Through the Looking Glass

My last posting on President Bush and his herring on Social Security that was designed to keep our eyes off the problems in Iraq, the War on Terror, the trade and budget deficits, and our foreign relations was pretty snappy. It mixed a few metaphors and shot a few zingers. This entry is an expansion on my basic thesis that the office of the president is too powerful and dominates the media and the lives of the citizens too greatly.

Blogs are difficult. The writer has to make his points breezy and entertaining yet must be close enough to the truth and facts as to be reasonable and pursuasive.

The modern presidency is too powerful, not just this president but any and all that will succeed Mr. Bush. George Washington had few means to sway the hearts and minds of his countrymen beyond those to whom he could display himself and project his voice – damn few given those wooden teeth. None of this changed greatly until possibly Lincoln and the newspapers that championed or vilified him.

Theodore Roosevelt understood the power of the press and spoke above the heads of office holders and party officials through clever manipulation of the paper medium and by means of speaking to thousands from rail cars in dozens of venues.

TR’s distant cousin was the first to master the radio which permitted entry into almost all homes in the republic. FDR became our first modern media president and those who followed have piggy backed on his gains. Certainly, John Kennedy mastered television and the news conference and achieved and aura of near sainthood that lingers to this day. Ronald Reagan could talk the birds out of the trees and his mastery of all modes of mass communication was nearly perfect. And of course Bill Clinton raised presidential sophistry to an art form. Just what is the meaning of is?

No longer is the presidency in need of such geniuses as these to master the swaying of the masses. The techniques are well known and the successors of the presidents named above are able to sustain what has been codified in the bible of mass communication.

George W. Bush has been derided as an intellectual midget. This is far from true. He has a way with the media that is unique and which gives him power equal to the best communicators of the past. I’d call it a through the looking glass power. Here we have a leader able to redefine issues right before our eyes so effectively that what is important on one day is irrelevant the next and vice versa.

This president defined himself as a wartime president. After the events of September 11, 2001, he rallied the people and drove his approval ratings through the stratosphere by declaring a war on terror in general and al Qaeda in particular. He called upon the Taliban to expel al Qaeda, and when they refused, he sent a force to do it and to capture or kill members of both organizations.

Before this expedition had completed its mission, he decided that Iraq would become the center piece of the war on terror. The drums of war were beaten continuously and demands were made on the United Nations to enforce its resolutions. Failure of the U.N. to acquiesce to U.S. demands would force us to form our own coalition and enforce them in spite of the wishes of other member states to pursue less draconian courses.

We know that our Secretary of State on a world stage was able to show definitively to the tens of millions across the globe who saw his performance that Iraq had active programs of chemical and biological weapons development. Other intelligence available from U.S. and friendly governments confirmed these programs and either an active program to develop nuclear weapons or an intention to pursue one aggressively in the very near term.

We all know that the Security Council, despite such proof - slam dunk quality - failed to enforce its own resolutions and that in order to save the U.N. as a viable world body, America and its coalition of the willing attacked Iraq with the intent of toppling Saddam and stopping these programs. The United States acted preemptively to defend itself and its friends.

Within weeks, the president landed on an aircraft carrier off of San Diego and declared the war had been won. Casualties were minimal and the Iraqis, in addition to happily welcoming our forces as liberators, would soon be members of a democracy espousing Western style government.

The president welcomed the small insurgency that met our forces and urged these foreign fighters “to bring it on.” They did.

That weapons of mass destruction or even programs to develop them were not found was immaterial. Saddam was a vicious tyrant who deserved toppling. That we had acted not preemptively to defend ourselves but rather preventively – an illegal act under international conventions – was immaterial. He was bad and it was done.

The president ran his successful reelection campaign on a three fold strategy: he was war time president and the man to handle the war on terror and the Iraq War; second, he was the candidate of values – the defender of marriage, the foe of abortion, and champion of religion in the country, and he was for cutting taxes and the size of the federal government. He also mentioned – VERY MUCH UNDER HIS BREATH – that he would propose changes in Social Security.

He was reelected by a margin sufficient for him to claim a mandate to do all of those things. Polling and common sense would indicate that some of these issues were far more critical to his victory than others. That he was a wartime leader and the best man to pursue the war on terrorists was by far the one that I drew as the one leading to his win. Obviously, others may differ on this point.

Now within weeks of the election, the president has declared a national crisis in Social Security and is beating the drum for its reform and overhaul. Raising the payroll tax which funds the program is the only alternative that Mr. Bush will not consider – this in advance of the summit of experts on the program that will consider all options except that one.

The war ended when Saddam’s army was disbanded - the occupation in support of the Iraqi interim government will end when the elections are held next month. Our troops will remain as guests of the new Iraqi government for only as long as they are needed.

The war was a success – ending in three weeks. The successful support of the Iraqi interim establishment is about over. We’ve given the Medals of Freedom that attest to the end of all problems. And we look forward to withdrawing our support troops as soon as the new government can maintain its own safety and security. Were it not for gaffes by people such as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, the Iraq War and indeed the War on Terror itself would be banished from the media and from our homes.

So now our election is past and the conquest and liberation just about complete, Mr. Bush is the president of the poor Baby Boomers whose parents are in the process of robbing their offspring blind and of Xgeners who will get nothing.

This is a national crisis, we have only eighteen years until the Social Security fund will begin paying out more than it takes in and some forty to fifty years before it will be unable to meet its obligations. Clearly, we must act in the next session of Congress or the nation will perish in half a century. Thank God we won the Iraq War. Otherwise one might think it imprudent to take on the additional two trillion dollars in debt that the president’s program will require.

I could go on but you get my point. Lewis Carroll could not have dreamed up anything more bizarre. The president has successfully led a red herring across the path to victory in the war on terror, and millions of citizens are beating the drums to assist him solve tomorrow’s crisis today. All the while Osama bin Laden is calling on disaffected Islamists everywhere to kill me - and you.

America is a conservative country, and communicators from outlets like Fox and individuals like Rush Limbaugh have been able to convince a gigantic portion of the population that good investigative journalism is simply a euphemism for Liberalism.

I moved from being a liberal Democrat in my youth to become a moderately conservative Republican by the time of this president’s first campaign in 2000. In view of the excessive power of the presidency to redefine all issues and policies, I now classify myself simply as an out and intend – at least at this minute - to vote for divided government to check this outsize source of power.