President Bush’s State of the Union address showed that perceptions and feelings are as important in politics and governance as reality. In Mr Bush’s own words, “”As we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilised world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet the state of our union has never been stronger.”
It was an instructive juxtaposition. The very national state of affairs people fear most — recession and war – are apparently the reason that so many Americans feel good about their government. Mr Bush has an approval rating of more than 80 per cent. People feel unity of purpose in the face of a common external enemy. The creation or exaggeration of an external enemy have been tactics of leaders in the past to bolster their political support. Mr Bush is obviously gaining a great deal politically from the attacks on September 11 without having to do much.
Mr Bush pushed the insecurity as much as he could. He said the war – far from being over with the defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan – was only beginning. He attempted to instil a state of indefinite fear by saying, “”Thousands of dangerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes, are now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs – set to go off without warning.”
He mentioned Iran, Iraq and North Korea and rogue nations that were developing weapons of mass destruction. With terrorist organisations they were, he said, an axis of evil. It was the same rhetoric used by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s with reference to the Soviet Union. Mr Reagan increased defence spending massively. He also reduced taxes, especially for people on higher incomes – again an aim of Mr Bush. The result for Mr Reagan was a blow-out of the deficit, threatening low interest rates and slowing economic growth. Mr Bush has not learnt that lesson.
While concentrating on defence and foreign policy matters, Mr Bush runs the risk that latter in his presidency economic matters with catch up with him – as they did his father who had similar high popularity after the Gulf War, only to be consumed by a flagging economy.
On that score, the full fallout from the collapse of insurance and finance giant Enron is yet to be felt. The savings of hundreds of thousands of families have been wiped out. But, worse, Enron was lauded as company with integrity and best-practice management. It is slowly being revealed that it was built upon the sands of deceit. Confidence in American capitalism has been affected.
Mr Bush’s address was more significant in what it did not say than what it did. There was no imaginative plan to deal with the American recession – just tax cuts. There was no long-term to deal with security – just military bluster. Rather than presenting an equivalent of the Marshal Plan (as at the end of World War II) directed at reconstruction in order to eradicate the seeds of violence, Mr Bush’s vision is like that of world leaders who concocted the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I – it was all about punishment and revenge – sowing the seeds of the next war.
Mr Bush had the chance to address the critical issues that face the world – poverty, starvation, disease and lack of self-determination. These are the seeds of terrorism. Mr Bush ignored them. His talks exclusively about the war on terrorism, not about peace based on the eradication of the causes of terrorism. He invites more to be enemies of the US by saying those who are not with him are against him.