George H.W. Bush: “Maybe they're happy with their President. Do you think? I don't know why. I don't know why they don't participate.…”

“Maybe they're happy with their President. Do you think? I don't know why. I don't know why they don't participate. They're making a big mistake if they don't. And I think there's a turnoff on politics. I've been pointing out some of it recently in the fact that I think there's a frustration with the legislative branch as a body because I think people see the Congress, as a whole, not acting. And maybe it's my own frustration because we have proposed initiative after initiative. I'll give you one example: an anticrime bill that we put forward 24 months ago, I think, today, and no action has been taken on it. And American people look at their neighborhoods and they say, wait a minute, we have 535 Members of Congress, and why hasn't something happened? This could be part of it. I don't know. I don't know why there's a frustration, but I mean, I should, in fairness, look at Dionne's book because I think he's a cogent observer of the American political scene. But I hadn't heard of the book or seen it. 1980 Hostage Deal Reports”