatic Southern governor, Bill Clinton. What did in Bush were probably a couple of things: he blinked in a war against the Democratic-controlled Congress over spending and taxes, basically agreeing to a tax hike, contradicting his election vow of no new taxes, but Democrats never did implement their end of the bargain. Even Clinton would attack Bush for not keeping his word, although Clinton had no intention of cutting back government.
But the real story was a recessionary environment in part dealing with energy shocks ironically related to the Gulf War. Buchanan took on Bush in the primaries and exposed a weakness to Bush, who seemed to thrive on foreign policy but seemingly impotent and/or indifferent to a struggling economy. Ross Perot cast himself as a business-savvy fiscal conservative that to me seemed to be similar to 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt challenged his incumbent successor (Taft) in a third party run, opening a disastrous path to victory for Wilson. (I know some historians challenge this point of view, arguing Perot drew support away from Clinton as well, but from a policy perspective, Perot was closer to the GOP base (although with a nasty protectionist perspective). I voted for Bush, but I knew weeks before the election that Bush had no path to victory. I went to a nearby county to buy a 6-pack of beer to drown away the coming disaster of the Clinton Administration (since well-validated), but I never made it halfway through the pack. The fact is that the economy had bottomed out before the end of Bush's terms, but Clinton would end up taking the credit.
Ironically, the Democrats overplayed their hand, voting for tax increases and trying to nationalize health care, creating a historical opportunity for Clinton to lose his Congressional majority, on the House side for the first time in nearly 40 years. The GOP Congress would then achieve for first balanced budgets in decades. Thus, Bush lost the battle, but the GOP won the war
The fact is that the free-spending Dems will always do well in a struggling economy, and I don't see given the circumstances how Bush could have won the election. Harding and Coolidge did impose austerity given the post-WWI depression, but they were the exception. I would have argued opportunity costs of government spending.
As I have evolved to a more libertarian perspective, I've questioned Bush's foreign intervention policies and, of course, his surrender to tax and spend Democrats. I'm disappointed he didn't more forcibly promote the cause of free markets and liberty. But on a personal level, he was a man of extraordinary character and grace, probably the most competent President of my lifetime who made some policy mistakes. I voted for this man twice and don't regret it. That doesn't mean I agree with everything he did, but it's easier to train a good man than rely on a scoundrel.
