other, they helped each other to strengthen that office and to make it work for the american people, so, i share i share nick s optimism, as well. this is a crucible, and yes, a lot of things are being crushed. i do think that these institutions have to adjust to the times that we re in, and the voters, the voters said a version of that in 2016 and they amended that in the most recent election, and that s a process we re going to keep watching unfold. what we re watching unfold on our screens right now is the 41st president, george h.w. bush s casket being taken to its final resting spot, which is at his presidential lie brarl in college station. it s where his wife, barbara, is buried, and their young daughter, robin, who was 3 years old when she lost her battle against leukemia. robin, one of 41 s favorite stories to tell was that robin used to say, i love you more than tongue can tell. and it seems like this moment yesterday was something that the country loved more than tongue
ideological differences, but the american system is unique in many respects. but one of the ways in which its unique, we don t have a queen. we don t have a head of state. the president is both the head of government and the head of state. and traditionally, all the presidents you saw on that pew, with the exception of donald trump, understood that one of the roles of the presidency, and perhaps the most important one, was to fill in as head of state. think of george bush on the wreckage of the world trade center. think of president obama the night that osama bin laden was killed or, frankly, the night that he was elected. president clinton at oklahoma city and so on. at each of those moments, they understood that they had to and were capable of being the head of serving that role as head of state and that s why we respond to them. trump has never been able to rise to the occasion where he s more than simply the president of the people who voted for him and the implaquable enemy of
one, it s to remind us of that fact. elise, i said this yesterday, it felt like a torch was passed from the father to the son, and whether he wanted to or not, the 43rd president, with his, you know, sort of new public relationship there with michelle obama, with the embrace of bill clinton, even in the eulogy for his father, and all the men for whom 41 served as father figures, it seemed that 43 took on the mantle of the patriarch of this family that stands for more than just the 43rd president s presidency and its highlights and its very well documented low points. but this spirit, this idea of preservation of the office of the american presidency. yesterday, president bush, the son, was leading the ceremony in the sense that the decency that came out of it was reflected by how it was simply a celebration of america. it was simply a celebration of the best among us.
but i want to ask you about this and we ll get into this, but every article about the funeral, the service yesterday celebrating george h.w. bush made the point that just reciting his resume as a life-long public servant, as someone who revered the cia which he led, revered the u.n. where he served as ambassador, who was gratified by being an ambassador of this country to china. served as vice president. just by reciting a life of service in the federal government, that in and of itself was a rebuke of trump and trumpism. that s exactly right. because bush understood, as ambitious as he was, anyone who becomes president is ambitious, that there have to be moral limits to that ambition for one s own sanity as well as for the good of the country. and he also understood, and this is an important conservative point. the belief of conservatives is not the destruction of government. it s the belief that government serves certain purposes and in order for it to achieve those
something is dying. about and it the story we ve told ourselves, about who we are as americans, will have to come to terms with something in the coffin. it may be h.w. bush here, 41, but something about who we are is dying. and donald trump represents this ugliness that has bubbled up from the dark, dank secellars o this country. and the question for us will be, who we will be in the aftermath of this moment, in the after times? and what dark beast has around come round at last to be born? i can t top that. i took it a different way yesterday. i was so sad and mourned the passing of a truly great statesman, but and i mourn the fundamental decency that died with him somewhat, but i