The Optical Illusion of George W Bush: Presidency Without a Purpose

As the immigration bill rattles around the capitol, and the House and the Senate start meeting to reconcile their competing drafts, Bush increasingly appears like an innocent bystander to the political game. Bush has made his speeches, staked out his position, and made an effort to have his bill adopted. As with most pieces of domestic legislation, however, every Senator and Representative has his own opinions, shaped around some mix of his own principles and the demands of his constituency. Having conceded ground to Bush on the foreign policy front, members of both houses guard domestic policy ever more jealously.

On top of which, pending mid-term elections create pressures to produce. Everyone wants to stake out a claim to political activity. The costs of bucking the President’s wishes, especially one with as little control over his own party as Bush, are insignificant compared to the benefits to be gained by election year posturing. The authoritarian immigration bill that came out of the House already departed significantly from Bush's plan, and caused a ruckus in the Republican Party, not to mention the Senate. Meanwhile, the Senate Majority leader and presidential hopeful, Bill Frist, has already publicly split from Bush’ plan. In fact, when it comes to the immigration bill, Bush’s opinions appear less as the authoritative desires of a party leader, and more as the ideas of another interested decision-maker to be factored in amongst all the other competing constituencies.

All of this means the immigration bill is likely to be one of those standard pieces of election year compromise legislation, in which a mix of different interests are cobbled together under the banner of ‘reform’, a few dissenting voices take a stand on principle, and everyone goes home with something to show their constituency. What it won’t possess is the imprimatur of the President’s will, except in the purely formal sense that he will have to sign the bill. This has been a general pattern for domestic legislation under Bush, other notable instances being intelligence reform, health care reform, social security reform, and the even more ignored transportation and energy bills. In each of these situations, the president’s foray into domestic politics has come up against that irritation of irritations: politics. Managing the struggle of competing interests, the painstaking work of uniting disparate groups under a common banner, and even more, the attempt to infuse a policy issue with political ideals, has been well beyond the capacities of this president. He is as bad at domestic diplomacy, as he is at international negotiations. This is not merely a matter of personal character, but a product of the fact that he has no ideas with which to enchant and to make sense of the various domestic issues he faces.

All of which points to why Bush prefers the crisis environment of the war on terror to the nitty-gritties of governing the United States. Bush wants to be a ‘war president’ because it is the only way for him to give purpose to his exercise of power, or really, to avoid having to explain his reasons for using and abusing power. Living in the eternal present forestalls any discussion of the future. Emergency becomes its own excuse for failing to possess a political vision and win arguments. When crisis becomes the model for the general conduct of politics, and the formation of policy, it is no surprise that Bush should have difficulty following through on initiatives, be they occupation of a country or seeing though an immigration bill. Bush’s appearance of strength masks a profound weakness. His grandiose, ideological gestures reflect this inability to manage the world of gritty political decisions, and his attempt to transcend politics altogether. It is no surprise that, in spite of his desire to avoid responsibility for his own decisions, Bush is driven back towards foreign policy and the war on terror. There, at the very least, there is less ambiguity over who is the center of attention, and who appears like a leader.