Judging by their post-Bush self-recreation, Trump’s defenders remain poised to follow their audience wherever they may go.
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If you have not heard of Conservapedia, you are not missing much. Originally started by Andrew Schlafly for use in homeschooling, it’s currently a giant satire of Republican partisanship that may or may not be self-aware. Hence why their list of “worst liberal movies,” for example, deems a movie “liberal” if a businessman does something objectionable.
But that’s not what we’re here to talk about. Instead, I want to talk about their page for President George W. Bush. As of right now, it lists him as a member of the “deep state” and a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only). However, that’s not what that page always said. It used to call him “one of the greatest presidents in American history,” and say that he was “successfully able to salvage the Hurricane Katrina rescue effort after it was sabotaged by a Democratic/Islamo-Fascist conspiracy.”
Republican dislike towards George W. Bush is nothing new, currently at least. In 2013, Glenn Beck called George W. Bush a “progressive” due to the War In Iraq, a war he supported while he was on CNN. He even dedicated an entire segment to the “other side of the story,” where he promised us that Iraq is doing great.
Rush Limbaugh is another example. In 2018, he told his radio audience that the deep state tricked President Bush into war with Iraq, hence why they were wrong about Russia. However, he was a vocal supporter of the War in Iraq! Infamously, in 2007, Limbaugh even called soldiers who were against the war “phony soldiers.”
Sometimes, they don’t name Bush, but they still flip-flop on policies. Sean Hannity came out against NSA spying in 2013. However, during the Bush administration, he was one of the biggest advocates of the War On Terror and the NSA surveillance programs.
Many conservatives called civil libertarians who hated the NSA spying, the PATRIOT Act, and the War On Terror “anti-American” and “traitors” under Bush. Ben Shapiro even argued in a column from 2006 for their prosecution under sedition laws.
Imagine if a liberal said that Republicans like John Boehner or Mitch McConnell should be prosecuted under sedition during the Obama administration. When something sort of similar to that (albeit, a much softer version than locking people up for disagreeing with the White House) happened during the IRS targeting scandal, the right nearly lost its mind. The practice, by the way, dates back to Richard Nixon in one way or another. Yet people only heard about it during Obama.
This is what partisanship in the Republican Party looks like. Some have used the term “Bush Amnesia Syndrome” (a play on Charles Krauthammer’s “Bush Derangement Syndrome”) to describe this.
For instance, did you know that Barack Obama started the Great Recession as payback to white people for racism? That’s what Rush Limbaugh stated on his radio show in 2010, despite the fact that the Recession started at the tail end of George W. Bush’s presidency.
Here’s an example regarding another politician. We all know that hardcore Trump supporters cannot stand Senator Mitt Romney, yet, when he was the Republican nominee in 2012, that didn’t stop these same people from voting for him. The late Billy Graham even took Mormons (Latter-day Saints) off his list of cults so followers of his church could support him.
Charlie Kirk, who said at CPAC that you should boo every time you hear Romney’s name, called Romney an “honorable man” in 2012 and “the Nostradamus of our time” in 2014. But back in 2008, many of those booing had called Romney the “true conservative” compared to the “liberal” John McCain. That “liberalism” didn’t stop them from voting for McCain in the general election, however.
Even during the administration, these people could barely manage to stay consistent. In 2005, after invading Iraq because they had WMDs, Bush admitted they had found no WMDs. But don’t worry, because the war was now about bringing Democracy to Iraq. Why Iraq specifically and not any of the other non-Democratic nations? Why are you asking so many questions? Do you hate America?
I’m not going to get into the “disagreement is the highest form of patriotism” argument (as it’s usually incredibly hypocritical), but that’s beside the point. Instead, I’ll ask how mindlessly defending Bush worked out for these commentators.
Well, after Obama became President, all of his administration went down the memory hole. When any mention of him was made in 2016, whether it be Bobby Jindal calling him the best president post-Reagan, Marco Rubio saying he “thanks God” Bush was President on 9/11, or Jeb Bush-quite generally, it was met with backlash from Republicans who had to remember the forbidden one.
Think about this: the man who won the 2016 Republican Primary bashed Bush during the debates. He pointed out that for a President who “kept us safe,” the largest terrorist attack in US history sure did seem to happen under him, blasted his relationship with the Saudis, and said Bush lied about Iraq having WMDs. For this, Louder With Crowder ran the headline “Worried Yet? Donald Trump Sounds More Like Michael Moore Than Hillary.”
A number of Trump defenders blast the GOP for just supporting “whatever the Democrats were pushing for the last decade.” I don’t agree with this (really, the only way I can think of where this is true is some Republicans are now for gay marriage, but it’s still not many). However, there is one group of Republicans this does apply to more than most: the ones who voted for Donald Trump.
This is how I imagine Trump supporters are going to look come next decade. I imagine Senator Josh Hawley talking about how he worked with Donald Trump, and he thanks God Trump was President during the COVID-19 outbreak, and how a new anti-establishment candidate destroyed him. Whether this will be a GOP debate in 2024 or 2032 is the guess of anyone, but it’s going to happen.
The modern Republican Party has not had a serious candidate since George Bush Sr., another man who has gone down the memory hole due to his tax increases. Certain aspects of the Reagan administration, most notably his deficit, support for gun control, and friendliness towards Iran, have gone down the memory hole. But an idolized version of Reagan remains, which is more than can be said about any Republican Presidents since him.
Trump is not going to be different, especially if any of the predictions about November turn out to be true. He is almost certainly going to not be remembered at all by the average Republican and seen at most as a nightmare you only remember the end of. Make room for the new guy, he is running as the true follow up to this mystical man of legend named Ronald Reagan.
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