Bush’s Moment of Truth
Bashing Bush over the increasingly tragic mishandling of the Katrina aftermath in New Orleans smacks of politics. Bush is the most partisan president in recent memory, presiding over a hostile and arrogant Republican Party whose central mission is to extirpate liberalism from American culture. Anything critical of Bush and Republicans is therefore first viewed through the prism of this partisan death-match, as a tactic by which Democrats can reclaim political power by capitalizing on misfortune.
There’s another aspect to Bush’s job, however, often lost in the welter of politics. That is governing. He’s the President, in charge of the executive branch of government. In this role, he has certain responsibilities. At the end of the day, citizens are entitled to have basic expectations about the capabilities and competence of their government, regardless of which political party is in charge. Disaster response is pretty much at the top of the list.
It’s not clear from the news today whether the situation in New Orleans is beginning to stabilize or is still deteriorating. At this point, however, that’s not the whole story. The slow response over the past three days has done irreparable damage. Lives and property have been needlessly lost, public order was allowed to crumble perilously, and faith in our government’s basic capabilities has been shaken. Whatever happens today and tomorrow can’t undo the errors that have inarguably been directly caused by executive indifference and incompetence.
Unlike Iraq, which is far away, this is all happening right here in America, with the full scrutiny of the American people. Under these circumstances, it’s not a matter of politics to hold the President to certain standards of performance. How poorly things are going on the Gulf Coast isn’t a matter of opinion or relative standards; the excuses for inaction are not subject to endlessly-shifting justifications, as in Iraq. There’s no tinge of disloyalty in criticizing the government response to Katrina. Whatever opponents can say about Democrats, they’re not on the side of natural disasters.
This President, who is good enough at the political game to get himself elected, turns out not to be much good at the basic job he was elected to do. To date, in the face of the terrorist threat, Bush has been able to placate a fair number of people by talking a good game and “standing tall,” even as astute observers point out the failure of his policies to meet their stated objectives. The presence of a clearly “evil” human foe has provided justification for practically every crazy whim and freakish policy Bush has pursued at home and abroad.
Now Katrina presents a moment of truth. There’s no enemy to fight, just human needs to be met, through the kind of basic effective action that any American has a right to expect from its government. Amazingly, at this late date, I’m not convinced that Republicans in the government, starting with Bush, really think this is their problem. Which begs the question: what exactly do they think they are supposed to be doing?
In this light, it’s not primarily a partisan matter, as much as Bush would like it to be so. It’s entirely possible that another Republican wouldn’t be as helpless and inept in the face of difficulty as Bush, and Jimmy Carter sadly proved that inability to handle crisis isn’t limited to Republicans. But Carter faced his moment of accountability in 1980, and the American people demanded better – including many Democrats who voted for Reagan or Anderson. Bush, who made it past his final election, is surrounded by lockstep Republicans in all branches of government and buffered by a “base” that would applaud if he personally burned down their own homes, is happily insulated from the consequences of his failure. The people who put him in charge, against the overwhelming evidence of his lack of competence and seriousness, however, have a lot to answer for.
12:28:55 PM 
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