By Peter Baker, Politics, Oct. 19, 2017<\/p>\n
Neither of them mentioned President Trump by name but two of his predecessors emerged from political seclusion on Thursday to deliver what sounded like pointed rebukes of the current occupant of the Oval Office and the forces of division that propelled him to power.<\/p>\n
In separate and unrelated appearances, former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both warned that the United States was being torn apart by ancient hatreds that should have been consigned to history long ago and called for addressing economic anxiety through common purpose. While not directly addressing Mr. Trump, neither left much doubt whom and what they had in mind.<\/p>\n
Mr. Bush, the last Republican to hold the White House, spoke out at a conference he convened in New York to support democracy, noting that America first had to \u201crecover our own identity\u201d in the face of challenges to its most basic ideals. While Mr. Trump seeks to raise barriers to trade and newcomers, lashing out at targets with relish, Mr. Bush defended immigration and free trade, denounced nationalism and bigotry and bemoaned what he called the \u201ccasual cruelty\u201d of current public discourse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America,\u201d Mr. Bush said. \u201cWe see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism. We\u2019ve seen the return of isolationist sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Obama was more circumspect, returning to the campaign trail<\/a> for the first time since leaving office to support Democrats running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. His speeches were mostly get-out-the-vote pleas, but he defended his record on health care at a time when Mr. Trump has been trying to dismantle it<\/a>, and he, too, pointed to the social, economic and racial schisms cleaving American society.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we can\u2019t have is the same old politics of division that we have seen so many times before that dates back centuries,\u201d Mr. Obama told a campaign rally for Philip D. Murphy in Newark. \u201cSome of the politics we see now, we thought we put that to bed. That has folks looking 50 years back. It\u2019s the 21st century, not the 19th century. Come on!\u201d<\/p>\n Later, in the Virginia state capital of Richmond, he seemed to respond to Mr. Trump\u2019s claim this week that Mr. Obama had not shown interest in the families of troops killed in combat. He did so by invoking the candidate Ralph S. Northam\u2019s work as an Army doctor caring for veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you as somebody who visited Walter Reed consistently throughout my eight years what it meant to have a medical staff that was literally helping to rebuild people\u2019s lives,\u201d Mr. Obama said.<\/p>\n Both former presidents have largely avoided taking on Mr. Trump since he was inaugurated in January, aside from occasional statements or comments in interviews. But the sight of the two most recent presidents back on the public stage on the same day, however coincidental, reinforced the broader alarm among establishment leaders of both parties.<\/p>\n \u201cThe two presidents speaking out so forcefully and eloquently is a warning that some basic principles of democracy that both parties have long supported at home and abroad are in jeopardy,\u201d said Antony J. Blinken, who served as Mr. Obama\u2019s deputy secretary of state and attended Mr. Bush\u2019s speech on Thursday.<\/p>\n The bipartisan apprehension was illustrated by Mr. Blinken\u2019s presence. As managing director of the newly formed Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement led by Mr. Obama\u2019s vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Blinken attended to kick off a joint project with the George W. Bush Institute and Freedom House to counter the erosion of support for democratic principles and institutions at home and abroad.<\/p>\n Similarly, former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who served under President Bill Clinton, joined former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served under Mr. Bush, for a panel discussion with Nikki R. Haley, the ambassador to the United Nations. At times, the two former secretaries gently coached Ms. Haley to resist Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to cut the State Department budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n Afterward, Mr. Bush and Ms. Albright hugged and sat together, with the former president draping his arm over her shoulders.<\/p>\n Mr. Bush also released a \u201ccall to action\u201d report examining threats to the liberal democratic order and making recommendations for protecting American institutions. The paper was drafted by Peter H. Wehner, a former adviser in his White House, and Thomas O. Melia, a former State Department official under Mr. Obama.<\/p>\n For Mr. Bush, democracy and free trade are longtime themes, but there was an edge in his address that went beyond the usual nostrums. Asked by a reporter as he left the hall whether his message would be heard in the White House, Mr. Bush smiled, nodded slightly and said, \u201cI think it will.\u201d<\/p>\n In his speech, the former president lamented that \u201cbigotry seems emboldened\u201d and \u201cour politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.\u201d<\/p>\n Pointing a finger at the nation\u2019s leaders, he said, \u201cWe know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed; it the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n He acknowledged public discontent. \u201cWe should not be blind to the economic and social dislocations caused by globalization,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are hurting. They\u2019re angry and they\u2019re frustrated. We must hear and help them. But we cannot wish globalization away any more than we could wish away the agricultural revolution or the industrial revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n He also offered what seemed like a rejoinder to a president who uses Twitter as a weapon in a perpetual political war. \u201cBullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone, provides permission for cruelty and bigotry and compromises the moral education of children,\u201d Mr. Bush said.<\/p>\n The Bush family has never been fond of Mr. Trump, who belittled Jeb Bush during their contest for the Republican presidential nomination last year. Neither the former president nor his father, former President George Bush, voted for Mr. Trump, and the two issued a joint statement in August denouncing white supremacists after the violence in Charlottesville, Va.<\/a>, which Mr. Trump blamed on \u201cboth sides.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n The younger Mr. Bush seemed to return to that on Thursday. \u201cBigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n