A Visit with 43, Part II

[Valin]

National Review:

George W. Bush on his second inaugural address, Egypt, and more

Jay Nordlinger

March 15, 2016

Editor’s Note: In our March 14 issue, we had a piece by Jay Nordlinger: “43 and His Theme: A visit with George W. Bush.” This week, he is expanding the piece in his Impromptus. For Part I, go here.

 

Bush’s second inaugural address was highly controversial. The Left didn’t like it — basically because it came out of Bush’s mouth. The Left wouldn’t have liked it if Bush had read the Democratic platform.

 

The Right didn’t like it either. “Utopian,” many conservatives said. “Unrealistic. Wilsonian.”

 

(Snip)

 

Was he surprised at the negative reaction to his second inaugural address? “Yeah, I was surprised. I shouldn’t say surprised — I guess I was pleased, in a way, for the speech to have gotten the reaction it did, because it was provocative, I thought in a good way. It got people thinking. I mean, how can you not be for the ending of tyranny?”

 

Bush continues, “What’s interesting about the debate is that people tend not to listen to the whole spiel. People pick out what they want to hear.” In his address, he did not mean that the United States should ignore its interests. “I don’t think it’s a zero-sum game: free societies or American interests. Matter of fact, I think they’re aligned.” Freer societies are in the American interest, he says, and a boon to American security. “And, of course, we have allies who aren’t as free as we want them to be. But the alliance gives us an opportunity to nudge toward freedom.”

 

Back to the matter of “evolution”: “As I mentioned to the Lost Boys, it takes time for freedom to evolve. This is a long-term proposition. It’s not instant. … But each generation has an opportunity to help advance civil society and free society, and that’s what we’re doing here.”

 

(Snip)

 

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