Posted on 12/05/2018 5:26:33 PM PST by Kaslin
There are a few movie scenes guaranteed to put a lump in my throat every time. Near the top of the list is the end of "Saving Private Ryan," Steven Spielberg's World War II masterpiece.
Earlier, in a climactic battle scene, a dying Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) tells Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon) to "earn this, earn it." Translation: Live a life worthy of the sacrifice so many made for you.
In the final scene, decades later, an elderly Ryan visits Miller's grave in Normandy, France, and tells the headstone that he's remembered Miller's plea every day since. "I hope that at least in your eyes, I've earned what all of you have done for me." He then turns to his wife and beseeches her, "Tell me I'm a good man."
The scene keeps coming to mind since the news of George H.W. Bush's death at the age of 94.
Bush, who enlisted right after high school, was at one time the youngest Navy pilot in World War II. He was shot down, losing comrades in the process.
He didn't like to talk about the experience. Even when it would have helped him politically, as when he was running against an Arkansas governor who assiduously avoided the draft, or when elite journalists described him as a "wimp." Bush told his speechwriters to leave out the details of his own war stories, partly because he didn't want to seem boastful, but mostly because he didn't want to cry.
Bush was surely a good man before he enlisted, but he spent the rest of his life as if he were trying to earn the sacrifice others made.
The author David Brooks has written a lot about the differences between "resume virtues" and "eulogy virtues." The former is what you put on your professional bio, LinkedIn page or CV; the latter is what you hope people who knew you will say about you when you're gone.
For understandable reasons, much of the coverage of the former president has focused on his resume: pilot, Yalie, oilman, congressman, ambassador to the United Nations and China, head of the CIA, vice president and president.
But if you listened to those who knew him best, they tended to eulogize him. Former aides described him as the best person they knew, a man who made everyone around him want to be better by following his example.
American presidents tend to fit two molds: transformative leaders and transitional ones.
Transformative presidents seek to radically alter the status quo, either out of political necessity or psychological ambition. They prefer to keep the outbox on their desk full.
Transitional presidents see themselves as stewards of stability. They greet the challenges that pile up in their inbox as they materialize, rather than looking for systemic reforms.
Ronald Reagan was a transformative president. Ideologically he was much more conservative than Bush.
But temperamentally, Bush was more conservative. Much like George Washington and Calvin Coolidge, Bush viewed the presidency primarily as an august managerial position in a system where leaders inspire by example, not by rhetoric.
"No president, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are," Bush declared in his inaugural address. His job was to encourage Americans to be their best selves in service to each other, and to lead by example.
This is why Bush was so well-suited to being Reagan's successor. If the Gipper was the battering ram, Bush was the clean-up operation. He fixed the savings and loan crisis, signed the Clean Air Act, cleared Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and put a bow on the dangerously messy aftermath of the Cold War.
On election night 1988, he was at a party in Houston, watching the returns. As Fox News' Brit Hume recounts, when the news arrived that Bush won, having recovered from a 17-point deficit, Bush's motorcade was waiting outside to take him to a victory celebration. The first thing Bush did? Help clean the dishes.
Bush lost his re-election bid for many reasons. But the most important factor was that the American people, liberated from the Cold War, had a hunger for transformation. Bill Clinton vowed sweeping change, even though he fell back into transitional mode when it suited his interests.
Our hunger for transformative presidents, for "outsiders" to save America, has only intensified. The sad irony is that if salvation is what we need, it will come only when Americans themselves take to heart the example of this good man.
Laconic, I voted for Perot and have never regretted it. I proudly say I never voted for GHW Bush.
Trumpnado, Perot pointed that out that Bush gave Saddam the green light then couldn’t believe “He took the whole thing”.
“neither got the Pharaoh is dead and heading for his pyramid treatment that these two one-term mediocrities received”
Quick funerals of the past for former Presidents are long gone -but at least his funeral plans are a lot more reasonable than the long goodbye John McCain planned for himself. We can probably thank him for bringing some sanity back to what people should expect. And thank him for bringing some civility back by not excluding Trump.
For patrician Republicans, but never Ds.
Barf.
No need to be dismissive about the tinfoil, my FRiend.
Tinfoil has kept the NSA mind-scanners from reading the
RFID chip in my brain for many years. ~8-O
I will say only good about US Navy LT George HW Bush. His devotion to country and to duty are examples worthy of admiration and emulation.
That is all.
You are right...Ronald Reagan set up the play....all Geo. Bush had to do was carry on with the best economy in the world and keep the only promise he made and he could not do it. Geo Bush was the ultimate swamp creature.
George H.W. Bush Was a Steward of Stability
______________________________________________________
...and the country loved him so much they gave him a 2nd term. Oh, wait a minute! They didn’t.
Such stability
Though the media is lousy at reporting current news, they are quite good at rewriting history!
Am I the only one who remembers the Trump debate when Bush Senior made the cut sign across his neck? Wonder what he meant by that?
https://money.cnn.com/2006/12/28/markets/ford_nyse/index.htm?postversion=2006122915
Markets to mark day of mourning for Ford
NYSE, Nasdaq, commodity trading floors to be closed to honor the 38th president.
December 29 2006: 3:49 PM EST
_____________________________
Pensacola News Journal (Pensacola, Florida)
26 Apr 1994, Tue
Page 28
(AP) Stock Markets to Close Wednesday for Nixon
https://www.newspapers.com/image/267825349
______________________________________
The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)
25 Jan 1973, Thu
Page 1
STOCK MARKET CLOSED
EX-PRESIDENT JOHNSON’S FUNERAL
https://www.newspapers.com/image/435420669
____________________________________
The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)
28 Dec 1972, Thu
Page 1
Stock Market Closed
(Truman Day of Mourning)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/435525109
___________________________________
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
29 Mar 1969, Sat
Page 1
Stock Markets Close to Honor Ike Monday
New York March 28 (AP)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/88181203
It figures that Jonah Goldberg would praise Bush and eulogize him. Bush was a gun-grabbing, CIA-controlled globalist. I sure didn’t vote for him.
His bumbling allowed Clinton to get elected. Nothing stable in that. If Hillary were not such an incompetent b*tch we’d likely have socialized medicine by now.
It was during the Nashua debate. It meant cut the mic. Reagan’s response was epic
Nashua? Reagan. I am talking about a Trump Debate where Poppy was in a wheel chair and he made cut sign across his neck when Trump was speaking...
Nashua? Reagan? I am talking about a Trump Debate where Poppy was in a wheel chair and he made cut sign across his neck when Trump was speaking...
Don’t recall that at all
I went to and watched as many debates as I could...Cannot remember which one...May have been one in the Carolinas...not sure...But Poppy did that.
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