February 26, 2002
The Decade of Need
By
Tom Bevan
The 1980's
are often referred to as the "Decade of Greed", mostly
by liberals who recall those years with visions of the rapaciousness
of Wall Street and ten years of big-business loving, military-industrial-complex-feeding
Republican administrations. Young yuppies driving fancy cars and
snorting cocaine, Michael Douglas types doing big insider deals
and screwing the little guys.
In truth,
the 1990's were more deserving of the moniker. An undisciplined
President set the example, reading polls to create policy and
getting sexual favors from a woman half his age in the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, every construction worker and grandma from Illinois
to Idaho stared obsessively at the ticker on CNBC to see how much
higher their Qualcomm stock would go.
All of that
is over now. It ended - in a fitting flurry of greed and egotism
by the former President - the day George W. Bush was sworn into
office. It ended, not only because Bush has made good on his promise
to restore integrity to the office of the Presidency, but because,
even last January, Americans could sense that the economic bubble
had burst and that the good times were coming to a close. All
through the spring and summer, while Congress debated how to carve
up the "projected surplus", Americans watched their
portfolios dwindle and the numbers of unemployed rise.
And then
came September 11. In the moments when America watched the towers
come down, it was as if God grabbed us all by the lapels and shook:
This is what is important. This is what matters. In the
last six months it's become increasingly clear that Americans
have changed how they view the world and their place in it. Forever.
America has
seen this change reflected in their President, too. In the days,
weeks and now months following the attacks, we have drawn strength
from President Bush's honesty, sincerity and resolve because it
mirrors that which we see in ourselves. We see how the President's
priorities have shifted, much like our own, and are now articulated
by his relentless focus on security, freedom, and morality.
Even before
his State of the Union address and the now famous "axis of
evil" remark, Bush had been favorably compared to Ronald
Reagan. But now some Democratic strategists like James Carville
are trying to spin comparisons of Bush to Reagan for political
advantage by recalling visions of the mythical "decade of
greed." Bush is proposing "massive" increases in
military spending, his budget "raids" the Social Security
surplus for two trillion dollars, and he lets business lobbyists
"run wild" through the White House halls.
Will Americans
buy this version of George W. Bush? Don't bet on it. All indications
are that the public understands and supports the messages this
President is sending. The first decade of the 21st century will
instead be remembered as the "decade of need": a need
to restore and revitalize the United States military to combat
terrorist threats, to develop human intelligence, to overhaul
immigration, to organize homeland security, to become less reliant
on foreign oil, to give of ourselves to our country in any way
that we can.
Americans
sense we are at a unique moment in history. It is a moment marked
by vulnerability and opportunity. All of our strength and success
as a nation flows from the single belief in an open, free society.
Our President has recognized the need to preserve our freedom
and is making sure America is prepared to do so.
Tom
Bevan writes for RealClearPolitics.
