George W. Bush’s inaugural address showed a man plain-spoken, secure in his faith, and confident in his ability to lead the nation. It also suggested that, as president, Bush may be capable of elevated sentiment and dignity of purpose.
What a satisfying change. Bill Clinton, the vulgar narcissist, is gone. He pathetically attempted to hog the spot-light on Inauguration Day, boasting in his first remarks as ex-president that “we did a lot of good.” The damage Clinton did — to our Constitution, to our public discourse, to the fabric of our national political life — will undoubtedly long outlive him. But perhaps the recovery will be quicker and more complete than one might have thought just a few weeks ago. We have reason to hope for the best: that Bush is capable of growing — in the real sense, not the usual Washington sense — in office.
One shouldn’t be Pollyannaish. All is certainly not well in the body politic, and not all signs are positive for the new administration. But more are than one might have expected. The cabinet is strong. With the exception of Linda Chavez, Bush’s nominees have beaten back the assaults on them, and their critics on the left have probably hurt themselves with the foolish intemperance of their attacks. Some concessions were made that shouldn’t have been made — particularly John Ashcroft’s assertion that he would not seek to challenge Roe v. Wade — but Bush tried to walk that concession back, and perhaps not too much damage was done.
And this brings us to the fundamental point: The success of the Bush administration will depend on George W. Bush. Asked about Bush’s unfortunate and garbled account of missile defense in his New York Times interview last week, one Bush adviser responded by pointing to defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s superb testimony before Congress, and suggested that Rumsfeld’s remarks, not Bush’s, would reflect policy. I hope and trust that’s so, but at the end of the day we will need a president, not simply a team, that is up to governing.
To govern is, of course, to choose. Bush will get tons of advice from his own staff about how to remain popular, how to reach out, how to “change the tone.” But he will need to reach into himself to make the tough decisions that may not seem popular at the time he has to make them. He will need to listen to Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld and Mitch Daniels at OMB and, yes, John Ashcroft — more than to his campaign staff. And he will have to depend on his faith, a faith that, one trusts, goes beyond a good heart to a strong will.
Two aspects of the Inaugural Address are promising in this respect. First, Bush listed courage, along with civility, compassion, and character, as fundamental principles that will guide him. Courage, Aristotle said, is the first of the virtues, because it makes all the others possible. Bush has had a fairly easy time of it so far in his political career; his political courage is relatively untested; it will be tested.
Second, in his reference to the one “Who creates us equal in His image,” Bush deftly linked human equality to religious faith. By grounding the enlightenment principle of equal rights in a faith in providence, Bush spoke in the tradition of American presidents from Washington to Reagan. Indeed, Bush seemed to go further, by citing John Page’s letter to Thomas Jefferson, shortly after the Declaration of Independence: “We know the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battle to the Strong. Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?” Bush closed his address by affirming that “an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.”
But Bush also reminded us, implicitly, that angels will not save us if we sow the whirlwind; they will not step in if we are weak before the storms we face abroad or at home. As Bush said, God’s “purpose is achieved in our duty,” to be pursued without tiring or yielding.
In a letter written shortly before his death on July 4, 1826, Jefferson expressed regret that illness forced him to decline an invitation to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of American independence:
I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made.
These men — a small band — made the choice, and a bold and doubtful one at that. President Bush, on his first day in office, gives reason to hope that he will not shy away from the bold and doubtful choices he will have to make for our country.
William Kristol, January 20, 2001
