So I was going through a bunch of old stuff in a file cabinet today, and I ran across the 12/25/00-1/1/01 issue of Time magazine, with a picture of Person of the Year George W. Bush smiling at me from the cover, just after the nightmare election of 2000 had resulted in his being anointed President-elect. I glanced through it, trying to decide whether to toss it or keep it as a memento of the end of that hopefully once-in-a-lifetime event.
As I was looking through the magazine, I saw a column by the late great Molly Ivins, entitled “Yes, We’ll Survive,” and it got me to musing. I thought I’d share a bit of it here, for a couple of reasons. One, just because it’s Molly Ivins, and it was interesting to read what she had to say about W after having experienced him as Governor for a couple of terms, before he became part of the Cheney Administration.
Second, because as I was reading the relatively innocuous things she wrote about someone she really did not want in that office, I was struck by how different is the situation in which we find ourselves today. I really wish we had a President right now of whom it would have been possible for Molly Ivins to write the things she wrote about President-Elect George W. Bush.
For those who need a bit of context before we start, the tagline under the title of the article is
One of Bush’s sassiest Texas critics gives two cheers for her old nemesis.
So it’s not like there was a lot of love lost between Molly and Dubya. That being the case, I was surprised at the restraint, even mildness, that characterized her remarks. She began:
My fellow Democrats: Do not flee to Canada yet! George W. Bush is not stupid, and he is not mean.
Bush 2, Trump 0. She then elaborated:
O.K., he’s not the brightest porch light on the block, [but he’s] sort of adequate. Not so deep as a well, not so wide as a church door, but he’ll do. . . .
It is true that Bush has difficulty expressing himself in the English language. On the other hand, you can usually tell what he meant to say. His daddy was often perfectly impenetrable, and we survived it.
I guess I can usually tell what T**** is trying to say, so that part matches up. But that previous paragraph, not so much.
Ivins went on to explain that W had a habit of adopting good mentors in every field, and then learning from them. (That part almost made me cry. Imagine having a President who makes a point of learning things he doesn’t know. From people who know more than he does.) She also described the fierce legislature-wrangling he had engaged in as Governor in a losing battle to enact a fairer tax plan that would have benefited Texas schools.
There’s more. It’s worth reading, if only for the nostalgia of remembering a better time in America.