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A pyramid rises in Texas
A library for George W. Bush
Robert Zaller
Egyptian pharaohs memorialized themselves with giant structures built by slave labor and containing uselessly buried treasure. Modern American presidents do something similar with architectural eyesores called presidential libraries, which tell of the triumphs of their reign.
These behemoths now clutter our landscapes. They aren't built with slave labor, but, if the president happens to come from Texas, as an alarming number of our recent ones have, it's a pretty safe bet they've utilized nonunion workers at least.
Now the George W. Bush Library has opened, on a college campus no less. The opening almost exactly coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war, a venture most American analysts have settled on calling the greatest foreign policy blunder in the history of the country. So, plainly, the new library will have a lot of history to revise. It got off to a good start, even if the word "Iraq" was never uttered in the opening ceremonies last week.
Rules of the club
Pharaohs had to wait until they were dead to enjoy their tombs. The modern presidency, with its term limits, ensures that most presidents will get to savor their personal monuments while they're still with us. As people live longer— at least, people with access to health care— there will also be a surplus of former presidents, walking the earth and dispensing largesse for those worthy causes they never had time to attend to while in office.
The Presidents' Club, which includes the incumbent of the moment, always gathers to bestow its blessings on the latest library, even if remaining discreetly silent about its contents. It is, designedly, an apolitical event, in which our now moss-backed former leaders welcome their most recent colleague into the pantheon of presidential immortals.
Of course, it is no such thing. It's an affirmation of our great and dubious Republic, meant to solemnize the chain of monarchical successions into which it has now devolved.
Carter's embarrassment
Ancient Rome went the same way. The first Caesars called themselves "first citizens," not emperors. Similarly, presidents now style themselves as George Washington did. But they behave a good deal differently.
Jimmy Carter came in dark glasses, I have to think to conceal a certain embarrassment, more or less as Augustus might have felt at showing up to honor Caligula. Carter made many mistakes in office and has committed not a few gaffes since, but I can't help thinking he probably meant well most of the time.
It's part of club etiquette to stand with one's fellow members and to refrain from criticizing them, at least in public. It's also necessary to say something polite about the accomplishments of the honoree of the moment.
George H. W. Bush was excused by virtue of age, infirmity and paternity. The other club members mumbled about W.'s concern for Africa (a continent he never visited) and immigration reform, which unfortunately never resulted in a coherent policy other than the erection of a giant fence along our southern border.
The empress speaks
Needless to say, not a word was spoken about 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib; and the financial collapse of 2008 that came down like a crashing cymbal on the greatest single pileup of calamities in our national history. Hey, he may have been Caligula, but he was our Caligula.
It turned out that the event's only criticism was uttered by the dowager empress. Barbara Bush, responding to a question about the presidential ambitions of her son Jeb, said that she thought there had been enough Bushes in the White House. Good Barbara! You have certainly voiced the sentiments of a grateful nation.
Attention naturally focused on Jeb's likely discomfiture. But the real target of Barbara's observation was W., the scapegrace son who had finally ruined the family brand. And to judge from the sight of him on the dais, the shaft had struck home. All that labor of mortar and stone, all that day-long parade of windy lies, undone by the single voice that judges us for life and death: Mom's.
Yes, we have had enough Bushes, anywhere. But we've also had enough emperors.♦
To read a response, click here.
These behemoths now clutter our landscapes. They aren't built with slave labor, but, if the president happens to come from Texas, as an alarming number of our recent ones have, it's a pretty safe bet they've utilized nonunion workers at least.
Now the George W. Bush Library has opened, on a college campus no less. The opening almost exactly coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war, a venture most American analysts have settled on calling the greatest foreign policy blunder in the history of the country. So, plainly, the new library will have a lot of history to revise. It got off to a good start, even if the word "Iraq" was never uttered in the opening ceremonies last week.
Rules of the club
Pharaohs had to wait until they were dead to enjoy their tombs. The modern presidency, with its term limits, ensures that most presidents will get to savor their personal monuments while they're still with us. As people live longer— at least, people with access to health care— there will also be a surplus of former presidents, walking the earth and dispensing largesse for those worthy causes they never had time to attend to while in office.
The Presidents' Club, which includes the incumbent of the moment, always gathers to bestow its blessings on the latest library, even if remaining discreetly silent about its contents. It is, designedly, an apolitical event, in which our now moss-backed former leaders welcome their most recent colleague into the pantheon of presidential immortals.
Of course, it is no such thing. It's an affirmation of our great and dubious Republic, meant to solemnize the chain of monarchical successions into which it has now devolved.
Carter's embarrassment
Ancient Rome went the same way. The first Caesars called themselves "first citizens," not emperors. Similarly, presidents now style themselves as George Washington did. But they behave a good deal differently.
Jimmy Carter came in dark glasses, I have to think to conceal a certain embarrassment, more or less as Augustus might have felt at showing up to honor Caligula. Carter made many mistakes in office and has committed not a few gaffes since, but I can't help thinking he probably meant well most of the time.
It's part of club etiquette to stand with one's fellow members and to refrain from criticizing them, at least in public. It's also necessary to say something polite about the accomplishments of the honoree of the moment.
George H. W. Bush was excused by virtue of age, infirmity and paternity. The other club members mumbled about W.'s concern for Africa (a continent he never visited) and immigration reform, which unfortunately never resulted in a coherent policy other than the erection of a giant fence along our southern border.
The empress speaks
Needless to say, not a word was spoken about 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib; and the financial collapse of 2008 that came down like a crashing cymbal on the greatest single pileup of calamities in our national history. Hey, he may have been Caligula, but he was our Caligula.
It turned out that the event's only criticism was uttered by the dowager empress. Barbara Bush, responding to a question about the presidential ambitions of her son Jeb, said that she thought there had been enough Bushes in the White House. Good Barbara! You have certainly voiced the sentiments of a grateful nation.
Attention naturally focused on Jeb's likely discomfiture. But the real target of Barbara's observation was W., the scapegrace son who had finally ruined the family brand. And to judge from the sight of him on the dais, the shaft had struck home. All that labor of mortar and stone, all that day-long parade of windy lies, undone by the single voice that judges us for life and death: Mom's.
Yes, we have had enough Bushes, anywhere. But we've also had enough emperors.♦
To read a response, click here.
What, When, Where
George W. Bush Presidential Library. 2943 SMU Boulevard (Southern Methodist University), Dallas, Tex. (214) 346-1557 or www.georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu.
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