Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Joe Klein
to: David Brooks

A Modest Proposal for Bush's State of the Union Address

Posted Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2002, at 12:23 PM ET

Who are these people?

Note: The first entry was sent last night.

Greetings, David,

On that rarest of days: a morning when the Post seems more het up about Enron than does the Times. Two front-page stories, and columns by Broder, Cohen, and Dionne. Broder picks up on your Theodore Roosevelt analogy. I've always been a huge TR fan; named a son after him, in fact—but I'm beginning to think that I was seduced by his fabulous American effusiveness and chose to ignore some of his more questionable policies. His trust-busting, for example, eventually slipped into statist corporatism—the notion that Big Business was good, if placed in a regulatory straitjacket by the feds. (Woodrow Wilson was less tolerant of Big than TR was, more intent on fostering competition.) And then there was Teddy's expansive, "white man's burden" notion of America's role in the world—a good thing when it came to settling a war between Russia and Japan, a bad thing when imposed on the Philippines (a mixed blessing when it involved the near-theft of territory from Colombia for the building of the Panama Canal). If you wonder why some people gag on the notion of "national greatness," it has everything to do with Rooseveltian arrogance—and the sense of national superiority that often accompanies it.

I don't gag on national greatness, but I prefer to define it less expansively, as John McCain sort of did during the 2000 campaign when he talked about the importance of "being part of something larger than yourself." It's easy to feel that way after an event like 9/11. The more difficult question is, how do you convince people that a certain selflessness is good for the soul during quieter times? Which brings us to the State of the Union speech tonight.

The Bushes are the third aristocratic American dynasty of the past hundred years. The other two—the Roosevelts, the Kennedys—embraced grand rhetorical words: honor, courage, vigor, destiny, sacrifice. The Bushes don't do that, which may be an honorable bit of familial modesty. Bush 43 has a terrific speechwriter in Mike Gerson, who has been able to infuse his boss's lack of pretense with a sense of grace and decency. But I've been disappointed by the president's reluctance to ask anything of us beyond the clarion call to go shopping. It would be nice if he gave the notion of "service and sacrifice" a test drive tonight—and I mean something more than just T-shirt and litter-bag voluntarism. A serious run at energy conservation might not be a bad idea. Here's a riskier one: He should speak directly to America's senior citizens—and its incipient codgers, we baby boomers—and tell them it's time to think of their grandchildren: Free prescription drugs should only be made available to those who can't afford them. He should tell the plutocrats to think of their grandchildren, too: Their tax cut should be applied to shoring up old-age entitlements. A modest proposal. What do you think?

Best,
Joe

P.S.: Mea culpa—I was a bit too frisky yesterday when I said that the Guantanamo prisoners should be interrogated "by any means necessary." They shouldn't be tortured. Also, the Republicans obviously aren't always "great" on foreign policy, but they are more sure-handed overseas than they are domestically.

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Joe Klein
to: David Brooks

A Modest Proposal for Bush's State of the Union Address

Posted Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2002, at 12:23 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
David Brooks is senior editor of the Weekly Standard and author of Bobos in Paradise. Joe Klein is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton.
Photograph of Teddy Roosevelt on Slate's Home Page © Corbis.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES

Wednesday Notes From the Fray Editor:

The main topic in the Fray is the State of the Union speech. REW-OEM explains here why he was tempted to join the 84% but ended up in the 16%, and asks "Why is it not possible to respect and applaud President Bush's positively spun and well transformed public demeanor, acknowledge his strength and steadfastness in difficult times, and yet still question the will and wisdom of his plans for our future?" More questions: Anita tries to answer Joe Klein's "how do you convince people that a certain selflessness is good for the soul…?" John-Paul Spiro read "bourgeois democratic nations…don't breed poisonous ideological groups" and wants to ask "What do you call Timothy McVeigh?" Why does Peter Lahey feel like a character from Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Click here to find out.


Reader Comments From The Fray:

What Brooks calls idealism could itself be called, and often has been, imperialism or the spread of global capitalism or an arrogant disrespect for the sovereignty of other nations. To define the "spreading" of any cultural force or view (democracy, capitalism, or hmmm say Christianity) by force as "idealistic" seems on the face of it absurdly ethnocentric and arrogant. One must, like Hegel, be willing to assert that one's culture represents the historical pinnacle and telos of human endeavor--in which case, every other country, including Great Britain (with their nasty socialist ways!) would have to be invaded and made to conform to the US Constitution in the name of American idealism. To suggest, as Brooks does, that bourgeois democracy represents the best that can be aspired to--well, that's a dim thought, made no brighter by being pasted with the shiny label of "idealism."

--J

(To find or answer this post, click here .)

Monday Notes From The Fray Editor:

Always check your quotations or the Fray will get you. All together now: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." (We'll miss out the "starving hysterical naked" bit.) Other phrases that caught readers attention were "by any means necessary" (in regard to questioning suspects) and "congenital DNA" (What other kind is there, asked one poster.) Urquhart says Klein "gets points for use of the word 'dudgeon,' which I've never seen outside of a Wodehouse novel." And there are plenty of discussions on Enron and the economy.


Reader Comments From The Fray:


Klein thinks we should be "interrogating the hell out of them by any means necessary." Does this include torture? I'd like to hear his opinion. And his reference to the nine families who lost loved ones is weak. Yes, we should remember the damage done by the terrorists. But that doesn't mean that every policy argument needs to have the approval of the relatives of the victims.

--Leonard

(To find or answer this post, click here.)


It seems to me the public's indifference about the extent of Enron's dealings with the Bush administration says more about the public than it does about our need to know. I doubt Cheney would risk the potential political damage of a court dispute if he didn't think the contents of his meeting notes were potentially more explosive. If Cheney's right, and this is just Dem hype, then prove us wrong and release the documents. Enron shareholders got screwed, in part, by a lack of corporate transparency. Cheney's claim that disclosing these documents could impair future leaders' ability to consult with corporation without fear of public scrutiny is, at best, disingenuous, at worst, more of the same opaqueness that got us in this mess.

--John Rogers

(To find or answer this post, click here.)


Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Imagine if...
Hiatt | What if McCain had waged his campaign based on respect?
Editorial: Meddlesome PalinKing: The Danger of Palin Power