While Dick Cheney has endorsed Harris, there have been no comments from other senior Republicans from Bush’s era

The MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell this week hit out at George W Bush, the Republican former president, for refusing to weigh in on America’s looming presidential election.

“All any decent person wants him to do is to say, ‘Don’t vote for Donald Trump, and here’s why,’ and he won’t even do that,” O’Donnell told the Fast Politics podcast, of the Republican president who was in office from 2001 to 2009.

Increasingly, Bush – and some other top Republicans from his political era – are looking lonely in their ongoing refusal to take a side in an election in which many have warned that US democracy is under threat from Trump’s open sympathies with autocracy.


🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

  • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    39
    ·
    2 months ago

    Ex-Presidents don’t endorse future politicians. They step aside for new leadership.

      • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        25
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        They’re wrong to do so. It’s an old tradition intended to ensure peaceful transfer of power and avoid hegemony. They disrespect the office.

        • theprogressivist @lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          16
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          They disrespect the office.

          An endorsement disrespects the office, but Trump shitting all over the office, and every citizen isn’t. Yeah you can fuck right off with your disingenuous bullshit.

          • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            14
            ·
            2 months ago

            I expect and deserve better. It’s not a popular perspective here, where all have settled for “not Trump”. I’ll leave you to your less than mediocre whatever.

        • Vandals_handle@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          2 months ago

          A tradition like president candidates releasing tax returns or presidents making White House visitor logs public or staying out of justice department actions or not personally profiting off the presidency or…

          • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            2 months ago

            A tradition like president candidates releasing tax returns or presidents making White House visitor logs public or staying out of justice department actions or not personally profiting off the presidency or…

            Yes. Much of the precedent that constitutes a “good” President was established by the actions of Washington and Adams.

    • mipadaitu@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      Sure, go ahead and try to execute the VP, overturn election results, completely stonewall judicial appointments, but actually calling out a traitor is a bridge too far.

      • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        12
        ·
        2 months ago

        Because Trump is a pig, all the rest should roll in the mud also? That doesn’t seem wise.

    • norimee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      You just write down whatever you make up in your head as if it were a fact, or what?

      • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        2 months ago

        I’ve studied political science, economics, and history for ten years. Most don’t have the time and resources. My mistake was engaging the echo chamber with something so complicated.

        • norimee@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 months ago

          And the proof several others posted about former presidents endorsing candidates, including George W. Bush doesn’t mean anything because you are the authority here?

          Maybe presidents shouldn’t endorse, but not everything is as it should, because you said so. And just because it shouldn’t you can’t just say it isn’t, as if it were a fact.

          • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            2 months ago

            Reagan changed many paradigms for the worse. I’d bet the majority here couldn’t name his predecessor without looking it up, let alone the legislative majorities and legislation.

            I’m going to go do something more productive.

            • sartalon@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 months ago

              Yeah, man. This crowd doesn’t really care about the point you were trying to make. Lemmy just wants to vote their feelings.

              Don’t sweat it.

              • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                2 months ago

                Don’t sweat it.

                Your lack of care (and history of shallow reasoning and arrogance) is why everything increasingly sucks.

                This crowd… Lemmy

                This crowd isn’t representative of Lemmy whole.

                • sartalon@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  A. I was commiserating with you.

                  B. Not sure where you are coming from with that weird judgment about my shallow reasoning and arrogance, lol.

                  C. Cheers mate. Maybe you should take a break.

        • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          insert Skinner meme here

          “It must be everyone else that’s wrong.”

          It’s not actually that complicated. Every living former president, including the one the article is about, has made endorsements either in this or a previous election.