Bush Is Not The Problem

I want to start today by getting liberals a little angry at me.

George W. Bush is not an idiot. George W. Bush is not the problem.

George W. Bush is, in fact, nothing more than a symptom, both of the Nixon Thesis which birthed him and the autocratic imperative which drives him. The problem is not Bush, but those who follow him.

Yes, I'm looking at you.

But I'm also looking at you, and you, and you. There are some who followed this President, became ashamed, and like Colin Powell disappeared. There are others who followed this President, became ashamed, and like Joe Wilson became his enemies.

Then there are the others, who have no shame. I still see them, with their W '04 stickers on their SUVs, dropping off their kids at soccer practice, sometimes parking on the grass or blocking the path around the lot. I still hear them, every day, on the radio, ranting about how it's all "the liberals'" fault, or throwing their energy into even wilder schemes, like replacing all taxes with sales tax.

Some are motivated by faith. Many religions are inherently autocratic. The Catholic Church is an absolute monarchy. The Mormon Church prefers a Central Committee approach. Southern Baptists have long sought to emulate this structure. If that's what floats your boat you have an absolute right to it under the First Amendment. But when you bring that to the public square, forcing your faith and its tenets onto me and my children, then you're probably a Republican.

Some are motivated by greed. There has long been in Reaganism a strain of what I call "Easy Street" Republicanism, most of it proclaiming itself libertarian. They're all for robbing every public or private purse because they assume they'll never be the victims in it. Yet many of these same people do wind up as victims, becoming like the black knight in bankruptcy court ("it's only a scratch").

Some are just autocrats. They rule their own families with an iron fist. They rule their businesses the same way. They don't really believe in democracy at all. They don't understand that it means others can call them on their bullshit, push them out of power, or just disagree.

There are gay Republicans for whom politics is some self-abuse schtick, like Mark Foley or Ted Haggard. They're convinced of their own evil nature, and assume it in everyone else. There are black and brown and female versions of this condition as well. ("We've got getting hit on the head lessons over here.")

You can't talk to these people. Every discussion of politics becomes The Argument Clinic.  I have a teenage son going through this phase right now. I believe he'll grow out of it. Some never do.

For all these people, it seems, politics is not about issues, it's not about choices, it's not about policy at all. It's about power. The power to keep their own demons at bay by letting them loose on the rest of us.

It's not true that we all start as liberals, ruled by our hearts, and end up as conservatives, ruled by our heads. What's true is that as the twig is bent the tree is inclined. It takes enormous, wrenching change to shift someone's politics once their mind is set, and most of us follow what was popular in our youth.

For many baby boomers, and post-boomers, this is happening right now. It's a wrenching, painful thing. Many people in their 30s and 40s and 50s who have followed the Nixon Thesis since they first heard of politics are changing sides right now. Alex P. Keaton became Michael J. Fox. James Webb became the Democrat from Virginia. Kathleen Sibelius took half the Kansas GOP with her and made the state Democratic. The 2006 election may have been the first Democratic Party ballot many ever cast in their lives.

Millions of others will never, ever take that route. They will follow Bush-ism to their graves, like the old New Dealers you saw protesting Reagan's rise. And their political legacy will remain in us, their political stain will remain on us, not only for our lifetimes but for those of our children and our grandchildren.

We have met the problem and it is us. It is in us and among us. It will always be there. We are a generation of Lady MacBeths.