There's been much ado about George Bush, Sr's emotional speech about his son, Jeb. The conventional wisdom seems to have settled on the meme that Jeb has no chance at the presidency now that W has poisoned the Bush family well with this disastrous adventure into Iraq. It would appear to most that Poppy is understandably upset at the family name being besmirched by the designated bad boy, thereby ruining it for the "smart one," Jeb, and his ability to take his rightful, inherited place in the Pantheon of Bush Presidents. Whatever will the Republican Party, not to mention America, do without a Bush heir apparent? It's enough to make their criminal blue blood run cold.
This past Sunday the Washington Post Magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary by publishing some of its past articles. One of particular interest was an interview by Walt Harrington with George H W Bush in the summer of 1986. It was almost spooky to read words written 20 years ago that so aptly explain and clarify the Bush family behavior today.
There is only one very brief reference to W - but a telling one.
...more below the fold
And as George Bush, his 40-year-old son George Jr. and I bob lazily on the Saco River, the vice president becomes suddenly reflective. "I think you think 'class' is more important than I do," he says. I suggest -- I'm smiling when I say this -- that people at the bottom of society often think social class is more important than do people at the top. But Bush will not be deterred. What did I mean when I said he was a product of America's upper class? Bush believes "class" is the snottiness and arrogance found in some rich people, those who think they are "better" than the less well-off. He says he has never felt that way. Exactly what does the word "class" mean to me? This is an uncomfortable turning of the reportorial tables, and I am less than eloquent. But in fits and starts I say that "social class" is all about family connections and money and expectations and training, and what those can mean. I say the sons of fathers in high-level jobs end up in high-level jobs about half the time, while the sons of manual workers end up in high-level jobs about 20 percent of the time. I say that social class shapes everything from our self-esteem to our child-rearing to our sense of control over our lives. I say that education is the great American leveler -- but that rich kids get more of it. And that families like the Bushes often send their kids to expensive private schools to ensure their leg up.
This sounds, well, un-American to George Jr., and he rages that it is crap from the '60s. Nobody thinks that way anymore! But his father cuts him off. "No, I want to understand what he's saying." He seems genuinely interested -- and relieved that I don't plan to call him snotty. But the amazing thing is that Bush finds these ideas so novel. He seems baffled that I could see America in this way. People who work the hardest -- even though some have a head start -- will usually get ahead, he says. To see it otherwise is divisive.
I confess: I think a lot of Americans see it otherwise.
This was the summer of 1986. The summer that W turned 40 and had his Road to Damascus conversion from spirits to spiritual while Rocky Mountain High in Colorado. He must have been cranky as hell as he was drying out at his father's house in Maine without benefit of Betty Ford or Hazelden.
What I found so interesting was the interviewer's use of the word "rage" to descibe W's reaction. Not anger. Not irritation. Rage. His father had to smack him down. In the interview, Mr. Harrington goes to great pains to describe how gracious Bush, Sr. is. And, then, to use the word "rage" to describe the son's reaction seems to unfavorably compare a thoughtful father to an ill-behaved adolescent who happens to be 40 years old.
The title of the article is "Born To Run - On The Privilege Of Being George Bush." It is several pages and well worth the read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
There is much written in there about the Bush family dynamics. There is the glowing description of Dorothy Walker Bush, grandmother to W, and a stiff, somewhat unflattering portrait of Prescott Bush, W's grandfather. When this was written in 1986, George, Sr. was planning on his royal ascension to the Presidency of the United States. All was so rosy and glowing. One has to wonder how it felt to be George W. Bush, drying out in the reflected glow of the sun that was his father. Bush, Sr. was born to be president. He was entitled to it and it was coming in 1988.
One has only to look at how far the Bush family has fallen in the regard of the American people since that day in 1986 to understand the tears of George H. W. Bush. The family birthright has been shredded and destroyed by a petulant, spoiled and ungrateful child. There is nothing left for anyone else.
I have no sympathy for any of them. But, I do understand. It must be dreadful for George and Barbara Bush, not to mention, Jeb.