As President Reagan's vice president George Herbert Walker Bush was elected to not only tend to the Reagan agenda and legacy, but to further it as well. Instead it seemed like throughout his term he wanted to run from it. He said during the '88 campaign that he envisioned "a kinder, gentler America", which seemed to imply that the America that had spent the past eight years creating millions of new jobs and pushing for the Democratic rights of millions of others in Eastern Europe and Central and South America hadn't been. Instead of continuing to confront the Soviet Union and pushing for democracy, the Bush 41 Administration reverted back a "realist" foreign policy, which always seems to promote stability at the exclusion of democracy. Not only that, Bush 41 went back on his campaign pledge and broke a sacred rule for Republicans by raising taxes. With this aversion from the mandate the voters had given him, it is unsurprising that he won less than forty percent of the popular vote when he came up for reelection in '92.
The major thing that President Bush did do right was the Persian Gulf War, but even that was incomplete. Instead of heeding the advice of his Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, the president decided against finishing the job and removing Saddam from power. Letting him remain as the butcher of Baghdad would go on to cause the U.S. and two subsequent presidents one very large, unending headache.
I have a hard time holding this against President Bush however, for all indications back then pointed to the Saddam regime collapsing from within.
Yet in my view Bush 41's foreign policy will not be remembered best by his leadership in the Persian Gulf War, but rather his infamous "chicken speech" to the Ukrainian people during a visit there. In that speech the president urged the Ukraine to remain within the Soviet Union at the exact time the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. While it is unsure what the president was trying to accomplish, the one thing it did do was alienate and anger Reagan Republicans back home. Asking the Ukraine to remain under the state that had oppressed them for decades was the equivalent of asking a slave to stay under his master, and it wasn't hard to predict that the freedom-starved Ukrainians would ignore his advice.
Bush 41's domestic policy, especially his tax policies, were another source of frustration for Republicans. President Reagan had secured the longest period of American growth in history by cutting taxes and shrinking government, yet for some unexplained reason the president ran away from these policies as well, instead acquiescing to the Democrats in congress and raising taxes. This move was just another in a long line of moves that had alienated the Reagan coalition that had given him such a large majority coming into office.
Make no mistake about it, George H.W. Bush is a good and decent man whose service to his country began in his tour of duty in WWII and ended with his term as president, and for all this he deserves the thanks and praise of everyone of his countrymen. But unfortunately his presidency was a squandered opportunity. Instead of continuing and expanding upon the Reagan agenda, he retreated from it. Whereas Reagan had come to office with a vision and direction, Bush 41 lacked either. President Reagan was a leader, President Bush was a manager. By the time the president came up for reelection in '92 conservatives were disenchanted beyond repair. His 70% approval among Republicans was a pittance compared to the 90% plus approval Reagan and his son had among Republicans at the time of their reelections. On election day man conservatives either voted for Perot or stayed home altogether.
As George Herbert Walker Bush learned the hard way, those who run from the Reagan agenda and legacy get run from office themselves.
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