The Hollow President
June 4, 2002
During a recent meeting with President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, President Bush asked in surprise, Do
you have blacks too?
National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice (when you have a name like Condoleezza,
do you really need a title?) came to the rescue, informing our president
that Brazil has more blacks than any other country outside Africa. Of
course it depends how you reckon, since the mixing of blood has resulted
in a population in which most people have some African ancestry, and
Brazilian color lines are less rigid than ours. But not many Brazilians
could be mistaken for Michelle Pfeiffer.
The fact is that four
million Africans were brought to Brazil by Portuguese slave-traders
before the trade was banned in 1888. That is eight times the number of
Africans who were brought to this country. Nobody can know everything,
but you might expect the Leader of the Free World, an Ivy League graduate,
and a former Texas governor to have some dim awareness of the biggest
country in South America.
Not only is
Bushs ignorance embarrassing; it has some bearing on the current
controversy over how well informed he was about terrorist activities in
this country before last September 11. No matter how many data were
amassed and evaluated by the experts of the FBI, the CIA, and other
agencies, no matter how skillfully it was winnowed and sent to the top,
the man at the top the man who would have to make the crucial
decisions about what to do with the facts was a man with a
notably, even shockingly, skimpy knowledge of the world.
In the end, our fate
now depends heavily on the personal qualities of a single man. This is a
far cry from the kind of decentralized government prescribed by the U.S.
Constitution.
Is George W. Bush
equipped to exercise global leadership? The answer is all
too plain. He is ready to pronounce whole countries evil
without knowing much about them except that they arent on
our side. And they called Ronald Reagan simplistic!
Reagan was no scholar,
and some of his gaffes were notorious. But he at least had a rough
practical philosophy to guide him. His basic conservatism made him stable
and predictable. Bushs indefinable compassionate
conservatism makes him manipulable and unpredictable. And
its no substitute for a knowledge of the world. It merely makes
him passive, subject to random pressures and sudden events.
In truth, nobody can be
ready for global leadership. More power is concentrated in
the U.S. presidency than anyone could possibly exercise wisely; there is
too much to know, and even a man a hundred times better informed than
Bush a Henry Kissinger, say still wouldnt know
enough to perform all the tasks, foreign and domestic, a president is
expected to undertake.
The
democratic political process, as its politely called,
is hardly designed to bestow the presidency on the man best qualified, or
rather least unqualified. An unprincipled two-party duopoly offers the
voters a stark choice between a pair of career politicians, whom
its usually fair to describe as hacks. If the Electoral College
operated the way it was supposed to, it might do somewhat better; but
its now widely viewed as an undemocratic anachronism. And true
enough, it was meant to prevent the very things the party system
consistently produces, especially crass demagoguery.
An old saying comes to
mind: He who is unaware of his ignorance will be only misled by his
knowledge. Bush would be less dangerous with his enormous power
if he were conscious that he is woefully unfit for it. Such humble self-
awareness can be a saving grace. It tends to retard rash judgments and
decisions. A humble man never mistakes himself for a messiah.
What doesnt
the president know, and why doesnt he know it? About the outside
world, American history, and the Constitution he is sworn to uphold? He
still seems like a rich kid skimming through the Ivy League without
bothering to get an education the son of an alumnus, going to ball
games and beer parties every night except when he has to cram for an
exam.
He has somehow
skimmed all the way into the presidency of the United States, and now he
feels compelled to strike appropriate poses of resolve and
determination. But it all rings terribly hollow. He has come
to great power without having prepared himself for it.
Joseph Sobran
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