Hold onto your hats, friends. I’ve not been known to be a fan of good old GWB, but I have to admit, the former President Bush’s comments at a recent forum are a cogent analysis of the anti-anyone-who’s-different hysteria sweeping the nation:
“What’s interesting about our country, if you study history, is that there are some ‘isms’ that occasionally pop up. One is isolationism and its evil twin protectionism and its evil triplet nativism. So if you study the ’20s, for example, there was an American-first policy that said, ‘Who cares what happens in Europe?'” Bush said. “And there was an immigration policy that I think during this period argued we had too many Jews and too many Italians, therefore we should have no immigrants. And my point is that we’ve been through this kind of period of isolationism, protectionism and nativism. I’m a little concerned that we may be going through the same period. I hope that these ‘isms’ pass.”
Thus passes the first time I’ve ever accused George W. Bush of making a cogent argument, but the question remains: are we heading for a do-over of America, the aloof?