Bush Report Card

by Kevin Carey

G21 Staff Writer

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Kevin Carey

KEVIN CAREY assesses Bush's crude first six months and fears a second term.

Any survey of the political scene before the Summer break must begin with President Bush.

Uniquely, his Gallup rating is exactly where it was on Inauguration Day, at 57%. Considering the controversy over his election, the closeness of the result in any case and the number of errors he is supposed to have committed since, all of them taking him away from 'compassionate conservatism' and towards the 'far right', that is a remarkable number.

First -- and foremost -- there was the tax cut whose proposed terms were so extreme that millionaires blushed. In the light of economic performance since, the best that can be said of it is that it was somewhat precipitate.

Then there was the infamous renunciation of the Kyoto Climate Protocol which went hand in hand with measures, reported very little in Europe, to pay back the energy producing industries for their electoral support. Whatever its scruples, the United States should never allow itself to be in a minority of one at a world forum; it is simply politically inept.

Bush could have haggled over the terms at Amsterdam and, in any case, what came out was more symbolic than real and would make very little difference to American economic performance during a Bush Presidency at least. The penalties for not observing the terms of the Protocol have not yet been agreed. Over missile defence, too, Bush was unnecessarily precipitate and crude. Given Putin's very weak economic position, Bush could have squared him before making any announcement instead of which the President went unilateral and forced Putin into a face-saving position announced at Genoa. Russia may not be the power that the Soviet Union was but it can still be a mighty nuisance and it now has a substantial grudge on ice. In all three cases the resentment that he stirred was avoidable, so the key question is whether his actions were deliberate or miscalculations.

I have no doubt that all the White House brutishness was calculated. Bush is not so stupid that he does not know he is. He might have slipped once but his people would not have allowed a repeat performance. After his election he had a simple agenda: pay your debts, to the energy companies, to the defence industries, to the plutocrats. Bush has very swiftly sorted out the priority issues as if the Administration and taxation were simply commodities that can be bought and sold. These are the actions of a deeply cynical and corrupt man which makes Bill Clinton's peccadilloes of the financial, let alone the sexual, sort look trivial.

That number also says a lot about the American people. In spite of the outrageous intervention of the judiciary to fix the election in Bush's favour, in spite of the narrowness of the result, the obvious sham of compassion, the gratuitous vandalism of Kyoto, the blatant paybacks to industry and the sale of the public administration to the highest bidder, the people are not discontented; they have their tax cut.

At the same point in his first Presidency Clinton's rating was 41% and he was handsomely re-elected and so one has to conclude that there is a very good chance that Bush has another seven and a half years to destroy what is left of the public's public service.

It is said that the Jeffords defection gave a boost to the Democrats but they should not have needed it. Their defeat was so narrow in all races that they had a moral right to be heard and a strong political right to be angry with Bush's self indulgent crassness. It would far better suit my temperament if the Democrats could bring themselves to argue rationally against the evils of the Bush administration but reason makes for bad sound bites, so the next best thing is righteous anger. Yet all is quiet.

Heaven knows we have learned in the past two decades that what the 'right' takes away the 'left' cannot restore. Clinton, Blair and Jospin's mission has been to hold the line against further rightward drift in the hope that sentiment will change. The ground which the Democrats lose to Bush in terms of de-regulation they will never get back.

That is to take the wide view but narrowing the perspective, four years of Bush may damage the lives of the poor but eight years of him will destroy them because it is much easier to send people down the spiral of poverty and addiction than it is to raise them up the ladder of education and hope.

Meanwhile, I pray nightly for the survival of liberal judges on the Supreme Court. It is generally accepted that it is split 50/50 with Sandra O'Connor as the 'swing' vote, so one will do it. If that happens then Bush is not likely to be any more subtle over social issues such as Roe versus Wade than he has been over diplomatic matters.

I do not suppose that he holds the poor at home in any less contempt than the poor abroad. Republicans since Goldwater have all been of this coarse stamp but Bush is the first not to trouble to hide it. He knows that his talents and his mandate leave him in no position to negotiate; his only recourse can be to brute force. What is worrying is that it shows every sign of working. He apparently is gifted with personal charm and the ability to sit quietly while others are rubbishing his policies. So much the worse for us if we allow that kind of shallow consideration to sway our political judgment. Bush in control of the Executive, the judiciary and the legislature and in league with big business is almost too alarming to contemplate. The senate is the only obstacle to his complete, barbaric hegemony.

With those depressing thoughts let us go on holiday, re-charge our batteries and get ready to take the assault on Bush's chances of a second term much more seriously when we get back.

KEVIN CAREY is social entrepreneur, economist and Director of the UK's humanITy. He can be reached via e-mail at "humanity@atlas.co.uk".

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