Without ever naming him directly, his last two predecessors in the White House launched a harsh attack on Trump and the spirit of his presidency. And the fact that George Bush and Barack Obama have chosen, one at a conference on democracy in New York and the other from a polling station, on the same day to break with the label of silence towards their successor, reinforces the alarm that, now the establishments of the two parties, live on the profound consequences of 'Trumpism' on the social and political fabric of America.
"Intolerance seems strengthened, our policy more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and total falsehoods," is the alarm launched, during the "Sprit of Liberty" organized by the Bush Institute, by the former republican president who stigmatized "bullying and prejudices in political life "which legitimize these attitudes in society and" compromise the moral education of our children ". "People of all races, religions and ethnic groups can be fully American, which means that any intolerance or ideology of ethnic supremacy is a blasphemy against the American creed," he said again with a clear repudiation of all supremacist and racist ideology.
In his speech, considered Bush's strongest and most articulate political intervention since leaving the White House in 2009, the former president then attacked America's populist, anti-immigrant, isolationist and protectionist ideology point by point : "We see a distorted nationalism that forgets the dynamism that immigration has brought to America". And again: "people are sick, they are angry, we must help them, but wanting to cancel globalization is like wanting to cancel the agricultural or industrial revolution". A speech all on the attack that of the ex president, brother of Jeb Bush who was seen blowing by Trump what many in the party considered the discounted nomination for the 2016 presidential elections, almost more than what, practically simultaneously, Obama has pronounced, climbing for the first time since leaving the White House on an electoral stage in support of the governor candidates in New Jersey and Virginia.
"We cannot continue to have this division policy that dates back to centuries ago - he said with a clear reference to racial policies - some of these policies thought they had got them out of the way. But these people look back 50 years, we are in the 21st century not the 19th! ". Even Obama, who although like Bush never named Trump clearly referred to the president, described a political leadership that leverages fear and raises anger: "instead of having a policy that reflects our values, we have a policy that infects our communities. Instead of looking for ways to work together and looking for practical solutions, we have people who deliberately provoke anger, demonize people with different ideas. " “We have to take all this seriously, our democracy is at stake. Elections matter, voting matters, we can't take anything for granted, "he concluded with what sounded like self-criticism for having him, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats underestimate Trump's election threat.
The two former presidents' irrational interventions obviously attracted the attention of the media, also due to their concomitance. "The fact that two presidents have spoken so loudly and eloquently is a warning that the fundamental principles of democracy that both parties have long supported at home and abroad are at risk," commented Antony Blinken, former vice secretary of the Bush administration, who - like many other prominent Democrats, like Madeleine Albright - were, perhaps not surprisingly, at the Bush conference in New York.