The Bush Administration's Self-imposed Break From the Destruction

For those who haven't noticed, the White House has been rolling out a new political strategy aimed at making itself "relevant" again.

In brief, it entails buttering up a disgruntled, disaffected public, so that it can rebuild some leverage over an alienated, apoplectic Congress, so it can then continue having its way on wasteful war spending.

That's the plan for the coming and final year -- a plan that is both humorous in its execution, and tragic in its necessity.

First the funny part. What the White House has devised is a "kitchen table" approach -- sounds homey, doesn't it? -- in which the president seizes on "new and more creative ways of engaging the public as his days in office dwindle and his clout with Congress lessens." And since the president and Congress aren't talking to each other these days, the former is simply back-dooring through executive orders what it laughably calls fresh, domestic "initiatives."

Why laughably? Because they're just more of the same old new and creative flimflam we've come to know and expect from this Orwellian outfit.

For instance last month Bush "traveled to the shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland to announce federal protection for two coveted species of game fish, the striped bass and the red drum." And "Just this weekend, thanks to an executive order by Mr. Bush, the military is opening up additional air space -- the White House calls it a 'Thanksgiving express lane' -- to lessen congestion in the skies."

Sure enough, targeted portions of the public thrilled to these executive innovations through executive order. But, sure enough, there was another side to them; one, ah, a little less ballyhooed: "Fishing for red drum and striped bass ... is already prohibited in federal waters; Mr. Bush's action will take effect only if the existing ban is lifted. And the Federal Aviation Administration can already open military airspace on its own, without presidential action."

For a change, however, the White House's overt Orwellian humbug is actually comforting. For as incompetent as this administration is, any muted subtleties on matters such as fishing rights and airspace would have only indicated that it simply wasn't aware of the preexisting legalities. Better to make a big splash and let us know it's on top of its usual game.

But the necessity behind the White House's new groove isn't nearly as laughable. Yes, Bill Clinton also shifted to "small ball" politics in his second term -- as Bush's strategists once doggedly denied they would ever do but now eagerly pursue -- yet the reasons for Clinton's doing so weren't to avert the public's eyes from the absolutely worst record in two-term presidential history -- bar none; hands down; indisputably, empirically, factually true.

When one surveys the wreckage wrought upon us in a mere seven years, the concentrated blow is staggering. Put aside the administration's failures, such as immigration reform and tax-code reinvention, and think only for a moment on its "successes."

At home -- the obliteration of a budget surplus; a deepening chasm between the rich and poor; an effective delay of health care reform; an educational initiative that doesn't educate; environmental protections ignored; a looming Baby Boomer crisis shoved aside; an economy heading into the tank; a Big Brother intimidation of the citizenry; and, in general, laws violated and flaunted with abandon.

Abroad -- a troubled Middle East exacerbated; no movement whatsoever on a Palestinian-Israeli accord; two wars, both failing, and another in the works; nuclear proliferation; a mind-numbing trade deficit; armed forces spent and depleted; alienated and angry allies; empowered foes; unapprehended enemies; and a world that, quite simply, hates us.

Did I overlook a few items? A dozen? A thousand? You betcha. When historians sit down to write narratives of this administration, they'll have two choices: short, pulp fictions about its masterful strokes, or honest, multivolume expositions of nitwitted reversals of fortune that no matter how many volumes are scribbled, they still won't do reality justice.

So, as the administration busies itself with redundant executive orders in preparation for the final onslaught, try to take some satisfaction that for a while, at least, it's relatively harmless.

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... to support p m carpenter's commentary -- and thank you!

Comments

[epppie]

And yet the folks, in the face of a tanking economy, turned out religiously for the annual holiday spending spree. What was THAT about?
Was it a case of spend it while it's still there to spend? Or was it a case of bizarre faux optimism, harking back to W's exhortations to 'shop, shop, shop' for Uncle Sam (Walton) after 911?

[Helen Rainier]

Eppppie -- I was NOT one of those out "shopping" on Black Friday. In fact, I have NEVER done the shop til you drop thing on the day after Thanksgiving. I've watched footage year after year of this phenom and still don't get it.

PM -- interesting commentary. Isn't it bizarre to see just how pathetic and vulgar this "administration" is. It's tragic in a "black comedy" type of way. If there weren't so many serious issues involved it would be funny. Sadly, we will be paying for the obscene excesses of the Bushcons for generations to come -- not only financially but morally. I hope the lives of Cheney and Bush careen down a sewer when they leave office -- much like Reagan's did. The last few years of his life were spent in a fog due to his Alzheimer's.

Was that karma for his underhanded and evil doings? I like to think so -- may the same happen to Dubya and Darth. It would be poetic justice.