Wednesday, December 20, 2000
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Wednesday, December 20, 2000 |
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Here's what the new president 'must do' By DAVE HAMRICK "The Sixth Day," the new Schwarzenegger movie, has been slammed by critics as a mindless, shoot 'em up sci fi, which is exactly why I enjoyed it so much, I suppose. I like mindless shoot 'em up sci fis. I also like cerebral, contemplative sci fis, but that's another story. In "Sixth Day," humans have developed a technology that is referred to in the movie as cloning, but it's not exactly cloning. Scientists, clandestinely and illegally, are growing human "blanks" bodies with no soul. When someone dies (someone the villains want to keep alive), they take his or her DNA and imprint it onto the blank body/template, et voila! It takes about two hours to bring the dead person back to life. Now you're wondering how I'm going to turn this musing about a comic-book movie into political commentary. OK, here it is. Dubya hasn't even taken the oath of office yet, and already dozens of publicity hounds are courting the cameras in attempts to imprint him with their agendas as if he were some kind of blank clone template. Clever, huh? Jesse Jackson has handed Bush his first fried-if-you-do and fried-if-you-don't scenario. Although he vowed on election night Dec. 13 to be a thorn in the administration's side, Jackson was on TV last week extending an "olive branch" and explaining with great professorial detachment what the new president "must do" to prove himself. He must appoint a presidential commission to "find out what happened in Florida." Way to go, Jesse. That ought to guarantee you a few hours of prime time. But, of course, you know that it's not the president's job to find out what happened in Florida it's Florida's job. And Bush will be forced to turn you down, giving you the perfect opportunity to leap from the belly of the Trojan horse you've presented him with and begin beating your breast in front of the cameras and asking why the president has gone back on his promise to bring people together. Along with Jackson, all the TV talking heads are putting forth agendas that, they opine, Bush must adopt if he is to be successful. Democratic luminaries also are occupying the little screen of late, using the same concerned tone and pontificating about what Bush "must do" immediately if he is to accomplish a bipartisan working relationship with their side. What it all boils down to is that he must give them everything they want and ask for nothing, and failure to do so will result in a chorus of wailing the likes of which we haven't seen since... well, since last week. What the heck, I'll toss in my two cents' worth as well. Here's what Bush must do if he is to obtain and maintain the high ground. He must do what he thinks is right, keeping in mind the promises that he has made. Either he is capable of bringing the country together, or he's not. And that clearly remains to be seen. But I'll guarantee you that he's not going to do it by bending to kiss all the rings of all the self-appointed potentates who have contributed so much to the division that now exists. That includes people on both sides of the aisle. As I watched his acceptance speech, I enjoyed the symbolism as much as anyone. But if Bush thinks that he's going to encounter the same cooperative spirit in Washington that he has in Austin, I'm afraid we're in for a long four years. The difficulty he faces is that he will have to compromise with people who are laying traps for him in every encounter. He will have to develop programs that everyone can agree upon, and then explain them so well that no one can get away with mischaracterizing them. He will sometimes have to be tough and use a ramrod on Congress, and he will sometimes have to be conciliatory. In short, he'll have to decide which hills are important enough to die on, and nobody will be able to make those decisions for him. The TV pundits have said over and over that Bush must avoid Tom Delay, the combative conservative Republican representative from Texas. But it seems to me that in order to reach across to both sides of the aisle, you have to deal with the centrists and the extremists on both sides. You have to talk to the Tom Delays and the Tom Daschles alike. You have to fight them when you must and you have to court them when you can. Bush's job is to develop an agenda that will be acceptable to the people and move it along. To do that, he will have to listen to everyone, then make his own decisions, and then communicate well enough to sell it. Rather than be imprinted with an agenda, he will have to imprint one on the Washington scene, without being too partisan. Should be a piece of cake.
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