If you’re old enough to remember the George W. Bush administration, then you’re old enough to remember that this whole media war on Trump? Yeah, we’ve been through this before. While the 24/7 news cycle (and Trump’s affinity for punching back) has unleashed the very worst in liberal bias and punditry, it is fundamentally nothing new. For eight long years, the media hammered George W. Bush using many of the same epithets they now use with Trump. They painted him as an idiot. A war criminal. A Nazi. A Christian zealot. A child led around by the “smart guys in the room.”
Through it all, Bush remained above the fray. He didn’t punch back. He didn’t call out the networks and the newspapers for their ferocious, nonstop attacks on his character and his presidency. He simply put his head down, did his job, and counted on the wisdom of his decisions to see him through to the next day. And did this dignified approach to the presidency help him? No, the media piled on even harder, with some going as far as to call for his imprisonment after he left office. If you asked any liberal in 2008 who the worst president in U.S. history was, there is no doubt at all who they would pick.
Much like today, eh?
But apparently, the current monster is always worse than the old monster, and that was on display in extraordinary fashion this week when the liberal media discovered a newfound love for George W. Bush. And all Bush had to do to receive the love? Why, give a speech that obliquely criticized President Trump and the movement his presidency and candidacy has created.
On CNN, Chris Cillizza could barely keep his pants on. “George W. Bush just laid a major smackdown on Trumpism,” he cried.
In the pages of the New York Times, the journalists could barely keep their objectivity hat on.
“Former President George W. Bush never mentioned his name but delivered what sounded like a sustained rebuke to President Trump on Thursday, decrying nationalism, protectionism and the coarsening of public debate while calling for a robust response to Russian interference in American democracy,” the Times reported.
Of course, Bush is not the first Republican to win sudden respect from the left. You’d be shocked if you went back to 2008 and read how they talked about John McCain, considering how heroic the senator has become in liberal circles this year. And we won’t even get into the fawning over Romney, another Republican who was Public Enemy #1 when he was running against Obama.
We’d almost like to see Sarah Palin take a shot or two at Trump, just to see how far this amnesty goes.
