Everyone’s e-mailing and talking about this Tom Friedman column:
[W]hatever differences I felt with the elder Bush were over what was the right policy. There was much he ultimately did that I ended up admiring. And when George W. Bush was elected four years ago on a platform of compassionate conservatism, after running from the middle, I assumed the same would be true with him. (Wrong.) But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don’t just favor different policies than I do – they favor a whole different kind of America. We don’t just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is.
Is it a country that does not intrude into people’s sexual preferences and the marriage unions they want to make? Is it a country that allows a woman to have control over her body? Is it a country where the line between church and state bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers should be inviolate? Is it a country where religion doesn’t trump science? And, most important, is it a country whose president mobilizes its deep moral energies to unite us – instead of dividing us from one another and from the world? […]
My problem with the Christian fundamentalists supporting Mr. Bush is not their spiritual energy or the fact that I am of a different faith. It is the way in which he and they have used that religious energy to promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad. I respect that moral energy, but wish that Democrats could find a way to tap it for different ends.
“The Democrats have ceded to Republicans a monopoly on the moral and spiritual sources of American politics,” noted the Harvard University political theorist Michael J. Sandel. “They will not recover as a party until they again have candidates who can speak to those moral and spiritual yearnings – but turn them to progressive purposes in domestic policy and foreign affairs.“[…] [emphsis added]
Meanwhile, there is a lot of talk that Mr. Bush has a mandate for his far right policies. Yes, he does have a mandate, but he also has a date – a date with history. If Mr. Bush can salvage the war in Iraq, forge a solution for dealing with our entitlements crisis – which can be done only with a bipartisan approach and a more sane fiscal policy – upgrade America’s competitiveness, prevent Iran from going nuclear and produce a solution for our energy crunch, history will say that he used his mandate to lead to great effect. If he pushes for still more tax cuts and fails to solve our real problems, his date with history will be a very unpleasant one – no matter what mandate he has.
Previous Comments
I took a class from Michael Sandel as a college freshman. It was one of the two or three best academic experiences I ever had. Here is a story about it: http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/01.09/03-sandel.html -s-
#169864 | Author: Scott Albert Johnson | Date: Dec 1 2004
I really don’t think we’re divided as everyone thinks. The people that voted against Bush, was against war and the way he done things in office.
#169865 | Author: aaron | Date: Dec 28 2004
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
