George H.W. Bush led a life of duty, honor to his country

When someone dies, we tend to re-hone their image until they’re practically walking on water.

But some things, such as decency, duty, courage and humility, don’t need to be tweaked, spun or reinterpreted.

The death of former President George H.W. Bush calls us to remember what we used to mean by “the presidency” and how utterly disappointing and exhausting our politics have become.

You didn’t have to agree with a single page of his policies to know we have lost our way by pretending that experience, maturity, knowledge and character don’t matter.

You can be as left-leaning as the Tower of Pisa, opposed to virtually everything Bush did in politics, yet know we’re dog-paddling in a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens to swamp us.

It should bother us all that civility and competence are being lamented and described as anachronisms we never will experience again in our lifetimes.

Greater good

Bush’s life and death remind us no amount of bluster, blather and stagecraft can concoct an attribute such as valor if it is not already rooted and grounded in a man’s character.

No one acquires power without making compromises. It must have been galling to possess the best resume in American history and be asked to play second fiddle.

When it turned out he was right about “voodoo economics,” he didn’t spike the ball. He stayed on the team.

After being tagged as a “wimp,” he was hamstrung by his inability to brag about his accomplishments. As hard as it must have been to lose to Bill Clinton, who figured out how to play his own narrative against him, they would go on to become genuine friends.

It isn’t a coincidence that Clinton and former President Barack Obama — two fatherless men — gravitated toward Bush. His ability to turn critics, opponents and enemies into friends and family reminds us true leadership keeps the greater good at the forefront. It does not hold a grudge, even when perfectly justified.

Clouded judgment

Ambition often clouds one’s judgment. How else to explain Bush allowing someone as thoroughly amoral as Lee Atwater into his orbit? Perpetuating the war on drugs and doing little about the AIDS crisis also flew in the face of his call for a “kinder, gentler nation.”

Also, there’s no possible way a former CIA director wouldn’t have been aware of the Iran-Contra caper.

But the same candidate who opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Bill voted for the 1968 Fair Housing Act. He changed America by signing the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed clean-air legislation and made the world safer by tamping out the Cold War, and even then he refused to chest-thump as the Berlin Wall fell.

Though we cannot use a 2018 measuring stick to judge a 1988 presidency fully, there are immutable factors, like the courage exhibited in rejecting religious extremism and in breaking his vow of “no new taxes” because it was what the country needed.

None of the faults, none of the failures negates the fact George H.W. Bush dedicated his life to the service of this nation. He joined the Navy on his 18th birthday and became a World War II pilot, the last combat veteran to serve as president. What were you doing at 19?

To the end, Bush knew and understood his funeral could serve as a reminder to us of who we’re supposed to be. We now know his respect for the presidency itself trumped any lingering need to demonstrate otherwise.

True servant-leaders are willing to withstand slings and arrows if it means making their country a better place, having faith that history will get the final say.