State of the Union

"And so long as we continue to trust the people, our nation will prosper, our liberty will be secure, and the state of our union will remain strong." Thus spoke President Bush as he neared the conclusion of his seventh and last State of the Union Address on Monday night. The three attributes he referred to in his lackluster performance are forlorn enough.

Prosperity? Inflation-adjusted wage growth has been flat for all but the most wealthy during his tenure, the savings rate is negative, six million more lack health insurance than when he took office, home foreclosures have jumped 79% to set an all-time record, and this year promises to be worse.

Liberty? With wholesale and deliberate violations of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th Amendments, habeus corpus set aside, the Justice Department politicized, the Executive Branch refusing to answer subpoenas and the president invalidating whole sections of laws without the use of the veto, the march of liberty has been decidedly backward these past seven years.

Strength? It is difficult to see how the addition of $3.5 trillion to the national debt, the diplomatic alienation of much of the world or the commitment of the bulk of American land forces to a senseless invasion and occupation in the Middle East for five years with no end in sight have made the nation stronger. America is weaker for these misjudgments, not stronger.

No, as bad as these are, they are only symptoms of a worse problem, the problem of ignoring his own advice in the first clause of the sentence quoted above. "...so long as we continue to trust the people..." That is Bush's most egregious shortcoming. He never has trusted the people, preferring instead to go with his oft-cited "gut," his preconceptions, and the advice of an inner circle that similarly ignores the popular will in favor of a reliance on ideological dogma spun in such a way as to make it seem compatible with that will.

Consider the popular will as ascertained by the polling partnership CNN/Opinion Research and compare it to the policies the president has advocated or adopted.

67% disapprove of Bush's conduct of affairs in Iraq. 28% approve.
59% do not believe removing Saddam Hussein was worth it. 32% do.
68% say the country is on the wrong track. 19% say it's on the right track.
69% believe waterboarding is torture. 29% do not think so.
58% say America should not use waterboarding. 40% feel we should.
57% believe a woman should be able to get an abortion if she wants one.
25% oppose abortion in most cases. 15% say it should never be allowed.
54% support civil unions with the same rights as married couples for gays. 43% do not.
53% favor federal money for stem cell research. 41% oppose it.
63% agree the government needs a warrant to spy on people. 33% do not.
57% oppose giving telecomm companies immunity for unwarranted spying. 33% do not.

Much of the public was, for a time, enamored of a president who knew his own mind and could not be swayed by popular opinion. He made a virtue of being undemocratic, as it were. But finally the public, driven by events, has come to appreciate the wisdom of its own judgment. That is why Mr. Bush's approval rating stands at 31%. That is why the Republican candidates running for president hardly ever invoke his name. And that is why the president can deliver a State of the Union Address...and no one cares.