I'm not especially bothered by Trump not engaging in prayer. Whether he claims to be religious or not. He was silent and not drawing attention to himself - fine, whatever. Even back when I was religious I didn't participate in every outspoken prayer (sometimes I preferred to reflect quietly on my own, or - especially after my father died - I found it too emotional to actually speak the words), or song (because I'm a shit singer, lol).
What bothers me is that people buy his line of shit about being incredibly religious and devout. Because he's clearly not.
And it's FINE if he's not - religion and politics shouldn't mix in the first place, and a non-religious (or non-Christian, too) president is not a threat to this country. I'm tired of politicians having to proclaim how religious they are because otherwise their campaigns would tank. Why aren't these oh-so-devout people angry that their religion is being used and manipulated in this way? It's a slap in the face.
Trump's a con man - a shitty con man, at that - but people are happily buying what he's selling. And the people who know he's full of shit go along with the ruse anyway. And lots of people are now suffering because of it.
Ok. Too bad subtle digs and nuance don’t register with Trump. Maybe he was suddued momentarily but tomorrow and the next day and for the remainder of this nightmare of an administration he will do everything he can tarnish the Presidency, the Bush legacy, and the American legacy. So yay for silent moral victories from the beyond Mr. Bush?
The Trump presidency is like a national cataract. It’s the filmy cloud through which we see pretty much everything now — history and identity, television and literature, family dinners and workplace friendships. Nothing emerges in the culture that isn’t somehow because of Trump or despite him, enabling or opposing.
And so it’s been with the death of George H.W. Bush, who will be laid to rest in his adoptive home of Texas today. Until recently, Bush’s single, not terrible term in office was mostly regarded as an ellipsis between one period of history and another.
But in this moment, of course, Bush’s death became another opportunity for us all to reflect on … Trump.
“In death, Bush becomes a yardstick for President Trump,” the Washington Post decreed in a headline two days after Bush’s passing. That piece, like much of the coverage and commentary leading up to Bush’s state funeral, focused on the former president’s reputation for being “honorable, gracious and decent,” in the words of Bill Clinton.
The famous Bush phrase “kinder and gentler” — which in his own time was mostly wielded as a sarcastic commentary on the cynicism of political rhetoric — became, in death, a dividing line between Bush’s traditional concept of conservatism and Trump’s bilious #meonly movement.
Inevitably, this led to a loud chorus of dissenters on the left, who pointed out that not only was Bush’s presidency plenty harsh in its own ways, but that it was an important crossroad for the party on the march toward Trumpism.
At Vox, the writer Anna North argued that Bush and Trump were almost indistinguishable in their Supreme Court nominations, with Clarence Thomas being the perfect template for Brett Kavanaugh. NBC’s website posted a piece reminding us that Bush championed his party’s “Southern strategy,” which the writer, Noah Berlatsky, called a precursor to Trump’s “gutter racism.”
...
As I’ve written before, and it’s more apparent this week than usual, what’s really missing from Trump’s presidency isn’t an agenda or a strategy, although both are in short supply. It’s basic humanness.
It’s the sense that he can be moved to any emotion that isn’t anger, that he can be rallied to any cause other than himself.
We’ve had a lot of not great presidents, and some who were truly destructive. We’ve had old and young, sanctimonious and perfidious. But I’d argue that it’s hard to pluck any from the last century, at least, who weren’t basically good and didn’t ache to do good for the country.
Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson were both unhealthy men, caged by insecurities and driven by demons. Fine. But there’s ample evidence to assure us that both of them cared deeply about the country and bore their obligations heavily.
I say this with no meanness or ideological brief, but rather with genuine human bafflement: Trump, alone among any presidents I can recall, exhibits no obvious sign of underlying goodness. There’s no heart to his presidency, no mirth or gratitude.
There is the scowl and the scapegoating, and strangely nothing more.
...
When Trump is laid to rest and the military guns salute, will the nation look beyond his politics and celebrate his life, the way we did this week? Or will we look around and ask each other what in God’s name that was all about?
I have to tell you. I kind of love W. I wish that he had never been president and ruined himself for me (and supported that ahole Kavanaugh especially), but he is adorable. I love his friendship with Michelle and his newfound painting hobby. He is rocking out to the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Laura and Jeb are kind of of giving him the I don’t know this guy look. I feel like he should have just been a rich white life of the party guy and not put into the “family business.”
I have to tell you. I kind of love W. I wish that he had never been president and ruined himself for me (and supported that ahole Kavanaugh especially), but he is adorable. I love his friendship with Michelle and his newfound painting hobby. He is rocking out to the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Laura and Jeb are kind of of giving him the I don’t know this guy look. I feel like he should have just been a rich white life of the party guy and not put into the “family business.”
At the H&F get together a couple years ago, I admitted I found him attractive in an old-guy kind of way. I have like 30 memes on my phone that people sent me of W dirty talking to me, specifically. My favorite one is “Thank you wambam, may I have another.”
I have to tell you. I kind of love W. I wish that he had never been president and ruined himself for me (and supported that ahole Kavanaugh especially), but he is adorable. I love his friendship with Michelle and his newfound painting hobby. He is rocking out to the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Laura and Jeb are kind of of giving him the I don’t know this guy look. I feel like he should have just been a rich white life of the party guy and not put into the “family business.”
Any goodwill that I had managed to muster up for W was killed when he released his statement on Kavanaugh. He did not have to get involved in that fight and by doing so proved himself to beyond redemption for me.
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I have to tell you. I kind of love W. I wish that he had never been president and ruined himself for me (and supported that ahole Kavanaugh especially), but he is adorable. I love his friendship with Michelle and his newfound painting hobby. He is rocking out to the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Laura and Jeb are kind of of giving him the I don’t know this guy look. I feel like he should have just been a rich white life of the party guy and not put into the “family business.”
Any goodwill that I had managed to muster up for W was killed when he released his statement on Kavanaugh. He did not have to get involved in that fight and by doing so proved himself to beyond redemption for me.
I understand. It's hard for me to reckon the two "sides" of him. It kills me because I have come to enjoy Jenna Bush on The Today Show and she seems pretty normal and I can't imagine her not giving him the what for over that.