"When people show you who they are, believe them." Maya Angelou
October 25, 2017
By: Linda Case Gibbons
It breaks your heart when your kid is left out, when he isn't invited to a birthday party, and all the other little kids are. But those are children, and they don't know any better.
How about when grown men do it?
This past week, the Five Living Presidents held a benefit concert fundraiser at Texas A & M.
And left out the Sixth President.
It was for a good cause, hurricane relief, but still, it wasn't very nice.
Heck, maybe the president was busy and couldn't attend. That could be.
They did play his video message, in which he praised the ex-presidents for their "tremendous assistance," and said, "This wonderful effort reminds us that we truly are one nation under God all unified by our values and our devotion to one another."
Still, something didn't smell right.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was there. Sen. Ted Cruz was there. Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, U.S. Rep. Bill Flores were all there. And so was Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
But President Trump wasn't.
The former presidents were praised by the mainstreams for putting political differences aside, but that wasn't true. The event was a Members Only Club, and there seemed to be a nasty undercurrent.
Resentment over Jeb's failed campaign? Bush's guilt about his handling of Hurricane Katrina? None of these went well. Trump won. Jeb lost. And Trump did a great job while juggling three hurricanes. Bush didn't, with one.
That could be the reason Bush didn't thank President Trump for the swift government aid his state received after Hurricane Harvey. Or the $1 million Trump gave to the cause, from his own money.
Could be.
These Three Amigos, Bush, Clinton and Obama, are as close as three peas in a pod. They find nothing wrong with each other, and everything wrong with Trump. And they are on the same political page:
They all expected Hillary would win. All were okay with Republicans losing if it meant Trump would be destroyed. And all were determined to keep the Bi-Partisan Establishment Swamp intact.
During the fundraiser, those crazy kids Bush and Obama boyishly stood behind Bill Clinton, snickering and giggling while Clinton bashed the Trump administration's response to Puerto Rico.
"Our friends in Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands have only begun to dig their way out of what could still be a calamitous disaster, but can be a new beginning, if we just do what we ought to do."
Yes. If I had to pick anyone, Bill Clinton would be the guy I'd choose to tell us what we ought to do.
Back in Washington, the anti-Trump mood continued.
McCain votes no on everything in sight, and last year made sure the phony Trump "Dossier" was made public. Unfortunately that caper has turned around and bit him where the sun don't shine.
Senators Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Bob Corker (R-TN) decided to fight Trump by quitting.
And Obama and Bush decided to fight Trump by attacking him, before they didn't invite him to their fundraiser.
Both gave speeches bashing the president a few days before the event, Obama while stumping for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, and Bush at the George W. Bush Institute in New York City.
"We've got folks who are deliberately trying to make folks angry to demonize people who have different ideas, to get the base all riled up because it provides a short-term tactical advantage," Obama said in his folksy way. And he ought to know. It's the tactic he's used since his days of community organizing right up through his presidency.
Neither of the men had the guts to mention Trump by name, and both showed us exactly who they were.
As George Bush famously said, sour graping it at President Trump's Inauguration, "That's some weird s***!" It's become one of Hillary's favorite quotes as she tours and gives interviews during her Whine Book Tour. Thanks, George!
Fighting for what's "right" is different for everyone. Some people have to choose a way, others know instinctively.
Take Odin Hendel. He knew what he needed to do as wild fires swept toward his home in Sonoma, California. He needed to stay. And he did, protecting eight goat friends and a couple of baby deer.
It was his job, his responsibility. He didn't think about himself.
After the fire, all the animals and Odin, a Great Pyrenees, were safe and sound.
This good dog did what good people do, what good leaders like Trump do. They embrace something bigger than themselves, and they are kind.
The other men, these former presidents? They don't. And they're not. Like little kids at a birthday party, they just don't know any better.
Hold the line, America.