I LOVE BILL CLINTON ---JANUARY 16, 2014

 

How refreshing a Republican on January 16, 2014 would say “I love Bill Clinton.”  Bill Clinton a Democrat.  Bill Clinton who defeated two different Republicans for the White House in 1992 and 1996.

 

Shocking that the Republican who said that was the mother of the 43d President of the U. S. and a cousin of the 14^th President of the U.S.

 

Unbelievable that the Republican who said that was the wife of the 41^st President of the U.S. the man that Bill Clinton defeated for a second term in 1992.

 

Yes, Barbara Bush Wife of Republican President George H. W. Bush, Mother of Republican President George W. Bush, mother of Republican Governor Jeb Bush of Florida and distant cousin of Franklin Pierce President of the U.S  said in an interview on C-SPAN for its First Lady Series:   “I love Bill Clinton.  My husband, Bill Clinton, and I have become great friends.  And Bill visits us every summer.”   Barbara, the mother of six children said in the same interview her children referred to Bill Clinton as “My brother by another mother.”

 

Thank you Barbara Bush.  Thank you for having the good judgment to know that you can disagree with Bill Clinton on politics and yet be good friends.  Thank you for having the courage to say publicly “I love Bill Clinton.”

 

Thank you George H. W Bush for having the good judgment to be friends with Bill Clinton who in years past was your worst political enemy.

 

Thanks to the Bush children for accepting Bill Clinton as their brother by another mother.

 

Thanks to the entire Bush family for demonstrating how Christians should treat other people—even those with different political views.

 

Any discussion of Bush family politics would be incomplete without mention of Lee Atwater his 1968 Presidential campaign manager and Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1989-91 when G.W.H. Bush was President. 

 

Atwater was a Republican consultant who began his career of “fear and hate” “win at all cost” in South Carolina and took dirty politics to a new level with the G.H.W Bush “Willie Horton” campaign against Mike Dukakis in 1968.  Many say Atwater’s  dirty trick politics was what elected Reagan and G.H.W. Bush president.  The movie “Boogie Man” is about the life of Lee Atwater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1990 Lee Atwater was found to have terminal brain cancer and died March 29, 1991.

When he realized his brain cancer was terminal Atwater stated: “ I was wrong to follow the meanness of Conservatism.  I should have been trying to help people instead of taking advantage of them.  I don’t hate anyone anymore.  For the First time in my life I don’t hate somebody. I have nothing but good feelings toward people.”  Atwater issued a number of public apologies and wrote letters to Dukakis and others against whom he had waged campaigns of fear and hate.  In an article in the February issue of Life magazine Atwater wrote:  “My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood and relationships that I never understood and helped me to see what was missing in society was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood.”

 

Hopefully the good judgment and courage which the Bush family has shown Bill Clinton will cause politicians both Republican and Democrats and for all Americans to look deep in their souls and examine their relationship with other people—even those who do not vote as they do—those whose skin is a different color—those who do not worship at the same place they do on Sunday—those who do not agree with them on abortion, same sex marriage, guns, taxes, health care or food stamps or other issues.

 

Pray for the wisdom to know if love and brotherhood is missing in America and in particular if it is missing in our personal and political lives and ask for the courage and strength to help all people instead of hating or taking advantage of them.

 

How refreshing it would be to read editorials by Paul Greenberg in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette saying “I love Bill Clinton” and we have  become good friends who visit and speak frequently on the phone.

 

America would be a better place to live if the media could one day proclaim:

 

Congresses concluded its business with a party sponsored by Mitch McConnell and John Boehner under a banner entitled “I love Barack Obama,”  

 

For the first time in history  Congress passed legislation on poverty, unemployment, minimum wages, taxes, immigration, abortion, guns, the national debt, and approved the president’s nominees for cabinet positions and court appointments without a single filibuster and all legislation passed by a bi-partisan vote of 90 to 10 in the Senate and a non-partisan vote of 400 to 35 in the House

 

I love Barbara Bush