Bush goes to rehab: the role of the “resistance” in normalizing war crimes

Trump is uniting those opposed to him on both sides of the aisle into what is essentially a single party that supports American exceptionalism and its license to wage endless war around the world. Ironically, this very precept is fervently embraced by Trump himself.

by Whitney Webb

Part 1

Over the course of the past year, something remarkable has happened to George W. Bush. The former president, once detested by many Americans for the numerous debacles that marked his presidency, seems to have shed most of his infamy – becoming reborn, as one paper put it, as the “internet’s favorite grandpa.”

Bush has made several media appearances over the past year, first to promote his paintings of wounded veterans, maimed in wars he began, with appearances on programs like the Ellen DeGeneres show, the Today show, and Jimmy Kimmel Tonight. Media coverage of these appearances sought to immortalize the “funniest moments” from his media tour. Publications, once critical of Bush, sang his praises for his portraits of “astonishingly high” quality and his evolution into “an evocative and surprisingly adept” artist. Peter Schjeldahl of The New Yorker called the paintings an “exercise of Bush’s never-doubted sincerity and humility,” despite his having “obliviously made murderous errors” for which the former president now “atones.”

The media blitz was instrumental in changing long-standing attitudes regarding the former president. Reagan Wright, a college student in Arizona, explained to the New Statesman that, though her opinion of Bush “was almost always negative” and she long considered him to be “less than smart,” she now finds his antics “so cute” and says her opinion of him totally changed upon watching his appearance earlier this year on the Ellen DeGeneres show. A YouTube clip from his “Ellen” appearance now boasts over 2.6 million views.

Then, several months later, Bush again garnered significant amounts of positive media coverage after he gave a speech last week critical of President Donald Trump — though without naming Trump at any point. The former president was widely praised for the “genius of his words,” largely because he had joined mainstream political discourse in criticizing the current president — not for his warmongering or myriad conflicts of interests — but for his “nationalism” and vulnerability to “conspiracy theories.”

Don Sipple, a former political ad maker who worked with Bush, told the LA Times that the speech came as a result of Trump’s behavior, which “has stretched the bounds of decency to a point where Bush is highly offended on part of the nation.” Bush the “compassionate conservative” has now replaced Bush the war criminal.

The media’s rehabilitation of Bush has had a dramatic effect, particularly on the American left. A poll released last week revealed that, while 85% of Democrats viewed Bush negatively in 2009, 51% of them — a majority — now view him positively.

Source, links, videos:

http://www.mintpressnews.com/bush-goes-to-rehab-the-resistance-normalizing-war-crimes/233829/

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