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from: Jonathan Lear

Making Fun of Bush Will Only Make Democrats Lose--Again

Posted Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2001, at 3:57 PM ET

Dear Andrew,

Speaking as a lifelong Democrat and a bleeding-heart liberal, I think you have put your finger on something when you point out the un-thought-out prejudice against George Bush. Is there any easier crowd to join than one that laughs at an outsider as ridiculous or treats him as so obviously bad that no argument is necessary?

A friend of mine was receiving an honorary degree, so I happened to attend the Yale graduation at which Bush received his honorary degree. At dinner parties in New Haven that week, professors told anti-Bush jokes in a way that in the 1930s professors would tell anti-Semitic jokes: It wouldn't cross anyone's mind that there might be a Bush supporter in the room. (I wasn't a Bush supporter myself, but I was astonished by the group's assumption about its own identity.) Universities are supposed to be places where ideas and politics are debated, but the function of derision is to close down the space in which real debate might occur.

Professors signed a petition saying they were going to boycott the graduation, which does seem droll since, by and large, professors don't want to bother going to graduations anyway. But I saw a number of signatories in the audience. Ironically, these are people who would not have gone to the graduation but for the fact that they wanted to see the event. I asked one of them about it, and he saw no problem in the fact that he had signed a statement saying he wasn't going to come and then came anyway.

For what it's worth, I thought Bush's speech was the best graduation speech I had ever heard. For after the self-deprecating jokes, which were widely reported, Mr. Bush gave a rather sincere speech about what it is like to go to college as a mixed-up young person and then come back 30 years later and try to make sense of what had happened in between. I was struck by how open-hearted and generous it was. Unlike his father, who when he received a degree simply gave the policy speech of the day, one on China, the son actually tried to reach out to the aspirations and fears of the members of the graduating class. The speech was strikingly humane; and when I read press accounts of it the next day, I thought I had attended a different event.

George Bush campaigned saying he was going to bring back civility. The real issue isn't about politeness. Rather, he has put the Democrats in a position where, if they are going to beat him, they will have to bring back civility in the deeper sense of opening up a civil space in which ideas are really debated. Is there anyone in the party who can provide an articulated vision of Democratic ideals? If all the Democrats can do is make fun of Bush or resort to scary code words like "reckless," then they are going to lose again.

You ask about Condit, in particular, what psychologically I'll be looking for. Actually, I try to train myself not to look for anything--as a way of staying open for things I'm not looking for. As for the interview itself, it looks like Condit wants it, ABC wants it, people want to see it. What's your problem? Welcome to America.

Jonathan

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Jonathan Lear

Making Fun of Bush Will Only Make Democrats Lose--Again

Posted Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2001, at 3:57 PM ET
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Jonathan Lear is a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His most recent book is Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life. Andrew Sullivan writes daily for andrewsullivan.com, writes the "TRB" column for the New Republic, and is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine.
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