No matter what side of the aisle you are on, keeping up with politics these days is like pulling teeth (or dodging a pair of well-aimed shoes). If the president’s decision reversals and Twitter temper tantrums make you feel like you need some laughing gas, know that you are not alone.
NBN has developed a perfect cure for the political news blues: reading throwback George W. Bush speech blunders. Not only do these quotes provide much needed comic relief, but they also remind the country that the image of Bush – and by extension, the pre-Trump Republican party – as pure and innocent is a convenient mask.
If this country is to learn its lesson from Donald Trump’s presidency, it must remember how it got to this point in the first place. Otherwise, the nation will start to accept anything that can jump the pathetically low bar set by Trump. Don’t forget that 2000s conservatism was led by the man who uttered these hilarious and disturbing speech fails.
1. “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
January 11, 2000
Apparently not George, apparently not. This Bushism is reminiscent of the Trump administration’s own Betsy DeVos, who once claimed that guns should be allowed in schools for the sake of providing protection from bears.
May 24, 2005
This statement is like the precursor to alternative facts. Bush pioneered this concept, but Kellyanne Conway took it one step further and coining an iconic term to boot.
3. “Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican.”
April 21, 2001
Trump is not the first president to display insensitivity towards and lack of understanding of other cultures (read: the wall, DACA, etc.). Here’s hoping he will be the last.
January 29, 2007
Newsflash: trust is something that is earned, not given. This moment is similar to the one in which Trump told former FBI director James Comey that he “expected loyalty,” apparently forgetting about the rule of law. This encounter obviously ended poorly for Comey, who was fired after refusing to end the Russia investigation in May.
5. “It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.”
May 5, 2000
Duh! The sheer obviousness of this statement is evocative of Trump’s famous “healthcare is complicated” statement. Who knew a budget contained numbers? Who knew healthcare could be complicated? Obviously not the President of the United States.
6. "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."
May 12, 2008
Bush is lucky here. The drama that clouds Trump’s White House has so absorbed the attention of the nation that it appears his legacy will be left undisturbed for a while. Trump is lucky, too. All of the firing, hiring and tweeting is keeping the media so distracted that no one seems to know what is going on.
For more of the healing power of humorous Bushisms, check out this expansive list or this informative video.