We Already Knew that G. H. W. Bush Was a Scumbag

That former president George H. W. Bush has a long-established habit of groping women from the safety of his wheelchair seems to have shocked, or at least surprised, those of my fellow citizens who have retained some trace of their childlike, pre-Trump naivete. But others, such as myself, who remember something of this man’s unsavory history, are already aware that he takes a keen pleasure in harming, abusing, and belittling members of other tribes: whether that tribe be distinguished from his own by sex or by belief. For in the past he spoke from the protected position of high office when he said that “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots.” Given multiple opportunities to explain or modify his remarks over the years, he has never shown any inclination to do so. Indeed, he has made it emphatically clear that he meant just what he said.

That a man who enjoyed using the power of high office to make the most un-American claim possible, that his fellow citizens who fail to share his belief in the supernatural are not, therefore, even citizens, should, in retirement, enjoy exploiting both the nimbus of that former office and his physical condition to deny the dignity of full personhood to any moderately young woman who gets within reach of his gnarled claws, is utterly unsurprising.