I always tried to be careful to give George Bush credit for things he deserved, and there were a couple important things he deserved credit for. But it was an awful era. He killed a lot of people. We tortured people, and it's an open bothsides debate about whether torture is good. His 9/11 get out of jail free card made some truly scandalous things not "scandals." That we fear Trump will completely collapse the government and Bush didn't do that is a bit too low a bar to set.
I imagine he's gone through manopause, mellowed out, has had a bit of time to reflect, and is now a better man. And he was always more of a stupid asshole than evil, though that distinction is not necessarily all that important, especially when you are the most powerful person on the planet. Remembering the Bush era fondly because of Trump is like missing the days of eating shit because now you have to eat shit while freezing to death, too. Understandable, but we ate a lot of shit.
