Is Bush 41 a backstabber? The Republican Party has carried his family throughout their entire lives. Now at the age of 92, is this what he has to offer a party that has so elevated he and his sons their entire lives?
However, George H.W. Bush may have just accidentally sabotaged Hillary Clinton's presidential race. Unfortunately for the Republican party Bush 41 wants Clinton to win. Sadly for Clinton, Bush 41 has come out for her. She probably would rather have a group of people with Ebola embracing her than Bush 41. Please don't get mad at me because I agree that George and Barbara are good and decent people. They spent their lives in service to his country. Most people in America are just sick and tired of the Bushes and the Clintons.
When George and Barbara were running for reelection for president I sat at an outside banquet table close to Barbara one night and kept the flag from blowing in her face. She was so kind to look at me and say, "Excuse me, Reverend," every time she said the word damn. Every time she did that I wanted to say, "Grandma, please, don't do that out here in front of all these Christian people, who were sipping on their bourbon whiskey."
Bush 41 naturally supported his son Jeb. This was the right thing to do. How embarrassing to not support your son, right? He didn't help him any. Jeb had $100 million behind him to handedly win the Republican primary and become the next president of the United States. Unfortunately neither all the big money nor the influence of his president brother George W nor his president dad could help him to rise from the bottom. We've actually mostly forgotten this because it's the kind of stuff we really don't care to remember.
Understandably it hurts to lose. Jeb Bush was beaten so bad by Donald Trump that he probably will never get over it nor will his family.
It would be nice to see a unified Republican Party. Unfortunately conservatism seldom unifies 100 percent. There will always be one or two splinter groups in conservatism. They will be a little more conservative than the larger body and they will pull off to the side to do their own thing pulling a small percent with them. This small percent usually finds a way to beat down the larger body over one or two issues. This happened in the nation's largest Protestant denomination back during the eighties and nineties. The Southern Baptist Convention was a great denomination that had thousands of full time career missionaries, a thriving membership and multi-millions of dollars in financial support. A strong conservative thrust successfully took over the convention and then unfortunately they began to fight among themselves. Today, the Southern Baptist Convention barely resembles what it was in the early eighties.
Is Donald Trump worried a whole lot about Bush 41's decision? He wasn't worried much about the Bush family a few months ago so I doubt that he is now. For Bush 41 he will most likely go out of this life being remembered as someone who lived off the Republican Party his entire life with his entire family and then went out of this world knifing the Republicans in the back.
This column is the opinion of Glenn Mollette and does not necessarily represent the opinion of Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA. Glenn is a syndicated columnist and author of 11 books. He is read in all 50 states.
