Mourning Not Just George Bush’s Death, but the World Order He Helped Build

Bush was a classic Republican--focused on foreign policy,economic issues, defense of capitalism and a quiet patriotism. But like all Republicans from Eisenhower to all the other Bushes he accepted PC--he did not challenge the left's control of the culture through their instrumentalities: the media, academia, Hollywood,the rock music industry and so on. Thus he was harmless to these controllers and could be given a respectful farewell(patriot, family man, war hero). Trump is firmly opposed to PC in all its forms. Hence the hysteria of the Left at the thought that ordinary Americans are wresting control of the culture away from them.

What 41's memorial showed me is that our country should be led better than it currently is.

Trump is an extremist disrupter, not a "great disruptor." O, I know: great = notable, dramatic. But it's not a quibble. Bush was a great leader. Depressingly notable is Trumpism's broad stroke diminishment of multilateralism in world affairs—which has its analogue in consensus building in face-to-face leadership, with which Trump is completely inept. It's tiresome to re-list all that's harmful about Trump's occupation of the presidency, but it's remarkable how much harm an elected official can do, simply because his incompetence doesn't fit into "high crimes and misdemeanors" at the domestic level. And there's the rub: The Constitution gives citizens no protection from malfeasance of office in international affairs. Real leadership by other nations must hold together the world order that began with the U.N. and which might have continued with the Trans-Pacific Partnership; and which must continue with the Paris Climate Agreement. It's too easy to feel that global leadership is a part-time, casual aspect of sustainability and peace and avoidance of recession. Citizens are too busy just surviving to ensure leadership at the abstract level of multinational relations. I'm reminded of philosopher Heidegger's cynical lament in the late 1960s, revealed after his death (the Spiegel interview): "Only a god can save us."

While watching the funeral of George H. W. Bush one cannot but look back to the times when words like honor and sacrifice were commonplace and not so rare as they have become today. It is interesting that plain old civility is now almost awe inspiring. The Bushes' have served as a reminder of how to do things right. The impact is jarring considering the current state of affairs. One has hope that in a few short years the United States will return to its place in the sun and the current administration will be but a bitter memory.

Great presidents make great moral decisions. We miss President Bush 41 for the same reason we miss President Obama and it has little to do with politics. They all make mistakes but we miss knowing that the nation was led by a person that listened to the "better angels of their nature."

Ironically, Bush's use of the phrase "new world order" energized the populist conspiracy theories that were eventually peddled by the likes of Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Trump, and, lately, Russian troll factories. It took much longer to reach fruition, but talk of a "new world order" was as damaging to Bush's attempt to shape politics as the "basket of deplorables" quip was to Hillary Clinton's vision for her own world leadership. Both turns of phrases catalyzed backlashes that shall powerfully impact politics for more than one generation.

Yes, I sure do miss the "duck and cover" drills we had when I was in elementary school. Trump's only accomplishment is making lousy presidents look good in comparison. By no measure was either Bush a competent president.

I would like to hope that this emotional reminder and call to bipartisanship and civility will change our behavior in the next two yrs while Trump is president. Except I don't believe it will. Bickery, lying, attacking will continue....if you don't believe me, just watch the old, leftover Republicans in Wisconsin manipulate and deceive its Democratic citizens and new Governor and AG. I'm more than sick of this arrogance and self righteousness!

We are sad today for two reasons. The President we bury and the president we have.

After two years of Trump, we all yearn for normalcy, decency, compromise, and may I dare say... a little bit of boring... With GHWB's passing this yearning has come to the forefront. We are all tired of the current state of politics, and as such, we look back to the past, when things were slower, and more measured.

George HW Bush was not a great president. Like most, he had his strengths and weaknesses, his good decisions and his bad ones, but like most, he sincerely tried to do what he thought was best for the country. In the end, historians will rank him somewhere in the middle of the pack, alongside other respected, well-meaning, but flawed public servants like Grant and Monroe. It is not surprising that we, his contemporaries, are more forgiving and affectionate in our obituaries and farewells. What is striking is how even the most measured praise of our 41st president seems to contain a rebuke of our 45th. As Americans, there were certain things we felt we could expect from any president. It seemed a given that our leaders would at least try to be truthful, uphold their oath office, respect the constitution, behave with a certain dignity, and try to do what's best for all Americans. None of us are so naive as to think they always succeeded, but I think it's undeniable that those expectations were a fundamental part of the presidency. No more. The 45th president has shown that one can lie, repeatedly and compulsively, flagrantly violate the Emoluments Clause, disparage private citizens and discredit the voting process, support brutal dictators and shun loyal allies, and on and on. The question is: can we ever reinstate those values that we took for granted in leaders his George HW Bush?

Why always the fantasy of the past? The Cold War was a dangerous and costly time for all western democracies

Since when do we, in the US, get to look back with nostalgia on anything ghwb did, he invaded Panama, started the destruction of Iraq, pardoned Iran contra criminals, helped instantiate Guantanamo as an off shore illegal site. Willie Horton! Yes, a decent guy, as is Obama, both with some modest successes, so what? Ghwb continued the US blood thirsty tradition of violence and resource capture, avoided anything to do with climate change and sat on his hands while AIDS ravished the country.

It is horrible of me to ask this, but at the risk of being horrible: Who will want to attend a funeral for Donald J. Trump, let alone eulogize him?

Of course GHWB had his faults. But in comparison to the train wreck that occupies the white house now, he was Abe Lincoln. How we long for the days when a man of integrity real experience, personal sacrifice, and ability to learn was considered the right stuff. He enacted some truly great policies such stopping the invasion of Iraq, raising taxes when required to, using tact instead of bluster as the Soviet Union fell. Hey- maybe he studied and learned from history, as in The Treaty of Versailles led to WW2, instead of "going with his gut feeling".

George W Bush just gave a moving eulogy for his father. I wonder if Donald Trump has any Scrooge - like moments as he sits nearby. Would his funeral resemble George Sr.'s? Like Ebeneezer, he has an opportunity to change. Will he?

Mr. Bush simply sat by while Cheney, Rumsfeld, the Koch brothers, Dictator Grove Norquist et al implemented their plan to destroy democracy with the installation of Reagan in OUR white house. Apparently the "young republicans", as they were then, decided it was their privilege to take over OUR United States of America to serve them - the supposed "masters of the universe". They wanted to turn America into a Robber Baron paradise with no pesky regulations to get in their way. WE THE PEOPLE did not realize they were trying to dismantle every single social good we have enjoyed since Teddy/FDR/Elanor Roosevelt put them in place to protect 99.9% of us and OUR planet. Fortunately, WE caught on as soon as The Con Don was installed in OUR white house to try to finish the job. The Koch brothers' daddy made the money they inherited from Stalin's brutal regime during WWII and for 40+ years they have used it to systematically undermine democracy in America. WE THE PEOPLE - average democracy-loving people across America and around the world are the only ones who can/will stop them and NOW is the time. May those who would destroy OUR lives with their insatiable greed rot in hell.

World history seems to have passed Trump entirely by while he was spending daddy’s money on real estate and women. He literally knows nothing about the job the electoral college chose him for. Is it any wonder he’s making such a hash of it? Add to that the racketeering efforts on behalf of Putin and we have the most serious threat to national and world security since the end of WWII.

I suppose we have to. Honor, civility, sacrifice, public service. HW and Barbara were intensely competitive elitists, willing to gain power via Willie Horton disgusting tactics. Thanks to dumbo Perot we only had to endure his reign for 4 years, during which he failed to take advantage of the opening to make us safer from nukes. His motto could have been pity the disabled and neglect the poor, the new Republican standard.

Yup, he got his 'world order' and more. We got Reaganism, which we will never recover from. Reagan's ( & Bush's) reign was the beginning of the end of Democracy and our country as we knew it.

George HW Bush helped build the World order and his son wrecked it. We are still spending trillions on wars that should have ended.

Yes, but let's not forget Jimmy Carter is still alive and well.... and working!

George H.W. Bush, was a kind man, loving husband and father. I find it a disgrace to our civility that some people must find fault with a president even in his death. There is a time to stop the criticism and extend ....grace! I'm a Democrat, by the way. Let's be civil America!

Bush was a Fabian socialist. Recreating a new world order ruled by overpaid and out of touch bureaucrats is exactly what les gilets jaunes are demonstrating against now in France.

George H W Bush gets high marks for his foreign policy skills....(except for his last minute Iran-Contra pardons that were a disgrace to American justice and transparency). Unfortunately on the domestic front, George Sr, bore two sons - Jeb and Bush - who collectively rejected American democracy and were thrilled to turn America into a third-world Republican dictatorship which led us to his son's destruction of the Middle East and the United States economy. This sequence of events also led directly to the the 2018 Republican coup d'etat and to our current Moron-In-Chief, who disgracefully referred to the that historic 1991 Bush-Kohl Oval Office meeting that Angela Merkel attended as "your little meeting with him. I found it very interesting.” If only the Bush family cared about democracy in America as much as they did outside America, the United States might be a decent country with a representative government in 2018 instead of being stuck in a Grand old Putsch with a clueless Grifter-In-Chief leading the nation into the toilet.

"With Mr. Bush’s death, a generation of Cold War leaders has passed from the stage. " Not true, former president Jimmy Carter is still alive.

President Bush understood that if you took care of the other nations that it would make a more peaceful and better world. Kind of like a marriage where each one treat's the other better then they might treat themselves and why his marriage lasted so long. Which is why Trump will never understand it and he will be divorced at least one more time.

There is now, disorder: fake news, fake leaders, fake democracy! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But I believe that under the stability we once felt, there was disorder and indifference, as well. Trump, with all his crazy Tweets, is waking people up. Now, people are getting involved. (Think of the wildfires in CA. This tragedy is waking people up to the real threat of Climate Change. It is sounding the alarm.) So, while Pres. HW Bush calmly helped to bring peace, we were being lulled to sleep. Now, we are waking UP to challenges! ============================================

Get a hold of yourself, NYTimes. Bush's international order stands on the bedrock of American strength. Somewhere between Wilson and Trump we've forgotten that fact. Strengthening America preserves that order. Glad that you agree uncontrolled immigration is a problem, though.

I know this is sacrilege; but wasn't it Mikhail Gorbachev who de-constructed the Soviet Union and tried to introduce democracy and free speech to Russia. 'The Man Who Changed the World' Book Title.

Yeah. So much nostalgia for the Cold War. The Cuban Missile Crisis was my favorite part. Why can't we have good times like that these days?

Yes, and we're also mourning the world order that George W. Bush destroyed.