Clements: Preacher Bush takes the pulpit
By <A HREF="mailto:[log in to unmask]">CYNTHIA HALL CLEMENTS</A>
Cox News Service
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
LUFKIN, Texas — More of a sermon and less of the State of the Union address
would aptly characterize President Bush's speech before the nation last week.
Use his same rhetoric of morality, toss in supplications to the Almighty and
a hymn or two, exchange the Senate Chamber for a pulpit and President Bush
easily morphs into Preacher Bush, calling down sinners, Democrats by any other
name, and inspiring the faithful, those moral guardians for the rest of us, the
Republicans.
Since his re-election last November by a slim majority, Bush has assumed a
moral mandate from on high to pursue his ideological agenda here on earth.
Somehow his vision of God shapes his view of government.
Here is what we can expect from Bush for the next four years: An incessant
reminder of his moral mandate to the re-inspired, but not yet raptured remnant
of Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, all in pursuit of Bush's
neo-conservative political ideology.
Bush obviously has no qualms about portraying even the most practical and
political of issues — from Social Security reform to Iraq and the war on terror
—in moral jargon, that right/wrong, black/white, sinner/saint fundamentalist
worldview, as evidenced in his first second-term State of the Union address.
Start with Bush's call to privatize Social Security, what he surely envisions
will be his political legacy to this nation in the history books, George W.
the Savior of Social Security.
And how did Bush describe this institution in his address?
"Social Security was a great moral success of the 20th century, and we must
honor its great purposes in this new century," he said. I just hope that it is
not "Social Insecurity" for millions of America workers by the time Bush
fulfills his Messiah complex.
Yes, Social Security needs reform, but perhaps not in the doom and gloom,
end-of-times prophetic revelation suggested by Bush. Right before he dumped the
responsibility for reform of this institution in the lap of Congress — "You and
I share a responsibility"— Bush manufactured a hypothetical crisis to justify
playing partisan politics with Social Security. Hear the dissenting chants of
"No, no," as Bush claimed the entire system would be bankrupt by 2042. And,
it is not just Democrats questioning Bush's motives and methods.
We all know now that Bush is not above manufacturing crises to justify his
political agenda. Anybody remember Iraq? Now, where are those weapons of mass
destruction, exactly, as our soldiers traipse across Iraq? In the obvious
absence of WMD, we learned that Iraq was really about toppling Saddam Hussein from
power. After all, it was our moral mandate as a free nation to spread democracy
in the Middle East, ink-stained fingers of Iraqis and dead American soldiers
notwithstanding.
Let us not forget, either, Bush's thank you note to corporate America for its
support during the presidential election.
"We must be good stewards of this economy," Bush preached during his State of
the Union address.
Included on Bush's reward list to business are permanent tax cuts and
domestic spending cuts — those 150 government programs "not getting results."
Also included was tort reform, against "irresponsible class actions and
frivolous asbestos claims." Can anyone say "Halliburton" right now? Bush finished
out his moral mandate to the business sector with a pledge to reform the
"archaic, incoherent federal tax code."
The irony of Bush's speech was his dutiful — almost reluctant — recognition
of some of the moral issues that guaranteed his re-election, through the
unconditional support of social and religious conservatives. The oft-repeated
national exit poll showed 80 percent voted for Bush, instead of Sen. John Kerry,
because of "moral values," a euphemism for the anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage
ideology of the Republican Party.
Yet, Bush barely made mention — just two lines in his State of the Union
speech — of a Constitutional amendment to define traditional marriage and to
defend against the legalization of homosexual marriage.
Here is what Bush's political obligation to the religious right sounds like:
"For the good of families, children and society, I support a constitutional
amendment to protect the institution of marriage."
If only it were that easy, that a Constitutional amendment could guarantee
"responsible, moral children."
And, what about that rallying point for all conservatives, opposition to
abortion? Bush's veiled reference to "a culture of life" revealed more about his
aversion to embryonic stem cell research that overturning Roe v. Wade.
Toss in his compulsory castigation of judicial activism — "Judges have a duty
to faithfully interpret the law, not legislate from the bench" — and Bush
fulfilled his political debt to those who voted their "values" this past election.
Quite honestly, religious conservatives, in a quid pro quo for selling their
pulpits to the highest bidder during the presidential campaign, should have
insisted upon another line or two in the State of the Union address.
Next time I want to hear a sermon, I am going to church instead of watching
televangilist Preacher Bush.
Cynthia Hall Clements is a columnist for The Lufkin Daily News. E-mail:
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