When This Is Over The GOP Will Pretend That The Trump Presidency Never Happened
Many people forget that there was once a cult of personality surrounding George W. Bush for several years after 9/11. The GOP portrayed him as some kind of heroic war leader who was the only person who could keep America safe from the terrorists. Most Republicans were wild about him when he was popular. In 2004, 93% of Republicans voted for Bush.
During his hey day, Bush was hailed as the new Reagan by influential voices in the GOP. Senior Reagan economic adviser Martin Anderson said: “On taxes, on education, it was the same. On Social Security, Bush’s position was exactly what Reagan always wanted and talked about in the 1970s. I just can’t think of any major policy issue on which Bush was different.”
Michael Deaver, one of Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s closest friends and most influential advisers, heaped praise on Bush: “I think he’s the most Reagan like politician we have seen, certainly in the White House.” Deaver even went so far as to describe the Bush Administration as the “third term of the Reagan presidency.”
After the economy collapsed and Bush’s presidency imploded in 2008, the GOP quickly forgot about Bush and quit mentioning him. Unlike other former presidents like Carter, Reagan and Clinton, Bush hasn’t been invited to speak at that party’s national convention.
One is hard pressed today to find anybody who will admit that they once enthusiastically supported Bush. You might get a grudging admission that they once supported Bush as some kind of lesser of two evils.
During the Obama Administration, the GOP and the “liberal” mainstream media cried foul whenever Obama or any Democrat correctly pointed out the mess that Bush left behind to Obama. In 2009, the economy was losing 800,000 jobs per month. Unfortunately, Democrats were intimidated by this successful effort to send Bush down the memory hole and Bush’s presidency was quickly forgotten by most Americans.
Currently, there is a cult of personality surrounding Trump. Most Republicans regard Trump as some kind of heroic wartime — and even Christian — president. (You can’t make this stuff up.) Trump and his allies are of the belief that Trump shouldn’t be criticized because we’re in the middle of a crisis. Republicans took a similar attitude regarding Bush after 9/11 and during the Iraq War.
However, support for Trump is beginning to erode from his recent 3 point bump in his approval ratings. Trump’s approval rating in the GOP friendly Rasmussen poll is down to 44%. A new Navigator poll indicates that already 40% of Trump voters say he didn’t take corona virus seriously enough early on, up 17 points since early last week.
Trump has badly botched perhaps the worst crisis in modern American history. Currently, a dangerous pandemic is raging throughout the country and we are on the verge of going into an economic depression. It is no coincidence that this is the second consecutive Republican administration to lead the United States into disaster. This is the direct result of the GOP’s bankrupt governing philosophy that rejects science, expertise and government itself. The Republicans like to tell us that government doesn’t work and then they wreck government in order to prove it.
There will come a day where you won’t be able to find any Republicans who will admit that they once were fired up about Trump. We can’t let the voters forget about a second consecutive failed GOP presidency. GOP propaganda relies upon amnesia and bad memories. We can’t count on the mainstream media to remind people about Trump’s failures. As Democrats, we have the duty to refresh memories.
Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum said it best: “When this is all over, nobody will admit to ever having supported it.” We can’t let the GOP away with it again!