Miss them yet?
They looked relaxed, comfortable in their own skin, and happy to be in each other’s’ company. They looked normal. The sight of former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at the Presidents Cup golf tournament made one downright nostalgic—and a little sheepish about not appreciating them more when they were in office, even the ones we passionately disagreed with.
In the 24 years of their combined presidencies, we experienced war, economic calamity, government shutdowns, an impeachment and a myriad of other painful episodes. One segment of the electorate differed strongly with the policies of one or more of them. Looking back, however, some of the criticism was entirely deserved and some was disproportionate, unfair and wrongheaded.
Despite their mistakes and missteps, we passed positive bipartisan measures, including welfare reform, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D reform and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. We normalized relations with Vietnam and passed the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Magnitsky Act— again on a bipartisan basis. We helped end the Balkan war, saved the auto industry and prevented a financial meltdown (thanks to Bush’s and then Obama’s support for the Troubled Asset Relief Program). Some part of the electorate approved of more controversial items under each president; the electorate did not believe by a large majority (as they do now) that any of them was “unfit” to hold office, no matter how strongly some of us disagreed with some of their actions.
More important—and we took this entirely for granted—none of these presidents thought the office was an opportunity for self-enrichment, stoking racial divisions, demonizing immigrants or delegitimizing the free press. Pick your least favorite of the three, and he will be regarded as a giant in comparison with President Donald Trump.
We are tempted to overstate the influence of a single president, to proclaim ourselves inevitably on the road to ruin. We should avoid the addiction of defeatism and the lure of resignation. These three presidents (and George H.W. Bush as well) can help by setting an example of public civility and cooperation and at appropriate times speaking out to defend American values and democratic norms. They can address audiences jointly and make videos defending the free press, denouncing moral relativism when it comes to neo-Nazis, and deploring the temptation to shut ourselves off from the world and repudiate objective reality.
Trump can be a reprehensible outlier, a president elected by a minority under bizarre circumstances with aid from a foreign power. To do that, we need to regain our bearings, recall our distant and immediate past and decide collectively that we will replace him as soon as possible with someone within the mainstream of our values and beliefs, someone whom we would not be embarrassed to call our president.