Bush’s Bus Ride

Bush’s Bus Ride
Leadership or Roadkills

While researching my April Fool’s Day article, I came across an interview with Billy Bush by Stephen Colbert. Bush was talking to Donald the Dumb on an Access Hollywood bus that someone taped and released a month before the 2016 presidential election.

I had watched the taping of the Trump talking about his sex appeal and being macho. “You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

I didn’t know who Bush was and had never watched Access Hollywood. Bush seemed to kiss up to Trump during their conversation about Trump’s sexual drive. Dozens of women didn’t like his sexual activity. So, Trump talks the talk about being macho while he sexually attacks women. Bush mentions reading an article about all these women who called him out.

This is one absurd reality for any human being to say. Trump gets away with sexual impropriety, and women suffer as he brags about his sexual charm. Bush, in introspect, understands Trump’s behavior toward women and how women suffer while Trump enjoys it. However, he sees the parallel in his own life. NBC fired him for his comments, and Trump was elected president. And Bush was thrown under the bus.

Bush danced with Trump and realized that the dancing wasn’t worth it. Trump merely dumped Bush on the dancefloor of life. Nonetheless, Bush accepted the consequences and moved on. So, I respect Bush for his honesty; in the process, he became a role model for Trump’s minions. Ask any one of those MAGA admirers what they think about Trump. Some know Trump is a jerk, but they don’t have the guts to say it. Shakespeare warned Republicans in Washington or at the state and local level, beware.

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

Leadership is about leading. Being a leader isn’t kissing Donald the Dumb’s ring or whatever. Then, the other MAGA Bible-carrying followers fall into lockstep with the elected cowards. They live in perpetual fear of Trump throwing them under the bus in a nanosecond. History will remember them as mere roadkills.

We all have been given the gift of life. Our place on this pale blue dot is finite. Some of us will be around for a brief time, while others will be for much longer. After we are gone, we will be either leaders or roadkill.

One of the benefits of dancing with death is that it teaches you that your clock is ticking. I wouldn’t wish to face a subdural hematoma or prostate cancer again, but I wouldn’t delete them from my life. I can hear the clock ticking louder and louder. If you have not done the dance, trust me. It teaches us loudly to live a meaningful life. Or you can pledge alliance to our former president, who was twice impeached, faces four indictments, and eighty-eight charges.

This is the Colbert’s interview with Billy Bush.