USA TODAY International Edition
Why no one’s talking about Bush’s history with women
As many Americans watched the funerals for President George H.W. Bush last week, Isa Leshko found herself tuning out the coverage. Things were missing. Recent events glossed over. It left her feeling sickened, she said.
Shortly after news broke of Bush’s death, Leshko, 47, an artist and activist, took to Twitter.
“Many members of the LGBTQ community, people of color, and women have a hard time praising Bush’s memory today,” she wrote.
In a series of tweets, she touched on Bush’s handling of the AIDS crisis, his veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1990. She brought up a more recent controversy that she and other activists say was absent from remembrances and discussions of Bush’s legacy: the groping allegations.
A little more than a year before his death, allegations emerged from eight women dating back to 1992. The details were similar: During a photo op with the former president, Bush touched or squeezed their backsides without consent. Some say he made a joke first.
Bush apologized last year through spokesman Jim McGrath, saying he “does not have it in his heart to knowingly cause anyone distress, and he again apologizes to anyone he offended during a photo op.”
With attention focused on other men involved in serious incidents while still in office or in high-powered jobs, the allegations have received little mention since they came to light in October 2017. USA TODAY, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press did not include the allegations in obituaries. Headlines praised his decency and character and called him a gentleman. Even in Twitter’s liberal bubbles, the topic has been cautiously broached.
Michelle Nickerson, an associate professor of history at Loyola University Chicago who specializes in women and gender and U.S. politics, says memorializations happen with every president.
“The purpose in this case is to recognize ourselves as a nation. So it’s almost like we keep quiet about the mistakes of the dead because we want to focus on the things that we appreciate and we value and the things that we want to honor,” Nickerson said. “There are going to be things that we recall and we chose to forget because we are honoring not just Bush but the presidency as an institution.”
Yale University history professor Joanne B. Freeman says these remembrances, and presidential legacies, are shaped by current political climates.
And in this case, she says, the need for a retort to the increasingly caustic political landscape has been palpable in our eulogizing.
“It feels to me like a very emotionally needy moment that’s making use of Bush’s reputation to serve a purpose,” said Freeman. “It’s become a mourning for decency moment that really isn’t about Bush at all.”
Using a polished version of a president’s reputation for specific ends is “a tradition that goes back to the dawn of the republic,” Freeman says.
Anyone who has seen the musical “Hamilton” knows the story of the Federalist Party’s attempt to discredit Alexander Hamilton as a co-author of George Washington’s farewell address to make Washington, and in turn the party, look better.
But Freeman says this moment is unique in its near-total focus on Bush’s character as opposed to his political impact. His record includes unwavering support for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Bush’s nominee who was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill in a grueling confirmation process that activists say paved the way for the similarly contentious confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The problem, for activists and survivors of sexual assault, is that the exaltation of Bush as a “gentleman” and “America’s last great soldier-statesman” feels incomplete.
“Which part of him was ‘boy-nextdoor bonhomie’ when he groped numerous women?” says Elizabeth Xu Tang, an equal justice fellow with the National Women’s Law Center, referencing a New Yorker tribute.
“We’ve sanitized the history of so many things,” Tang says. “To start that process immediately, the second they die, is so irresponsible, it’s untruthful.”
Tang notes that Bush’s last tweet praised Sen. Susan Collins for her “political courage and class” following her vote to confirm Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault and denies any wrongdoing.
Bush “felt that it was necessary to publicly speak out about [someone accused of ] serial sexual assault, and that it was commendable and courageous,” Tang says. “I think that tells you everything you need to know about his thoughts on #MeToo and sexual assault and women’s bodily autonomy.” Leshko, too, noted the tweet. “The fact that the Kavanaugh hearing and confirmation is still raw for so many women, and recognizing that his final tweet was in support of Kavanaugh, it just makes it really hard for me to hear people say he harkens back to a kinder and gentler time in our politics,” Leshko said. “If you actually look back on certain periods of history as kinder and gentler, odds are you benefit from privilege you’re not fully aware of.”
An overwhelming response to mentions of the groping allegations, as well as other Bush critiques, has been “not now.” Vox, one of the few media outlets to broach the allegations and Bush’s legacy, was met with derisive replies on Twitter, saying the decision to publish a day after his death was “disgusting” and “uncalled for.”
“We have this powerful cultural belief you’re not supposed to talk badly about people who have died,” said Mahri Irvine, an adjunct lecturer on race, gender and culture studies at American University. “Now that they’re dead, we can’t bring up anything bad or shady about their past.”
“I have total empathy for the Bush family,” Leshko said. “They had two major losses in seven months. I understand that,” she said. “But I think expressing these viewpoints is important, particularly while his legacy is being discussed in the public eye. Bush wasn’t my father, he wasn’t my uncle. He was my president and his actions had significant consequences for people in this country and abroad. It needs to be considered part of the legacy.”
“Now that they’re dead, we can’t bring up anything bad or shady about their past.” Mahri Irvine,
Adjunct lecturer, American University