I thought this would get overlooked if posted in the "Bush R.I.P." thread, given the mixed responses to his passing. This article, I think, takes a much larger view, and is worth reading. If Para wants to move it, fine. But I think it's different enough to warrant its own thread.

GEORGE BUSH, EXCEPTIONALIST (link)
In his pre-funeral takedown of President George H.W. Bush, The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer tries to snap readers out of their nostalgia for the 41st president.

“In reality, he was an archetypal representative of the modern party, a man whose sense of duty failed him when it came to resisting the rise of racially revanchist, libertarian forces,” Foer writes. “He embodied an Establishment that wrote very nice thank-you notes. But good manners are hardly the same as moral courage; prudence is sometimes hard-hearted.”

Even in death, Bush could not escape the critiques of those like Foer who resent the former president’s patrician, roots and manners.

The author argues that Bush was the last of the WASP presidents, those blue-blooded effetes who went to fancy boarding schools and lived and played by the Protestant work ethic.

But who else is Foer talking about? Was it Bush’s predecessor, the son of an itinerant, alcoholic traveling salesman? The peanut farmer from Plains, Ga.? The adopted kid who got into the University of Michigan on a football scholarship? The Quaker boy from the orange groves? The schoolteacher from the Pedernales Valley? The Roman Catholic? The German boy from a railhead in Kansas? How about the men’s clothing salesman from Independence, Mo.?

You would have to go back to Franklin Roosevelt to find a president of the same WASPy origins in and comportment as Bush. Perhaps only FDR and his cousin Teddy fit the same category.

The part of Bush that actually seems to rankle Foer and other critics is what Bush in his very elitist way referred to as “noblesse oblige.” That literally means the obligation of nobility. It is an ancient idea that even finds expression in the bible. Jesus says in Luke’s gospel, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

This kind of thinking seems antiquated in our meritocratic culture. But it has been a governing precept for our civilization since long before they started taking legacies at Andover.

It also happens to inform our national ethic, the much-abused concept of American exceptionalism.

What our current discussion lacks is the basic understanding that America is both great and good. More importantly that our greatness derives from our goodness.

From before our founding, Americans have carried an elitist belief: This is the finest place on earth and her people the best in the world. Such confidence propelled our greatest triumphs beginning with the audaciously arrogant act of declaring independence and self-governance from the most powerful empire in the world.

Manifest Destiny was also an expression of this belief. Americans were obliged to take our system and culture from sea to shining sea. Here we saw the dark side of American exceptionalism as indigenous tribes were wiped out in service of that goal.

But the intent and effect of our exceptional view of ourselves is summed up in our greatest national song, “America the Beautiful.”

“O beautiful for patriot dream // That sees beyond the years // Thine alabaster cities gleam // Undimmed by human tears! // America! America! // God shed His grace on thee // And crown thy good with brotherhood // From sea to shining sea!”

Now, read it again and imagine it in Ray Charles’ voice.

The 20th century saw two triumphs of American exceptionalism, and Bush was part of both. Our role in defeating fascism and totalitarianism around the globe was self-interested, yes, but it was also the obligatory act of the greatest nation in the world.

It was WASP noblesse oblige perhaps that impelled a 17-year-old Bush to sign up for the Second World War, but that was just one variety of the exceptional impulse that swept through Americans of every race, creed and color when the battle was joined. It seems more poignant with Bush who could have used his privileged position to find a soft billet or maybe even avoid service, but he was like millions of his fellow Americans who were eager to get into the fight. Truth, justice and the American way were not laugh lines.

As president, Bush got to put the capstone on the other project of American exceptionalism that dominated the 20th century, the one that took us all the way to the moon. Defeating the Soviet Union and remaking the world after a 50-year superpower standoff is hardly a humble thing to do.

Just who did Bush and the Americans think they were that they could dictate that Communism was evil and that freedom was good? Who were they to say what shape Russia and Eastern Europe might take? The answer then is as it always has been: Because we have been given so much as Americans, we have special responsibilities. In order to execute those responsibilities, we reserve special privileges for ourselves.

This kind of thinking has been very much out of fashion in both parties of late. The concept of American exceptionalism has been watered down to mean that we think we’re great just like everyone else thinks they’re great.

Hubris has led us astray more than once. From Wounded Knee to Khe Sanh we have seen the tragic results, but there is no question that ours remains the indispensable nation.

Perhaps the central conflict between Americans today comes down to whether we still believe all the parts of the American creed, including the “endowed by their creator” part. Bush believed that God had his special role in mind for the United States of America and that Bush’s job was to find his part in it. We spend a great deal of time these days talking about personal spirituality and very little time talking about the collective spiritual purpose of our nation.

Foer is wrong. Bush was not the end of the line for well-mannered children of privilege serving in positions of power. That will always be with us.

What we hope, though, is that the idea of real American exceptionalism, along with all of the duties and privileges it entails, does not die with him and his generation.

One of the travesties of history is that it is left to some who would choose to rewrite it to suit their own purposes, rather than seeking to find the truth, and context, in what came before.

Generations of U.S. citizens have lost the true meaning of "American Exceptionalism" and have cheapened it from it's simple noble (and accurate) original meaning.

What a remarkably poignant piece. Thanks for posting!

He may not have been a perfect man...but George H.W.Bush was a good man. I don't agree with every decision he made, in fact I can think of at least a few that I not only disagree with but actually anger me. But he was a good man.

Rest in Peace President Bush and thank you for your service to our country.