George Bush the defeatist

It has always struck me as curious that the president should refer to his critics as “defeatists,” when there is no label which better fits Mr. Bush himself.

For a man of faith, the president is sorely devoid of belief in the merits of the U.S. Constitution. Since Sept. 11 he has regarded it as a fair-weather document, useful only in times of peace. That one attack – it was not a worldwide conspiracy – was enough for Mr. Bush to throw up his hands, scorn diplomacy, and sideline the Constitution as – I’m sure Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would approve – quaint.

In short, the president, without a second thought, gave up on the supreme law of the land and retreated to knee-jerk policies designed to bring out the worst in us. Almost overnight, amendments and treaties and bipartisanship became unwelcome strictures as Mr. Bush, cheered on by his inner circle and encouraged by a lopsided Congress, took the land of the free and turned it into a nation of willing accomplices suddenly in love with the idea of presidency as monarchy, or theocracy. He did this by scaring he bejesus out of the proletariat, and people will do almost anything when they are made to feel afraid.

Who could have imagined that the United States would conduct torture? What was once considered an abomination now makes for glib conversation over our cappuccinos as we bandy the merits of coercing “useful” information from captives by convincing them that they are drowning, threatening them with attack dogs, or simply beating the hell out of them.

The history of the Republic is one of our ascent from a Wild West free-for-all to a civilization which acknowledges universal standards of human dignity. In the instant, Bush gave up on this, defeated, and reverted to the stance of the barbarian. The electorate, for its part, mistook this brutishness for strength.

Likewise, Americans – especially conservatives – had always had an almost genetic disdain for government intrusiveness into their private lives. The Fourth Amendment – prohibiting unreasonable searches – was never negotiable. Now we have given in to warrantless wiretapping without a squawk, much less a fight. In fact, many welcome it, in the misguided belief that it makes us more “secure,” the buzzword of the day.

Again, the president, in one secretive, fell swoop, discounted the Constitution’s long view of the sanctity of privacy and substituted his own myopia of a nation where everyone is a suspect.

The First Amendment was the bleeding heart sacrificed on the altar of Mr. Bush’s war fever, his impatience to get back at Saddam Hussein, the man who “tried to kill my dad.” Of all the amendments, this has always been the most precious. No longer. The administration has labeled critics of its policies unpatriotic. Public demonstrations critical of the administration have been exiled to remote “safe” zones. Operation “Talon” is now scouring the emails of college students who have involved themselves in anti-war protests.

Another failure of faith in U.S. law is the president’s heated promotion of detainee trials without evidence. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a former Air Force lawyer, got it exactly right when he summarized the president’s program: We think you’re guilty. We have no evidence. We’re going to execute you. Even the Pentagon has come out against such show trials. But the president presses on, undeterred, the triumvirate of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld suggesting a theme of The Three Stooges Meet Kafka.

It has always been interesting that the president frequently voices concern for American values. It is his mantra. But he has never enumerated these values. Since the man does not stand by the Constitution, he must be speaking of the alternative values he has striven to introduce: torture, secret prisons, unprovoked warfare, domestic spying, extraordinary rendition, and imprisonment with neither evidence nor prospect of release. What country be this? The answer: one concocted by an immature, inexperienced, and reactive head of state who would never have become president if not for his predecessor’s dalliance with a female intern. Monica Lewinsky angered the electorate, and we have punished ourselves by twice enduring the very worst president in our history.

George Bush seems to have learned nothing during his time in office, but he has taught us one important lesson: how to quit, how to abandon the counsel of constitutional law, and how to surrender to our worst fears as we dump our contact lens solutions at the nation’s airports and grope about in the dark for duct tape and plastic sheeting.

Robert Klose frequently writes essays for the Christian Science Monitor and teaches at University College of Bangor. His new book is titled “Small Worlds: Adopted Sons, Pet Piranhas, and Other Mortal Concerns” (University of Missouri Press).