Bush 43

Author

Bubba
11 Sep

George W. Bush, lauded for his leadership in the aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks on America, is emblematic of the way our nation changed since 9/11. (Semafor)

Then: Per Gallup, Bush’s approval rating among Republicans reached a near-unanimous 98% in Dec. 2001.

Now: Bush is a widely reviled figure within the “MAGA” base that dominates the modern GOP, and a nemesis of Donald Trump, the party’s leader.

  • Per a Pew Research Center poll from last year, only 5% of Republicans/Republican leaners say Bush is the best recent American president.

  • For comparison’s sake, an equal share say the same about Bill Clinton and a greater percentage say Barack Obama was the best recent president.

Chart: Pew Research Center

Related: Private equity firm co-founder David Rubenstein’s new book, “The Highest Calling,” contains an interesting snippet on Bush’s understanding of the role he may have played in sparking the populist moment.

What Bush told Rubenstein about the 2007 financial crisis:

“I listened to (Hank) Paulson and (Ben) Bernanke and spent your money to bail out the guys who created the instruments in the first place, which is an absolute political disaster,” Bush said. “You wonder why populism is on the rise. It starts with taking taxpayers’ money and giving it to the powerful. It really irritated a lot of Americans, and they haven’t gotten over it yet. That’s just part of it; there’s a lot of other reasons why.

But we’ve had candidates say, “You’re mad, I’m going to make you madder.” As opposed to, “You’re mad, I have some solutions to make you less mad.” We’re kind of in the madder stage, where people are exploiting the anger as opposed to dealing with it like leaders should.

Bubba’s Two Cents

Whether or not what I believe is true — that George W. Bush is a man that sincerely wanted what’s best for America - the reality is his presidency faced an unprecedented terrorist attack 23 years ago today and encountered a devastating economic crash. I’ve been curious what his legacy will look like in time, and I’m not sure if his intentions factor into that. But it does make me ponder what would happen if our presidential candidates were faced with a similar situation, and I’m certain I don’t want to find out.