Need to Offer an Alternative to the Hagiography

George H.W. Bush has died at the age of 94.

I am sure that many people will wax eloquent about the passing of a, "kinder and gentler," Republican.

I think we need to understand what he was and what he did.

As is now tacitly acknowledged, he negotiated with the Iranians in 1980 to ensure that they held the hostages past the election, which does arguably fit the constitutional definition of treason, which, along with his role in sending a teenager to prison for almost decade as a political stunt, his atrocious behavior dealing with the AIDS crisis, and his full throated embrace of bigotry as a political tactic. (Willie Horton)

When you look at the coarsening of our political discourse, George Herbert Walker Bush was a genteel relic of an older era, he was an enthusiastic supporter of (on edit) racist dog whistles.