Dear President Bush:
Mr. President, as a patriotic American deeply concerned about the health and safety of the nation, and the future of American and Western democracy, I ask you to inform American voters that you will be voting for former Vice President Joe Biden on Election Day.
You are one of only 45 Americans who have served as president of the greatest democracy on earth, which is now threatened by forces foreign and domestic, and by a deadly disease that medical authorities warn may kill more than 400,000 Americans by Inauguration Day in January 2021.
President Bush, while mere mortals can write columns with calls to action, presidents and former presidents, at critical moments in our history, can guide the nation with words of historic immortality that are timeless in importance.
When our land was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, you rose with courage and clarity. You addressed our nation as a whole. To give us the courage and will to defeat the enemy who tried to destroy us. To lift our spirits to rally and unite Americans of all faiths and political viewpoints behind the great cause of that dark hour. Centuries from now, historians will write of that magnificent moment.
Today, our democracy is under attack by foreign enemies that seek to destroy it and our current president who refuses to accept a peaceful transfer of power, tries to impede the very act of voting for countless millions of Americans, seeks to discredit the 2020 election itself, pressures his attorney general to pursue criminal prosecution against his presidential predecessor and the Democratic nominees for president in 2016 and 2020, strangely praises enemies of America, insults American military commanders and undermines the alliance of democratic nations.
In October 2017, speaking at the George W. Bush Institute in New York, you gave what I believe was the single most important speech during the Trump presidency, and one of the most important speeches about democracy in the 21st century.
You spoke with wisdom and brilliance in a sweeping presentation covering a long list of matters. Citing Martin Luther King, you said that bigotry and white supremacy are blasphemy against the American creed. Citing leaders for human rights and democracy around the world, you warned of challenges to Western democracy and attacks against free elections from enemies of freedom. Your words remain as powerful and profound today, as the day you first spoke them.
Shortly thereafter, in a column titled “In his finest hour, Bush sounds the alarm on Trump,” I offered high praise for that speech — which I wish every voter could revisit today.
When cruel immigration policies left migrant children in cages, separated from their moms and dad, I was moved when your first lady, Laura Bush, wrote in The Washington Post criticizing these practices. In a column titled “God Bless Laura Bush,” I offered her well-deserved high praise.
Today, while our security and lives are endangered by a deadly virus that kills hundreds of thousands of Americans, which now threatens a horrifying second wave of death as flu season begins, while Americans fight for their lives in hospitals across the nation, President Trump says his own infection was a gift from God.
His White House became a disease-ridden hot zone. He continues practices that leading medical authorities state cause countless preventable deaths. His White House meetings and mass rallies are superspreaders of disease, death and denials.
Mr. President, I applaud your former aides and some very high-level appointees in your administration, and others close to the late Sen. John McCain, who risk their careers to advance their convictions to back Biden. I am moved when Cindy McCain, a national treasure who honors her profoundly patriotic late husband, does the same.
I hope you will say a little prayer for democracy and inform the nation you will vote for Biden, the only candidate whose election would prevent four more years of the dangers you warned about in your brilliant speech at the George W. Bush Institute.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.