In 1991, I received a phone call from Lamar Alexander inviting me to come to D.C. to talk about working in the U.S. Department of Education. I didn’t think I wanted to do it, but I was intrigued. So I flew to D.C., had lunch with Lamar and David Kearns, CEO of Xerox, and agreed to join them. Lamar had just been appointed Secretary of Education by President George H.W. Bush, and he invited David to be his Deputy Secretary. They invited me to become Assistant Secretary in charge of the Office of Research and Improvement and Counselor to the Secretary. I agreed.

Over the next 18 months, I had a wonderful job. Lamar and David were great to work with and for.

Skipping over lots of details, I had one extended visit with Barbara Bush. Her office invited me to fly with her to Houston and deliver a speech to a community group in her stead. We spent four hours together on Air Force 2, her private jet, with only one other person present, her PR woman.

I first met George H.W. Bush when Ronald Reagan was President and Bush was VP. About 25 educators were invited to a meeting in the Cabinet Room. I sat next to Vice President Bush, directly across from President Reagan. Reagan told funny stories and charmed the room. At one lull, I mentioned to VP Bush that my mother was worried about whether the Reagan administration would protect Israel. A week later, I got a photograph of those of us at the table. With it was a letter from President Reagan thanking me for my participation. There was a P.S.: “Please tell your mother I got her message,” That was the work of VP Bush. He paid attention.

When Bush was President, Lamar and David invited me to go with them one day to see the President. I jumped at the chance. He couldn’t have been nicer or more gracious. After the year that I had been in D.C., I had come to see that the best thing I could accomplish was to get some great photos (the Democratic Staff had already told me that nothing we proposed would be enacted). I sat across from the President with Lamar and David. I inched my chair closer, then closer. At some point, I was almost sitting at his side, behind his desk. He thought it was hilarious.

He was a decent man. He was honest. He was civil. He was conservative but not a crazy right winger. He was a good man.

Living at a time when the Republican Party has become completely subservient to a man who has no morals, no ethics, no scruples, I say this: I miss George H.W. Bush. I miss the kind of Republican he was. I pray that the scourge of Trumpism will soon disappear, and that what remains of the GOP rediscovers its spine, its soul, its ethics, and its brain.