Wishes for the Bush years
By Charles A. Morse
web
posted January 29, 2001
A sense of serenity, good will, and happiness envelope the nation on the first working day of, what will hopefully be, the eight-year era of George W. Bush. Clinton and Gore are rapidly sliding into the ashbin of history where they rightfully belong. Bush, in one of the most eloquent and compelling inaugural addresses since that of John F. Kennedy, set the tone for his era.
His ideals, beautifully articulated and in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt's "bully pulpit," were those of character, civility, self-reliance and compassion, acknowledging the creator of the universe, and the inalienable rights of citizenship. At last, we can look forward to a national government that reflects the best in the American people and that sets an example for the rest of us.
Both
candidates Bush and Richard B. Cheney, at the Republican Convention last
summer, drove home the central point of the Clinton years which was that
they were squandered and stood for nothing. Clinton produced nothing positive
that comes to mind. He stood for no ideal. He left no imprint in a positive
sense. The economic boom, started in the last year of his predecessor,
occurred because the authoritarian Clinton agenda was defeated by a conservative
Congress and roundly rejected by the American people.
There are, simply, no positive images from the Clinton years, only a quickly fading memory of squalor, disgust, and hate. The damage Clinton did to our national security, culture, sense of morality, rule of law, and Constitution are legendary. The Bush Administration certainly has it's work cut out in terms of repairing the damage of the past while at the same time moving into the future.
President Bush, a Republican Congress, and a conservative Supreme Court, are in a position to re-activate in the bosom of the American citizen, by their example, public policy, and public utterances, the idea and birthright of liberty. This will not be easy given the authoritarian nature of the opponents of liberty, and the degree to which those who would fashion themselves as social engineering Philosopher Kings are entrenched in major American centers of power and have perverted the system and the minds of our people, particularly younger people. Those who want to transform us, by using the force of the State, could see their diabolical usurpation of power undone by a plain speaking President who fearlessly confronts their lies with simple truth and reason.
Our new Administration will be called upon to array itself against a philosophical enemy that doesn't believe that the citizen is capable of self-rule. The enemies of freedom want to continue to perpetrate the lie that they know better than us how we should live and conduct our affairs. They pose as the "benevolent" scientists of politics as they seek to regulate and control our earnings, property, minds, and souls. They can be defeated simply by virtue of the fact that what they advocate is contrary to human nature and to basic truth. When challenged by reasoned argument, the authoritarian left disintegrates on its own contradictions.
Eight years are before us, enough time to effect a sea change in the American people. Bush, if he sticks by his stated commitments, could be the harbinger of a progressive renaissance in American civilization. The word "progressive" can be restored to it's intended meaning which is "progress" toward freedom, self rule, self reliance, individual responsibility, temperance, love of God, and limited government. Our leaders, in a progressive society, would, openly, unabashedly, and without fear, express moral values and religious belief. Those sentiments, rather than being a lot of hot air, would be truthful and backed up by action.
Civility means that the basic dignity and rights of each sovereign citizen is honored. Paternalistic and unconstitutional legislation would be swept aside so that those on the lower economic spectrum would have an opportunity to partake in the American dream of a free market of ideas, goods, and services. Lower taxes would mean that the working man would keep more of that which he earned and is entitled to. A private retirement fund would enable the working man to accumulate a lifetime of working capital, and then, pass it on as an inheritance. Welfare programs function best at a local and State level and as private charity. There's no greater social service than a job. A local program would treat an individual in need with dignity instead of using that person as a cog, perpetually trapped in a bureaucratic wheel, as a means of "redistributing" wealth and enthroning, through gun-backed laws, the authoritarian "public sector".
Given the enemy Bush is confronting, and the degree by which their totalitarian
agenda has already been established, we can expect incidents of ferocious
political war in the future. These wars will be far more sophisticated
than that pathetic spectacle of those motley, tie-dyed bums trying to
disturb the inauguration. Every time a conservative emerges, he can expect
a sickening barrage of hate and personal attack. We will, of course, never
completely defeat the enemies of freedom. There will always be those attracted
to the idea that they possess some kind of divine right, either by virtue
of birth, wealth, or education, to rule over the rest of us. They will
always justify any means of obtaining that power including the subversion
of our government and institutions. But their power can be retarded in
our generation and generations to come by the simple courage of people,
acting in the interest of truth, of themselves, and of their posterity,
speaking truth to power. 
Chuck Morse is the author of Thunder Out of Boston.