George W. Bush says the Republicans ‘won’t win anything’ if they stand for ‘white Anglo-Saxon protestantism’

and slams his own party for not being inclusive

  • Former President George W. Bush suggested the GOP needed to reach out to a more diverse coalition of voters if it wanted to come back into power 
  • ‘It’s not going to win anything,’ Bush told The Dispatch podcast on Thursday, if it becomes the party of ‘white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism’ 
  • Bush had been asked about an effort spearheaded by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to form a caucus in favor of ‘Anglo-Saxon political traditions’ 
  • Bush warned that if the GOP went down that path for the next couple of years ‘there’s not going to be a party’ 
  • ‘You know, to me that basically says that we want to be extinct,’ the former Republican president added 
  • Bush is doing the rounds to promote his new book of paintings, ‘Out of Many, One,’ that showcase the American immigrant experience 
  • ‘I was discouraged when I saw some of the language associated with immigrants and wanted to present a different side,’ he said 

Former President George W. Bush suggested the Republican Party needed to reach out to a more diverse coalition of voters if it wanted to come back into power.

‘If you Republican Party stands for exclusivity – you know, it used to be country clubs, now evidently it’s white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism – then it’s not going to win anything,’ Bush said in an interview with The Dispatch podcast last week.

Bush has been promoting his new book of paintings, ‘Out of Many, One,’ which showcases immigrant stories – his own way to push back on the anti-immigrant rhetoric of former President Donald Trump‘s administration.

‘My whole point on all this immigration debate and stuff is, I think if we valued life as precious and every life matters, that we’re all God’s children, that all of a sudden the tone of the debate might be a little better,’ Bush told hosts Sarah Isgur, a GOP former Department of Justice spokeswoman, and Steve Hayes, the ex-editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard, on Thursday.

‘I mean, I was discouraged when I saw some of the language associated with immigrants and wanted to present a different side,’ he said later in the interview.

Isgur asked Bush about a recent initiative from far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to form a House ‘America First’ caucus that’s in favor of ‘Anglo-Saxon political traditions,’ with respect to immigration.

Isgur asked if the GOP followed that path for the next three to five years if Bush would still be a member of the party.

‘No I’d say there’s not going to be a party,’ Bush replied. ‘You know, to me that basically says that we want to be extinct,’ the former president continues, as Hayes suggested there were more Republicans who espoused those beliefs now than when Bush was the head of the party.