Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham joined more than 150 MTSU students, faculty and community members to discuss his latest biography and patterns in modern presidential elections Tuesday afternoon.
Meacham’s discussion, though largely focused on his biography, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, took place just hours before the New Hampshire primary and, fittingly, included plenty of ties back to the 2016 election.
While discussing the life and presidency of George H.W. Bush, Meacham called him the “last of his kind of Republican,” noting the change in the Republican party since Bush Sr. was in office.
“The movement from George Bush to Ted Cruz is sort of like what Henry Adams said about how the movement from Washington to Grant disproved Darwinism,” Meacham said. “That’s a Creationist’s argument there.”
Meacham later noted that Bush Sr. was “everywhere” in politics when he needed to be, adding that “there was probably always a sense that he was going to succeed” as he held positions as a congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, national Republican Party chairman, envoy to China and CIA director prior to his presidency.
“I wouldn’t compare George Bush to Forrest Gump,” said Ken Paulson, moderator and dean of the MTSU College of Media and Entertainment. “But he was there for every moment in history.”
Later, in a rather poignant comparison, Meacham eluded to the similarities between affluent 1992 Republican primary candidate Ross Perot and 2016 Republican primary candidate Donald Trump.
“As Mark Twain said, ‘History does not repeat itself, but it sometimes rhymes,'” Meacham said. “It would be ‘Trumpot,’ or something like that.”
Recognizing once more the similarities between this year’s presidential election and that of 1992, Meacham gave a final nod to the impending primaries, adding, “Remember, people have lost a lot of a lot of money betting against Bushes and Clintons.”
This discussion was the inaugural event of MTSU’s Pulitzer Prize Centennial Series and was sponsored by the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies, MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment and the Tom T. Hall Writers Series.
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