I miss this
It's only small, but it's huge.
So a few minutes ago I was scanning through my Facebook memories, and the act took me back in time to a video depicting a warm and glowy and happy and collaborative moment when this happened inside the White House …
If you’re unfamiliar, the date was May 31, 2012, and President Barack Obama invited George W. Bush and Laura Bush to Washington for the official hanging of their portraits. The room was packed. The mood was light. Joe Biden attended, as did many of Bush’s old cabinet members. Food was served, laughs were shared. W’s speech was hilarious and uplifting and, truly, beautiful. It was the splendor of democracy on display—combatants turned pals, opponents turned friends, unity overcoming diviseness.
And, to be honest, I’ve long loved this sorta thing. I remember when W’s father was president, and he hosted his four living predecessors. It was well known that Jimmy Carter disliked Ronald Reagan, and that Ronald Reagan disliked Gerald Ford, and that Richard Nixon was sort of an albatross for the whole gang. But it didn’t matter. This is what you did, not merely to be polite, but to show America that, come day’s end, we are all of one ilk. We are all the United States.
Alas, nowadays this all makes me more happy than sad, because—under Donald Trump—yet another important tradition has died. In his five years as president, Trump has never (literally not once) invited a predecessor to the White House. Why? This is a guess, but I suspect it has to do with the fragility of his ego mixed with the softness of his spine. Put different: He is a pimply-penised man who cannot allow anyone else to taste the spotlight, and who is only comfortable bashing and ridiculing folks from a safe distance.
I actually thought about this today, and when—in 2028—a Democrat retakes the White House, I hope he/she/they have the wherewithal to invite Donald Trump back. Give him his portrait. Sprinkle a few kind words.
Is he worthy of such a moment? Of course not.
But democracy is.
PS: I read over your collective criticism of this post, and am going to think deep, do better research, then follow up next week. I feel like, in hindsight, it wasn’t my most educated post—and I should do better. My bad.
I miss having pride in my country. Travel abroad, as I did this past fall, and it's embarrassing to think what others around the world think of us as a country. The Ugly American is leading the charge. And the change. Why? For all the damage done, it will take years to rebuild. Maybe that's why this happened. To strengthen a belief in our system. We needed a cancer to start mutating to make us wake up? Probably not, but it's happened, so whomever is saddled with the chore of cleanup on Aisle 1600 in 2028, we're here with a mop and dust pan.
I agree that the small rituals of politics matter and often even lead to some good policy outcomes. I'm not sure that the next person should invite Trump back. He's deviated from so many norms that I am not sure giving him a platform to spew hate, which he would do, is the right thing. The ritual as you described it didn't just involve Obama's kindness to invite back his predecessor, it required graciousness from that predecessor. Reciprocal graciousness. You wouldn't have that with Trump.