They may have been loved by their family but criticising the dead should not be taboo
The death of former US president George H.W. Bush has prompted one of those mass amnesia events that occur whenever certain public figures die. For Bush’s fellow politicians and much of the Western media, as well as the bloodless Twitter fanboys for whom all politics is a live-action West Wing episode, his death was a chance to engage in some serious legacy-polishing.
Even public figures and news outlets that otherwise pretend to act as checks on power suspended their critical faculties to join the love-in. The Atlantic eulogised Bush as “a kinder, gentler Republican,” as if he were Donald Trump’s opposite rather than his ideological ancestor. The New Yorker fawned over his “irreducible niceness,” a quality which may have come as a surprise to the women he allegedly groped. Senator Bernie Sanders Tweeted that Bush “served our country honorably” and will be remembered for his “humble and devoted service to the country [he] loved”.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Qh2Dkd
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