The Abdication of George W. Bush

As I have mentioned before in this space, I regrettably voted for George W. Bush twice. Most people will argue that I should have learned my lesson the first time, to which I always respond "at least we don't have two more socialists on the Supreme Court." Unfortunately, I have only grown increasingly disappointed and cynical about this administration. Many of us had hoped in 2000 that we would have a free market President. What we got was a big spending socialist.

Those of us who believe in free markets and liberty gave him a pass in the first term saying "let's give him a chance to build a coalition so he can have a mandate in 2004." Then 9/11 happened. Then the War in Iraq. The Farm Bill, No Child Left Behind, the Prescription Drug Benefit, massive deficit spending, the Patriot Act, Wiretapping, Torture, and did I mention....more deficit spending.

The President was originally envisioned to be the big red stop sign to Congress. I recently read an excellent article in the Village Voice (strange that I should say such a thing, I know) by a convert to free market causes. He pointed out that the Founders knew that the President would try to become King and Congress would try to sell off all the silverware. That's why Congress made the laws, not the President. That's why the President was given a veto: to prevent the sale of the silverware.

However, President Bush, like many professed Conservatives before him, came into office with a legislative agenda. In this day and age, Presidents have to promise bold legislative agendas in order to get elected, and President Bush was no different. He needed to be able to placate the Christian Right. He needed education and health care initiatives to cut into the Democrats' base of moderates and independents. He co-opted Ted Kennedy to show bipartisanship on Educational Reform. But in return for getting his agenda through, he had to abdicate the greatest and most important legislative power given to him by the Constitution: his veto.

President Bush has vetoed or pocket vetoed only 9 pieces of legislation. One of them has been overridden. He has vetoed fewer bills than any President since Warren G. Harding, who died barely over 2 years into office.

The problem with modern presidents is their need to leave a legacy. They think much of this should be done legislatively. We no longer have a statesman who temporarily presides over the Republic as its caretaker--we have a Caesar who wants to be immortalized in the history books with bold reform agendas. Reform and Change have become cliche. You find few people who boldly advocate dispositional conservatism--that is "just leave things alone." Activists on both sides of the aisle now think we need massive changes. Although I agree we do, I'd be fine if we just didn't do anything for a while. We might find it's quite a relief.

This is probably why most people tune out politics: people do not want to face problems, and they do not like to confronted with a million crises. This has led to crisis fatigue. Both sides of the aisle present bogeymen who must be fought, be it poverty or terrorism, health coverage or economic growth. And though we have now entered into some truly dangerous times with respect to our economy, I believe the American people are overloaded.

So they are becoming escapists. "If we don't like how things are, we'll just pretend that they aren't." I would contend that this is the source of much of the euphoria surrounding the Obama campaign. Empty promises of hope are a lot more appealing than talking about crises. But pay attention: this is why the Obama campaign is going to suffer a great decline, either between now and the Democratic Convention, or between the Democratic Convention and election day. Since some in the media and all of his political enemies have called him out on the emptiness of his promises, he has started attempting policy speeches. They are bad. He rambles, can't make a point, and his charisma is supplanted by inarticulate babbling. A master of the English language he is not. A master of policy he couldn't dream to be.

But I ask the next President, whether it is Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain: use your veto pen, and use it often. Be the caretaker of our Republic, not the Caesar of an Empire. Stop Congress from selling the silverware rather than conspiring with them in order to get your legislative legacy adopted. We can't afford another president who abdicates his responsibilities.