Outside the Beltway

A HOUSE DIVIDED?

James Joyner · Monday, November 24, 2003 · 1 comment

TIME is sure to generate a lot of controversy with this cover story:

The premise is interesting:

There is an axiom in American politics that says whenever a sitting President is running for a second term, the election is more a referendum on him than a judgment on his opponent. President George W. Bush has taken this truism to a new level. With just under a year to go before Nov. 2, 2004, Americans are already finding ways to show how passionately they feel about their President.

In August, KB Toys rolled out its George W. Bush Elite Force Aviator doll, a 12-in. action figure in full naval flight gear. At $39.99, it has set the sales record for collectible action figures on KB’s website. There’s also brisk traffic on the Web for donations in memory of Sally Baron, 71, of northern Wisconsin, and Gertrude M. Jones, 81, of Mandeville, La. Obituaries for both women contained requests that money be sent to any organization working for the removal of Bush from office. And in Jefferson County, Colo., West Jefferson Middle School teacher Martha Swisher sparked a furor by wearing a he’s not my president button on her coat during a sixth-grade field trip.

Republicans in Colorado’s state legislature honored the family that lodged the complaint; the teacher now wears a lapel pin to class that features an American flag and a peace sign. But there is little evidence of peace out there in an increasingly restive electorate. If Ronald Reagan was the Great Communicator, Bush is proving to be the Great Polarizer. Reagan and then Bill Clinton ushered in the modern age of the acrimoniously divided electorate, but George Bush has cleaved the nation into two tenaciously opposed camps even more than his predecessors. He is the man about whom Americans feel little ambivalence. People tend to love him or hate him without any complicating shades of gray. Shout “George Bush” in a crowded theater, and people dive into two trenches.

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For years pollsters said America was a 40-40-20 country–that is, 40% Republican, 40% Democrat and 20% independent. Now, they say, it’s a 45-45-10 nation–with even fewer than that 10% truly up for grabs. (pi)It’s the Man, Not the Policies george bush is the son of a president who couldn’t convince the country that he stood for anything. He succeeded a President whose survival depended on the public’s capacity to divorce what it thought of his personal values from what it thought of his public ones. Bush has done the opposite of both. He has wrapped his presidency in who he is and what he believes. So it’s no surprise that the theme of Bush’s first presidential ad of the campaign is essentially: I, George Bush, am the war against terrorism. “Some are now attacking the President for attacking the terrorists,” the ad suggests darkly. After him, the deluge.

But for many, it’s not so much Bush’s policies or programs that make them adore or despise him, but the very way he carries himself—their sense of George Bush as a man. To some, the way that Bush walks and talks and smiles is the body language of courage and self-assurance, and of someone who shares their values. But to others, it is the swagger and smirk that signals the certainty of the stubbornly simpleminded. “I like Bush’s manner,” says Kathie Tenner, a retired teacher in Des Moines, Iowa. “To me, he’s very quiet and sincere, just kind of down home, not really trying to put on a lot of airs.”

“He comes across as an idiot,” says Chicago attorney Sue Zalewski. “I know that, technically, he’s not an idiot. But the way he says things can really use some work. He can be so uncouth.”

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Bush’s approach to leadership has invited Americans to take sides. That’s because he has resolutely swung for the fences in both domestic and foreign policy. Despite coming into office with nothing like a mandate, he has governed as if he has one. As a result, Americans are divided over every big item on his ambitious agenda.

I believe this passage begins to get at the heart of the division:

The origins of this passionate national divide began to take shape long before Bush set foot in the Oval Office. It was partly produced by the political system itself. For instance, both parties have carved congressional districts that have solid majorities of Republicans or Democrats, which means fewer lawmakers have to compromise to keep folks happy at the coffee shop back home.

Special-interest money supports only the most righteous candidates, overpowering the old party structure in which being a purist on issues like gun control or fiscal spending mattered less than putting a D or an R after your name in the Congressional Directory.

And with the proliferation of media, Americans don’t even have to listen anymore to anyone who doesn’t agree with them. There’s talk radio and cable and Truebeliever.com to reinforce and inflame their views rather than challenge them. At the bookstore, Ann Coulter and Al Franken square off on the best-seller table. The hordes of media shouters both mirror the electorate and harden their outlook. Moderation may be sensible and practical, but it’s not entertaining, and it doesn’t sell books.

Bush stepped into America’s raging culture wars as the most openly religious President in modern times. He has given voice to a constituency of Evangelicals and fundamentalists that was moving out of politics, convinced that it could not accommodate people of faith either in office or in action.