The Election Campaign Begins

Many people have noted how the Bushies seem to manage to pull themselves out of the ditch every election cycle—just after “everyone” has consigned them to electoral disaster.

The reason for this is not remarkable. In normal times the informal alliance of Democrats and liberal media means that the liberal world view occupies most of the public square. Only in the conservative subculture does an alternative view exist.

Come the campaign season the Bushies can engage the American people and advance their ideas and policies against the Democrats using the president’s bully pulpit and the paid media of campaign commercials.

With two speeches under his belt it is clear that President Bush and his staff have prepared a full-scale campaign to win the hearts and minds of the American people. They intend to confound those who have already conceded the election to the Democrats.

In his speech Tuesday, the president called for Congress to pass new legislation to clarify uncertainties in the legal status of unlawful combatants. Specifically, he declared:

I'm sending Congress legislation to specifically authorize the creation of military commissions to try terrorists for war crimes.

In addition, and perhaps for patriotic Americans this is the most important, the president said:

I'm asking Congress to pass legislation that will clarify the rules for our personnel fighting the war on terror. First, I'm asking Congress to list the specific, recognizable offenses that would be considered crimes under the War Crimes Act -- so our personnel can know clearly what is prohibited in the handling of terrorist enemies. Second, I'm asking that Congress make explicit that by following the standards of the Detainee Treatment Act our personnel are fulfilling America's obligations under Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions. Third, I'm asking that Congress make it clear that captured terrorists cannot use the Geneva Conventions as a basis to sue our personnel in courts -- in U.S. courts. The men and women who protect us should not have to fear lawsuits filed by terrorists because they're doing their jobs.

These are important issues that have needed attention for some time. Some have complained that the Bush administration has not addressed them earlier. Obviously it is best to send them up to Congress in the weeks before an election. It helps concentrate the mind—of Congress and the American people. That is what the Bush administration is doing.

You can complain about the timing as a naked attempt to politicize the war on terror. But timing is everything. The president has a responsibility to advance his agenda at the best moment. Otherwise, why bother?

The Democrats have had a fine old time for the last year traducing the president and our war on terror, specifically against the Islamist movement that would like to overturn the Pax Americana. It has been very difficult to counter their careless and vindictive talk.

The time to engage with them in a battle is at election time, and that is what the president is doing.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

Comments:

Posted by: Gary Stamper on 09/07/06 8:42am

We don’t need Labor Day to pass to know what President Bush’s tactics will be in the run-up to the elections. It will be what it’s always been: fear mongering to the 70% of the world that still resides at an ego-centric developmental level. You’ve got to let go of supporting this ineffective, incompetent and possibly criminal administration and join the growing ranks of true conservatives who are appalled at this presidency…unless you’re a win-at-any-cost neocon.

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Action

The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness... But to make a man act [he must have] the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Chappies

“But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.” —Freddy Arbuthnot
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

China and Christianity

At first, we thought [the power of the West] was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity.
David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing

Churches

[In the] higher Christian churches… they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

Civil Society

“Civil Society”—a complex welter of intermediate institutions, including businesses, voluntary associations, educational institutions, clubs, unions, media, charities, and churches—builds, in turn, on the family, the primary instrument by which people are socialized into their culture and given the skills that allow them to live in broader society and through which the values and knowledge of that society are transmitted across the generations.
Francis Fukuyama, Trust

Class War

In England there were always two sharply opposed middle classes, the academic middle class and the commercial middle class. In the nineteenth century, the academic middle class won the battle for power and status... Then came the triumph of Margaret Thatcher... The academics lost their power and prestige and... have been gloomy ever since.
Freeman Dyson, “The Scientist as Rebel”

Conservatism

Conservatism is the philosophy of society. Its ethic is fraternity and its characteristic is authority — the non-coercive social persuasion which operates in a family or a community. It says ‘we should...’.
Danny Kruger, On Fraternity

Conservatism's Holy Grail

What distinguishes true Conservatism from the rest, and from the Blair project, is the belief in more personal freedom and more market freedom, along with less state intervention... The true Third Way is the Holy Grail of Tory politics today - compassion and community without compulsion.
Minette Marrin, The Daily Telegraph

Conversion

“When we received Christ,” Phil added, “all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.”
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh

Democratic Capitalism

I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all. In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Drang nach Osten

There was nothing new about the Frankish drive to the east... [let] us recall that the continuance of their rule depended upon regular, successful, predatory warfare.
Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion

Education

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E. G. West, Education and the State

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