The Informationist

Finally--the Bush Presidency without Histrionics

I started another thread today on TPMCafe:

Anyone who followed the discussions about the Democrats lack of ides that Matt Yglesias kicked off a few days ago might want to check out The Economist’s cover story, ”George Bush’s Long Hot Summer.”

For one thing, it includes a line likely to reignite the discussion that Matt started, “Democrats lack both ideas and leadership.” More importantly, though, The Economist’s balanced, dispassionate view of the Bush prseidency (a view, incidentally, that led the magazine to endorse John Kerry for President), outlines a wonderful agenda for any Democrat willing to grab it:

Mr Bush has not been wrong about everything. We have never shared his enthusiasm for the religious right (see article), which is one reason to watch his Supreme Court appointments nervously. And we have long regarded his approach to both fiscal policy and civil liberties as reckless: he deserves all the flak he gets over Guantánamo. But we have supported his push for democracy in the Middle East, his tough approach to the war on terror and, yes, the Iraq war; and in his domestic policy we have found things to admire, including his education reforms and his willingness to tackle Social Security.

So what is he doing wrong? Mr Bush’s biggest problem remains execution—a crucial failing in one so ambitious. The mistakes vary from challenge to challenge, but they usually involve three things: mis-selling, an obstinate refusal to change course or personnel and a failure to reach out to opponents.

The implicit agenda for a successful opposition campaign?

(i) Oppose attmepts to favor specific religious organizations and to write their favored positions into law;

(ii) Impose a measure of fiscal discipline and sanity--preferably by rethinking some economic systems that have grown sclerotic over time (I have begun a discussion of tax simplification on the Economics Table);

(iii) Stand strongly for civil liberties;

(iv) Close Guantanmo, draft rules governing the treatment of terror suspects, and apply them scrupulously in a new facility;

(v) Improve support for global liberalization, democratization, and good governance by emphasizing flexible combinations of aid, diplomacy, and military intervention, and by allocating sufficient resources to achieve our goals;

(vi) Contiue reforming education by emphasizing responsibility and performance--and begin thinking about the contours of an education system appropriate for an information economy, rather than an industrial economy;

(vii) Improve the long-term solvency of the social security system without gutting the program or recreating the possiblity of widespread senior poverty;

(viii) Focus on competence, be honest with the American people, and plan for contingencies, and try to craft broad domestic coalitions pushing towards a shared goal, rather than narrow ones organized around a narrow means.

Some might say that this agenda described the Kerry campaign. Maybe it did. Then again, maybe it didn’t. Even in retrospect it’s hard for me to be sure--and that in and of itself goes a long way toward explaining the perception that Democrats lack ideas.

Posted by Bruce Abramson from on 06/26 at 12:32 AM in American Government, Politics, and Domestic Policies, Foreign Affairs and the World beyond Our Borders