Steven Strauss

Donald Trump is moving his presidential campaign in a new, more Trumpish direction: More nationalist, populist, freewheeling, spontaneous. What could possibly go wrong?

To all those Republicans who feel they might be about to have heart attacks, no matter how much you may wish it so, this is not President Obama's fault.

It is standard practice among members of the Republican elite to falsely blame Obama for Trump's rise. One of the most ironic entries comes from former Florida governor Jeb Bush. “Eight years of the divisive tactics of President Obama and his allies have undermined Americans’ faith in politics and government to accomplish anything constructive,” he wrote in a recent Washington Post column.

Yet Obama’s approval rating, as he nears the end of his two terms, is more than 50%. George W. Bush’s approval rating at about the same point was only about half that. When Bush became president in 2001 (according to Gallup), about 60% of Americans trusted their government to do what is right. When Bush turned the presidency over to Obama, public trust had declined to about 20%.

Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush were competent and (arguably) excellent presidents. But the incompetence of George W. Bush, son of H.W. and brother of Jeb, is largely why Americans are disillusioned with our government.

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On Bush’s watch, the U.S. suffered the multiple attacks of 9/11. Bush led America into disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and failed to track down Osama bin Laden, who killed 3,000 people on U.S. soil in one day. Obama was the one who authorized the successful mission ridding us of bin Laden — but acknowledging that would mean the GOP would have to face facts, rather than write fiction.

Bush inherited a federal budget surplus of $128 billion in 2001. But he left office in early 2009 with a federal budget deficit spiraling uncontrollably past $1 trillion and the American economy in a tailspin, bordering on total collapse. During Bush’s administration, unemployment skyrocketed from 4% to 8% and kept rising for much of Obama's first year. Now, after two terms of his policies, we’re finally below 5% again.

In 2001, when Bush became president, we had 8 million undocumented immigrants — but when he left office, we had 12 million (which is about where it remains). In the GOP’s fantasy world, however, undocumented immigrants are entirely Obama’s fault.

Jeb Bush’s column blamed Obama for divisive and nasty politics. How hollow that claim appears when one recalls the GOP's unfounded attacks on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s military service record in 2004. Kerry had earned a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts for his military service to America, while George W. Bush — like Trump — had gotten nowhere near a combat zone. The GOP’s treatment of Kerry set the precedent for Trump’s cruel attacks on the sacrifices made by Sen. John McCain and the Gold Star Khan family.

Adding to the damage from Bush’s presidency, the Republicans have spent the past eight years blocking Obama's proposals and nominations, and undercutting the legitimacy of our democracy. When Obama decisively won the 2012 election, they threw a temper tantrum that brought our country to the brink of an unprecedented, unnecessary and expensive default on government debt.

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Trump himself was a menace to our democracy back in 2011 and 2012, spreading false rumors that Obama was a Kenyan-born Muslim holding office only because of some vast conspiracy, and was not legally our president. But GOP leaders were happy to countenance Trump’s corrosive bile back then.

After almost a decade of such lies and aspersions from prominent conservative media and political figures, the party couldn’t derail the Trump train. The real tragedy is how little Trump, in his obvious unfitness for office, differed from several other GOP presidential candidates. They sold fact-free snake oil with a soupçon of race baiting instead of real policies.

Trump was the better salesman, however. And instead of a dash of racism, he has offered an entrée-size serving. Rick Santorum, for example, suggested building an expensive barrier between the U.S. and Mexico — but Trump went further by claiming he'd build a wall and get Mexico to pay for it. Jeb Bush spoke out against multiculturalism and said people who overstayed their visas should be asked politely to leave. Trump proposed a roundup and deportation of all undocumented immigrants, and claimed Mexico was sending us rapists and drug dealers.

Obama didn’t solve all the problems he inherited, and his policies should be discussed, improved and, if necessary, replaced. But let’s be clear: Republicans left Obama an unprecedented mess. And instead of becoming a party of competent conservative ideas, policy proposals and governance, they opted for eight years of obstructionism, conspiracy theories, lies, made-up facts and wishful thinking. In the process, the GOP has become increasingly dependent on gerrymandering, voter suppression and fomenting the racial divisiveness it purports to object to — all to stay in office.

Loyalty to family and party doesn’t excuse Jeb Bush’s deceit in blaming Trump’s rise on the man who cleaned up his brother’s mess. Republicans created Trump. They should take responsibility for that and fix their party.

Steven Strauss is the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Follow him on Twitter @Steven_Strauss.

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