Republican · 1989–1993
George H. W. Bush
The Gulf War, the ADA, and a tax increase he had promised not to sign.
George H. W. Bush was president 1989–1993. The party color on the chart is Republican. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: The Gulf War, the ADA, and a tax increase he had promised not to sign.
The dot is economics +34 and authority +26. That is right of center on economics. The other axis sits toward authority. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: Read my lips: no new taxes. A kinder, gentler nation, and a steady foreign hand. Done: The Gulf War and the ADA. The 1990 budget deal raised taxes. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are Herbert Hoover (1929–1933, +30 / +22) and William McKinley (1897–1901, +28 / +32). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.