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.
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