The Scum at the Top
Commentary on the Rats in Washington
Exploiting the Atrocity
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
© September 12, 2003
In my first column after 9/11, I mentioned something everyone
with contacts on Capitol Hill already knew: that just days after
the event, the exploitation of the atrocity for partisan
political gain had already begun.
In response, I received a torrent of outraged mail. At a time
when the nation was shocked and terrified, the thought that
our leaders might be that cynical was too much to bear. ``How
can I say that to my young son?'' asked one furious e-mailer.
I wonder what that correspondent thinks now. Is the public - and
the news media - finally prepared to cry foul when cynicism comes
wrapped in the flag? America's political future may rest on the
answer.
The press has become a lot less shy about pointing out the
administration's exploitation of 9/11, partly because that
exploitation has become so crushingly obvious. As The Washington
Post pointed out yesterday, in the past six weeks President Bush
has invoked 9/11 not just to defend Iraq policy and argue for
oil drilling in the Arctic, but in response to questions about
tax cuts, unemployment, budget deficits and even campaign
finance. Meanwhile, the crudity of the administration's recent
propaganda efforts, from dressing the president up in a flight
suit to orchestrating the ludicrously glamorized TV movie about
Mr. Bush on 9/11, have set even supporters' teeth on edge.
And some stunts no longer seem feasible. Maybe it was the pressure
of other commitments that kept Mr. Bush from visiting New York
yesterday; but one suspects that his aides no longer think of
the Big Apple as a politically safe place to visit.
Yet it's almost certainly wrong to think that the political
exploitation of 9/11 and, more broadly, the administration's
campaign to label critics as unpatriotic are past their peak.
It may be harder for the administration to wrap itself in the
flag, but it has more incentive to do so now than ever before.
Where once the administration was motivated by greed, now it's
driven by fear.
In the first months after 9/11, the administration's ruthless
exploitation of the atrocity was a choice, not a necessity.
The natural instinct of the nation to rally around its leader
in times of crisis had pushed Mr. Bush into the polling
stratosphere, and his re-election seemed secure. He could have
governed as the uniter he claimed to be, and would probably
still be wildly popular.
But Mr. Bush's advisers were greedy; they saw 9/11 as an
opportunity to get everything they wanted, from another round
of tax cuts, to a major weakening of the Clean Air Act, to an
invasion of Iraq. And so they wrapped as much as they could in
the flag.
Now it has all gone wrong. The deficit is about to go above half
a trillion dollars, the economy is still losing jobs, the triumph
in Iraq has turned to dust and ashes, and Mr. Bush's poll numbers
are at or below their pre-9/11 levels.
Nor can the members of this administration simply lose like
gentlemen. For one thing, that's not how they operate. Furthermore,
everything suggests that there are major scandals - involving
energy policy, environmental policy, Iraq contracts and cooked
intelligence - that would burst into the light of day if the
current management lost its grip on power. So these people must
win, at any cost.
The result, clearly, will be an ugly, bitter campaign - probably
the nastiest of modern American history. Four months ago it
seemed that the 2004 campaign would be all slow-mo films of
Mr. Bush in his flight suit. But at this point, it's likely to
be pictures of Howard Dean or Wesley Clark that morph into
Saddam Hussein. And Donald Rumsfeld has already rolled out the
stab-in-the-back argument: if you criticize the administration,
you're lending aid and comfort to the enemy.
This political ugliness will take its toll on policy, too. The
administration's infallibility complex - its inability to admit
ever making a mistake - will get even worse. And I disagree
with those who think the administration can claim infallibility
even while practicing policy flexibility: on major issues, such
as taxes or Iraq, any sensible policy would too obviously be an
implicit admission that previous policies had failed.
In other words, if you thought the last two years were bad,
just wait: it's about to get worse. A lot worse.
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January 13, 2007