I thought that telling the First Felon that he wasn’t welcome at Barbara Bush’s funeral was one of the best put-downs of all time.
What do you know? Barbara Bush wasn’t done with Fearless Leader.
How did she think things were going in the USA in the Age of Trump?
“I’m trying not to think about it,” she said in an interview as the first anniversary of Trump’s election approached. “We’re a strong country, and I think it will all work out.” Even so, she was dismayed by the nation’s divisions and by the direction of the party she had worked for, and for so long.
Did she still consider herself a Republican?
In an interview with me in October 2017, she answered that question yes. When I asked her again four months later, in February 2018, she said, “I’d probably say no today.”
And …
“Putin endorsed him, for heaven’s sake,” Barbara Bush erupted. “Putin the killer! Putin the worst! He endorsed Trump! That’s an endorsement you don’t want.”
Do contemporary Republicans know that they are the party that created the National Park System, built the Interstate Highway System, created OSHA, created the EPA, opened our relationship with China, assured medical treatment for all in hospital emergency rooms, ended the Cold War?
Today’s Republicans are not — NOT — conservatives, not forward-looking pragmatists resolved upon conserving what is best while preparing for the future; they are nihilist vandals, and it speaks well of Barbara Bush that she couldn’t stomach the thuggish vulgarian who is their leader.