George H. W. Bush

[[File:George_H._W._Bush,_President_of_the_United_States,_official_portrait.jpg|thumb|165px|Official portrait. It only ''looks'' like a cardboard cutout in front of a backdrop.]]{{uspolitics}}
{{hatnote|Not to be confused with his son, 43rd president [[George W. Bush]], or [[Jeb Bush]], who is also his son.}}
{{cquote|Read my lips: No. New. Taxes.|||George H. W. Bush, forgetting that he needed to undo the damage of [[Reagan]]<ref>Literally a Wikipedia article on the quote [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_my_lips:_no_new_taxes here]. Have fun!</ref>}}
{{cquote|Poor George. He can't help it - he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.|||Ann Richards<ref name=nasty>''The nastiest things ever said about Republicans'' by Martin Higgins</ref>{{rp|57}}}}
'''George Herbert Walker "[[Birth control|Rubbers]]"<ref>[https://theworld.org/stories/2018-12-05/he-was-president-hw-bush-championed-family-planning Before he was president, H.W. Bush championed family planning] by Allison Herrera (December 5, 2018 · 4:45 PM EST) ''The World''.</ref> Bush''' senior (Known for clarity's sake as '''Bush 41''') {{lived|12 June 1924|30 November 2018}} was the 41st [[POTUS|President]] of the [[United States]].  He [[Gulf War|saved Kuwait]] in a quick and splendid war, although he admitted to lacking in the "vision" department.

Prior to his presidency, he was [[Ronald Reagan]]'s 
[[Peter the Apostle|Saint Peter]]
 [[vice-president]] for eight years, ran the [[CIA]], and unlike his [[George W. Bush|eldest son]], was an actual pilot who was shot down by the Japanese and just barely escaped having his liver eaten. He later got them back by vomiting right in the Japanese Prime Minister's lap during a state visit. Despite being VP to a literal actor, and fathering one of the worst presidents ever, Bush was the last of the reasonable [[Republican]] presidents. He did some very good things for the United States and had an ungodly amount of foresight regarding [[Saddam Hussein]].

Bush died on November 30, 2018, at the age of 94.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/us/george-h-w-bush-41st-president-of-the-united-states-dead-at-94 George H.W. Bush, 41st president of the United States, dead at 94]. ''Fox News''. November 30, 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2018.</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/30/george-hw-bush-dies-94/ George H.W. Bush, the 41st president, dead at 94]. ''The Washington Times''. December 1, 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2018.</ref><ref>Seib, Gerald F. (December 1, 2018). [https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-h-w-bush-americas-41st-president-and-father-of-43rd-dies-1543641078 George H.W. Bush, America’s 41st President and Father of 43rd, Dies]. ''The Wall Street Journal''. Retrieved December 1, 2018.</ref><ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46410225</ref> He is sorely missed, considering his rationalism was confirmed with a stern denouncement of the new Republican party direction and [[Donald Trump]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41871958 George Bush Sr calls Trump a 'blowhard' and voted for Clinton.] ''BBC''</ref>

He also hated broccoli.<ref>[https://www.cbc.ca/archives/the-u-s-president-who-hated-the-vegetable-of-the-80s-1.5491028 The U.S. president who hated 'the vegetable of the '80s']</ref>

==Great things==
===Rockefeller Republican===
The Bush family have been a thorn in the side of the [[New Right (United States)|New Right]] all the way back to his father in the '60s. Prescott Bush and Nelson Rockefeller were mortal enemies of [[Barry Goldwater|Goldwater]], and Bush 41 was the one who called Reagan's economic proposals "voodoo economics" in the '80 primaries, before he was tapped to be the VP nominee in order to present a unified party front. (Much like Trump making Mike Pence his running mate, to bring the crucial Evangelical bloc into the fold.) He recognized that Reagan's policies were unsustainable and would damage the nation's financial and economic standing, even before Reagan was President.<ref>https://consortiumnews.com/2013/10/17/the-abject-failure-of-reaganomics/</ref> When Vice-President he kept his mouth shut but after he became President, he did the one thing he had to in order to help the US: raise taxes.<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/05/us-usa-kennedy-bush-idUSBREA4308G20140505</ref> This lost him votes with conservatives (Pat Buchanan famously used it in his 1992 Presidential Campaign as an example of Bush's inconsistency<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/15/opinion/the-problem-with-read-my-lips.html The Problem With 'Read My Lips']</ref>) and won him no new votes. Which is unfortunate because it was a huge nail in the bipartisanship coffin and helped create the popularity of the [[Tea Party Movement|anti-tax mentality.]]<ref>Blake, Aaron, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2012/11/27/the-cautionary-tale-of-george-bushs-tax-hike-in-one-chart/ "The cautionary tale of George Bush’s tax hike – in one chart"], [[WaPo]] 11.27.12.</ref>

===Environmentalist(!)===
Probably the ''last'' Republican to give a damn about stewardship of the earth.<ref>Warrick, Joby, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/12/03/reagan-bush-41-memos-reveal-how-republicans-used-to-think-about-climate-change-and-the-environment/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%20Weekly%20Roundup:%20Utility%20Dive%2012-05-2015&utm_term=Utility%20Dive%20Weekender "Reagan, Bush 41 memos reveal sharp contrast with today’s GOP on climate and the environment"], [[WaPo]] (12.3.15).</ref> (Cap and trade was his idea.) Reagan was such a supporter of the environment that he [[Asshole|ripped down the solar panels Carter put on the White House roof.]]

===Transparent Bipartisanship===
During that ridiculous "Lizard vs. Wizard" runoff in '91, where [[David Duke]] (R) and Edwin Edwards (D) ended up getting the most votes in the jungle primary, Bush threw his hands in the air and endorsed Edwards.<ref>Suro, Robertp, [http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/07/us/the-1991-election-louisiana-bush-denounces-duke-as-racist-and-charlatan.html "THE 1991 ELECTION: Louisiana; Bush Denounces Duke As Racist and Charlatan"], ''[[New York Times]] 7 Nov. 1991 page B18.</ref> Thus, unusually for a Republican president, Bush pretty much came out in favor of a Democratic candidate against a Republican. 

===Icon of Stability===
H.W. was big on stability over anything else. His actions during the fall of the Eastern Bloc, particularly his support of Wojciech Jaruzelski (both as dictator and, after the collapse, as President)<ref>"Remarks at the Solidarity Workers Monument in Gdansk," Gdansk, Poland, 11 July 1989, Bush Presidential Library, Documents and Papers, Bush Library.</ref>  are good examples of this.  The Gulf War seems to have been much closer to what liberal internationalism is actually supposed to be. Bush was summoned by Kuwait, had U.N. approval, got together an enormous coalition force and executed a successful plan which addressed the problem (Iraq invading Kuwait) without overstretching resources and doing something he wasn't tasked to do. Also, they had some pretty vigorous debate in Congress and the Senate; it only passed 52-47. Considering that was only 12 years before 2003, seeing people act as if the run-up to the [[Iraq War]] was equivalent is real "piss on my leg" stuff.

===Middle-Eastern Visionary===
The fact that a post-[[Saddam Hussein]] Iraq would lead to [[Iran]]ian hegemony due to the Shi'a majority (after a nasty sectarian conflict that the American public would inevitably get sick of and demand withdrawal from) and mass revenge on the Sunnis, which in return might have triggered a response from the Sunnis, was among the reasons why Bush Senior refused to boot Saddam out of Baghdad−while sinking his own reelection prospects in doing so. So it's not as if no one knew uprooting Saddam was a bad idea.<ref>[https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/169-history/36409.html "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam"], George Bush [Sr.] and Brent Scowcroft, ''Time'' 3.2.98.</ref>

===Disability Rights===
Bush was a strong supporter of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the first American law to restrict discrimination against disabled people, which he would ultimately sign into law in July 1990.<ref>[https://cqpress.sagepub.com/cqresearcher/report/disabilities-act-cqresrre19911227 The Disabilities Act], ''CQ Researcher''</ref> A lot of Republicans had opposed the law because of the usual [[free market]] objections that preventing employers from discriminating would be a burden on businesses, but Bush stuck to his guns and saw it through because his son Neil had struggled with dyslexia and under the law as it existed before the act could have been legally discriminated against for it.

==="George Walker"===
Shortly after his death, it was revealed that Bush discreetly sponsored a young schoolboy from the [[Philippines]] through the charity he was a member of, {{wpl|Compassion International}}. Bush pulled off a Clark Kent move by simply using the assumed name "George Walker" and even dropped subtle hints about his real identity (albeit much to the chagrin of both Compassion and the Secret Service, especially considering America was still reeling from both 9/11 and the subsequent anthrax panic), but the ruse still worked, and it was not until his death in 2018 that the boy, now grown up, found out that a former president aided him.<ref name="walker">{{Cite news |date=2018-12-19 |title=George HW Bush's sponsorship of Filipino child detailed in letters |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46618576 |access-date=2024-11-08 |work=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Poor things==
===Dirty Election Campaign===
He was elected over second place finisher Michael Dukakis in [[1988 U.S. Presidential Election|1988]] by resorting to [[moral panic]]s ("If Kitty Dukakis [[Just Asking Questions|were raped and murdered]]...") and attack ads ("[[Willie Horton]]"), in one of the nastiest one-sided presidential campaigns in recent history. Ironically Bush campaigned on a vague platform of making the U.S. a [[Compassionate conservatism|"kinder, gentler nation."]]  American politics have never really recovered.

===Military Stupidity===
Skipping a beat from his generally good views on this topic. Under Bush I, the US shot down an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 Iranian commercial aircraft] flying over Iranian airspace, killing 290 civilians, 66 of them children. Two years later, the commanders responsible were given the Legion of Merit for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service”.

===Ethical Violations===
[[Manuel Noriega]], the unelected military strongman of Panama, was ousted by Bush after it became public knowledge that Noriega made [[drug]] deals with the US as part of the [[Iran-Contra|funding given to the Contras]]. Bush, as Director of the CIA, blocked investigations into 
Reagan's
 Noriega's shadiness. Bush forced him to stand trial, but not for murder, and instead for drug trafficking, money laundering, and (we aren't kidding) racketeering. As we just hinted, [[Hypocrisy|Noriega had been paid by the CIA to do the things he was accused and convicted of]]. Eventually, Noriega ''was tried for murder'' and convicted... by [[France]]. 

Bush also appears to have used the [[Nayirah testimony]] to deceive the world into believing that Iraqi troops in Kuwait were looting hospitals and killing babies in order to bolster support for the Gulf War.<ref>[https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/5/how_false_testimony_and_a_massive How False Testimony and a Massive U.S. Propaganda Machine Bolstered George H.W. Bush’s War on Iraq], ''Democracy Now''</ref>

===Sigh Moments===
Bush managed to respond to the winding down of the [[Cold War]] by getting the U.S. deeply embroiled in the [[Middle East]] quagmire from which the country has yet to get out over three decades later, angered his own conservative base by going back on his "no new taxes" pledge, and lasted only one term.  Angry middle-class Republican base voters more worried about their jobs going overseas while the Republican Party wanted to play [[culture war]]s flocked to [[Ross Perot]] in 1992 while [[Bill Clinton]] ran a very different campaign from Dukakis to win in 1992.

===Memoir===
Shortly after 
[[Plagiarism|Bob Woodward's]]
 George Jr.'s ''Decision Points'' came out, George Sr. put out a memoir entitled ''41''. By all indications, it fundamentally denies the truth about the man and his life; however it does shed some light on his son's presidency. According to H.W., [[Dick Cheney|Cheney]] and [[Donald Rumsfeld|Rumsfeld]] never had the respect for 43 that they had for 41. They just saw Dubya as a spoiled kid with a silver spoon and figured they could walk all over him, and they were right about that. This would be scathing if only he had expressed his opinion while those people had influence. Maybe [[Jeb Bush|Bush 45]] 
will do
 would have done better!<ref>Moyer, Justim Wm., [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/05/george-h-w-bush-slams-iron-ass-cheney-arrogant-rumsfeld-in-new-biography-also-faults-bush-41/ "George H.W. Bush slams ‘iron-ass’ Cheney, ‘arrogant’ Rumsfeld in new biography. Also faults Bush 43."], [[WaPo]] 11 May 2015.</ref> (Bush 41, Bush 43. Makes it sound like they're from a production line.)

===Supreme Court appointment===
Appointed [[Clarence Thomas]] to the Supreme Court, adding a reliable 
wingnut
 conservative vote for the next three decades, at least. On the bright side, he also added the famously moderate-to-liberal David Souter to the court.<ref>[https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/us/david-souter-fast-facts/index.html David Souter Fast Facts]</ref>

===VP===
Chose [[Dan Quayle]]. Something to cry about. 
[[Dick Cheney|At least it couldn't get worse...]]


===[[Dubya]]===
On a similar note, he managed to raise a son who would become one of the poorest Presidents in US history. Guess not ''everything'' runs in the family.

===War on ''The Simpsons''===
One of the sillier things he did while in office was speak out against ''[[The Simpsons]]'', saying families should be "more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons” during the 1992 Republican National Convention.<ref>[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/01/george-hw-bush-quotations.html ‘Kinder, gentler’ and other George HW Bush quotes]</ref> ''The Simpsons'' responded, first by having Bart say “Hey, we’re like the Waltons. We’re praying for an end to the depression, too,” then by dedicating the episode "Two Bad Neighbors” to mocking Bush.<ref>[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/simpsons-showrunner-returns-jab-at-george-h-w-bush-25-years-1052577/ ‘Simpsons’ Showrunner Returns Jab From George H.W. Bush 25 Years Later]</ref>

A few years before, Barbara Bush had commented that she thought the show was “the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” leading to a letter from Marge Simpson herself responding to the criticism and an apology letter in return from the first lady.<ref>[https://ew.com/tv/2018/04/18/the-simpsons-barbara-bush-apology-letter-to-marge/ Read the apology letter Barbara Bush once wrote to Marge Simpson]</ref>  Of course, before giving Barb's barbs (har) too much credence, we should recall she's also the one who later said of people sleeping on cots in the Astrodome after Hurricane Katrina: "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them."<ref>https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/barbara-bush-astrodome-quote/</ref>

==Other things==
===Things that happened during his administration===
The [[Satanic panic]] peaked just around the time he was elected. The Cold War officially ended on his watch, and aside from his "[[Ukraine|Chicken Kiev]]" speech the [[USSR]] thankfully fell apart with all the [[nuke]]s in their place.  In 1991-1992, a economic [[recession]] occurred due to a spike in [[oil]] prices post-[[Gulf War]], and the bursting of the Reagan-era housing bubble from the '80s, leading to three million people being unemployed. This gave [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] an electoral advantage, even though as you know by now, that was mostly Reagan's doing, not Bush's.

During his time in government, the checkout scanner/UPC bar code system was widely implemented, but no one told him in an elaborate practical joke to make him look clueless while running for re-election in [[1992 U.S. Presidential Election|1992]] against an upstart hillbilly who went on to win, using the slogan "It's ... stupid!"

===Water baron===
Perhaps thirsty from all these [[Supply side economics|money-as-water metaphors]], the Bush family purchased 100,000 acres in the Paraguayan Chaco, giving them access to the Guarani aquifer, one of the largest fresh water reserves in the world.<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/oct/23/mainsection.tomphillips</ref>

===Bad company===
Before his promotion to Bush 41, Poppy was involved in a laundry list of crimes that permanently blackened the Agency's reputation. As CIA honcho under [[Gerald Ford|Ford]], he was put in charge of "Crisis Management", ''e.g.'' mopping up after the Agency's involvement in coups d'etat and assassinations, including the 'first' September 11 — the 1973 murder of [[Salvador Allende]] which plunged Chile into a [[Augusto Pinochet|17-year fascist dictatorship]]<ref>Jim Mann, [http://articles.latimes.com/1988-09-30/news/mn-3224_1_cia-officials "As CIA Director, Bush Sought to Restrict Probe of Agency Officials by Justice Dept."], ''LA Times''.</ref><ref>See {{wpl|Operation Condor}}</ref> — and the [[Iran Contra]] affair. Over the next decade Langley spent over $3 billion establishing the [[Taliban]], the Mujahadeen, and [[Osama bin Laden]] as CIA assets<ref>Andre Marshall, [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/terror-blowback-burns-cia-1182087.html "Terror 'blowback' burns CIA"], ''The Independent.''</ref><ref>David Johnston, [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1224.html "Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Aborting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails 'Cover-Up'"], ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> (heckofajob, Bush!).  He may also be responsible for rigging the 1980 US Presidential election in an operation called the "October Surprise", though nothing was really proven.

===Bad religion===
Bush was twice a special guest at Sun Myung Moon's [[Unification Church]] events.<ref>[https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/04/bush-sr-celebrate-rev-sun-myung-moon-again/ Bush Sr. To Celebrate Rev. Sun Myung Moon – Again: Ex-president’s keynote speech at Washington Times bash this month is latest link between Bush and Unification Church founder.] by  James Ridgeway (Apr. 29, 2007 7:00 AM) ''Mother Jones''.</ref>

===Nicknames===
*"41" (around the compound at holidays, to distinguish him from "[[George W. Bush|43]]")
*"Mad Dog", a nickname given to him by John Judge.{{citation needed}} That no one bothered to use because it sounds too Australian.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Dog_Morgan</ref>

===Alma maters===
*Phillips Andover Academy
*Yale University ([[Skull and Bones]] [[Sodomy]] Society)

==See also==
*[[Dan Quayle]]

==External links==
*[http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/bushnra.asp Bush I's resignation] from the [[NRA]], once again proving the [[stopped clock]] theorem
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-K19rVDxoM& George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War], Crash Course

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{POTUS}}

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