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November 15, 2005
Attack!
The first president I recall while he was in office was Jimmy Carter, the disastrous buffoon who destroyed our economy and self-image while simultaneously almost fatally weakening our defense and foreign policy (go, Jimmah!). President Carter was unable to catch a break from the press or the public. Largely, it is true, because he was incompetent, but there is another factor as well: he was passive when dealing with both foreign enemies and domestic opponents.
Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, had a mixed record dealing with foreign enemies; mostly aggressive but not always (such as his withdrawal from Beirut after his attempt at acting charitably to terrorists by protecting them from the Israeli Army was answered with bombings of our embassy and Marine barracks). His domestic behavior, though, was always very aggressive towards political opponents. While his knives were more humorous than grim, he used them frequently and well.
The first President Bush was quite aggressive with foreign enemies, but quite tame with domestic opponents. Not actually timid, as President Carter was, but certainly respectful and seeking consensus, even in the face of quite brutal political attacks against his policies and personal attacks against himself.
President Clinton was far more like Reagan in domestic terms: he was constantly on the offensive. There was no Clinton administration scandal that was not really just the Republicans up to their dirty tricks and lies, until it became clear that the scandalous behavior really had happened and it was done by the administration. At that point, of course, the Republicans were clearly overreaching in their criticism, because while Clinton may have stumbled, the Republicans were actively evil — look, shiny things. In other words, President Clinton was masterful at attacking his domestic opponents constantly not only over their own stumbles, but over his stumbles. And Clinton's attacks were not confined to jest and outmaneuvering the opposition on legislation: Clinton went after his opponents hammer and tongs, with personal attacks against the weakest points he could find (no matter how misogynist, racist, or irrelevant those attacks might be). And of course, he was the most popular president since Roosevelt, other than Reagan.
The current President Bush is much like his father, or has been until recently. And his approval among the public appears to have been taking a beating lately, under the constant attacks (fair and unfair) leveled by his political opponents, and with his base frustrated and feeling politically homeless. But interestingly enough, now that he has been making a strong attack, for at least the last several days, pointing out the misrepresentations, falsehoods, hypocrisy and sometimes simply the meanness and low character (more real than rhetorical, as far as I can tell) of his political opponents, his base at least is strongly responding in a favorable way. It is too early to know what the general public's reaction will be.
But I have a theory that President Bush's approval ratings will be going up as long as he stays with the aggressive stance. It appears to me that the American public, by and large, favors a strong President, and the President does not look strong when he's attempting to govern (as Carter did disastrously, and the first President Bush did successfully), but does look strong when he's attempting to lead (as Reagan and sometimes the current President Bush have done) or rule (as Clinton tended to do).
Interestingly, I think that the Democrats figured this out long ago. Note the Democrat stance towards any Republican officeholder or Republican policy: almost uniformly vicious and hostile and constantly attacking in the press. Note also the tactics of the Clinton administration, and of Howard Dean. And most tellingly, notice whom the Democrats most viciously and personally attack, and most seek to keep out of the Republican leadership: Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney. In other words, the loudest and most sustained attacks are against the few Republicans who seem to believe in taking the political offensive, those whose removal would not necessarily most affect policy, but which would most affect the tone of the Republicans' rhetoric.
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Comments
There's a definite demarcation between strong and tough vs. vicious and hostile. People do like tough, aggresive leaders (those qualities are a must for any actual leader of men and have been for all of human history), but being vicious and hostile has only gotten the Dems in Congress the status of minority party for over a decade. That's because they don't possess any actual ideas or promote any alternatives. Without that, their attacks are nothing more than sniping. Sniping is not what people look for in their leaders.
Posted by: Brian Medcalf at November 15, 2005 4:25 PM