George W. Bush Is Not Your Fucking Grandpa

DeGeneres highlighted one tweet she said she “loved” which read, “Ellen and George Bush together makes me have faith in America again.” The audience roared with applause and DeGeneres joined them, nodding: “Exactly!”

DeGeneres argued that her friendship with Bush is actually a core part of her personal ethos, which she laid out for the audience:

I’m friends with George Bush. In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different, and I think that we’ve forgotten that OK that we’re all different… Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean I’m not going to be friends with them. When I say be kind to one another, I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do, I mean be kind to everyone.

Among her fellow celebrities, at least, DeGeneres’s monologue was a hit. Gwen Stefani sent her an “I love u” tweet while Reese Witherspoon tweeted, “Thank you for this important reminder, Ellen!” And on Instagram, DeGeneres received praise from celebrities like Jennifer Garner, Snooki, Jamie Foxx, Orlando Bloom, Kendall Jenner, and Lenny Kravitz.

But Bush isn’t your Aunt Karen who makes off-color comments at Thanksgiving, or a friend who’s supporting a different candidate during the primaries. He was the 43rd president of the United States who, during his eight-year tenure, oversaw the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people during his administration alone. He’s the harbinger of the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the lead up to the Great Recession. The sliver of decent beliefs he held—like a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, an impossible platform for a contemporary Republicans to run on today—are mitigated by his endorsement of the regressive Federal Marriage Amendment, the implementation of the Bush tax cuts, and human rights nightmares like Abu Ghraib.

In the years since his presidency, Bush has been transformed in parts of the public imagination into doddering, painting uncle. This affable reputation that has preceded his penchant for painting charming portraits of his dogs or sharing cough drops with Michelle Obama. His Texan drawl and boyish smirk have often lent themselves to caricature that he’s harmless, at best, or, at worst, was an idiotic puppet used at the behest of people smarter, more conniving, and bloodthirstier than he was.

As the Bush years faded—while his wars and economic crisis carried on—the man himself gradually became an afterthought; there was enough political turmoil to keep everyone busy, and to push Bush from the forefront of American minds. While the right was becoming emboldened by overt nativism and demagoguery—the kind that a compassionate conservative like Bush would never endorse in public—the former president was relaxing on his ranch in Texas, painting portraits of Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin.

And now that the unique crassness of President Trump reigns, Bush nostalgia is in full force; his favorability numbers have nearly doubled since he left office in 2009. (DeGeneres herself has already had a small hand in Bush’s rebrand: he appeared on her show in 2017.) But as his image has been rehabilitated, Bush has continued to use his power in recent years to inflict harm: In 2018, Bush used his influence to persuade Senators to support Justice Kavanaugh, despite sexual assault allegations against him.

“When I say be kind to one another, I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do, I mean be kind to everyone,” DeGeneres said during her show, laying out what she believes in her central motivation. It’s a good instinct, but as comedy writer Megan Amram observed, “You can’t be nice to everyone because nice to certain people is inherently cruel to others.” And when kindness is extended to those who have used their power to perform acts of abject cruelty, “kindness” becomes an endorsement.