Today, we publish Part II of my series on George W. Bush, whom I visited at his center in Dallas. Here is a dose of what he said:
“For me, the freedom agenda became extremely clear right after September the 11th. I mean, the immediate focus was of course, How do we protect ourselves from another attack? The long-term focus had to be the root causes of radicalism, and the frustrations that caused 19 fairly well-educated kids to come and murder 3,000. I came to the conclusion that forms of society matter. And one reason people were frustrated is that nobody ever listens to them. There’s a group of elites that dominate their lives. And the more educated people have become in the 21st century, the more frustrated they grow, because nobody seems to care what they think. Witness Egypt.”
He then spoke of young people who had protested in Tahrir Square and then came to see him in Dallas.