End of the Bush Era

Yesterday we got this from E. J. Dionne Jr. in the Washington Post:

The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them -- and the country.

Recent months, and especially the past two weeks, have brought home to a steadily growing majority of Americans the truth that President Bush's government doesn't work. His policies are failing, his approach to leadership is detached and self-indulgent, his way of politics has produced a divided, angry and dysfunctional public square. We dare not go on like this.

The Bush Era did not begin when he took office, or even with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It began on Sept. 14, 2001, when Bush declared at the World Trade Center site: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Bush was, indeed, skilled in identifying enemies and rallying a nation already disposed to action. He failed to realize after Sept. 11 that it was not we who were lucky to have him as a leader, but he who was lucky to be president of a great country that understood the importance of standing together in the face of a grave foreign threat. Very nearly all of us rallied behind him.

If Bush had understood that his central task was to forge national unity, as he seemed to shortly after Sept. 11, the country would never have become so polarized. Instead, Bush put patriotism to the service of narrowly ideological policies and an extreme partisanship. He pushed for more tax cuts for his wealthiest supporters and shamelessly used relatively modest details in the bill creating a Department of Homeland Security as partisan cudgels in the 2002 elections.

As much as I hope he is right, we still have over three years with Bush as head of our government. During that time he will continue to dominate the media attention and set the national agenda. If America is lucky, Rove and Libby will be indicted by Fitzgerald, but frankly, I'm not counting on it. Hoping, yes, but not counting on it. But take Rove out of the White House and he still has telephones. Perhaps in November 2006 the Republicans will lose the House, but that will only give us gridlock. We don't get out government back.

Still, no government at all is better than the one we have with Bush as President.

I think E. J. Dionne is being too optimistic. Bush has for his own personal reasons put America through the worst period since WW II, and I don't see that it is over yet.

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Addendum
Ruy Teixeira agrees with E. J. Dionne and provides data from a bunch of polls to show why he thinks so.

I am going to attempt an interpretation of their position versus mine.

We all agree that Bush is now no longer the dominiating political presence that stands across American national politics as he has been since 9/11. Neither Dionne nor Tiexiera seem to believe that he can recover. As I look forward to the next three plus years in which we must suffer Bush's presence in the White House, I am less optimistic about his ability to either recover or to lash out in some manner that really screws things up even worse than he already has.