Roll Over, Alexis

by hilzoy

Via firedoglake, what Bush is really thinking about these days: his legacy:

"President Bush had dinner last month on the Stanford University campus at the home of George P. Shultz, who was President Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, and the topic of conversation was not, as might be expected, the war in Iraq. Instead, guests said, Mr. Bush spent the evening focused on how he could create a public policy center with his presidential library after he leaves office in 2009. (...)

So far Mr. Bush has said little publicly about his plans, although he told Bob Schieffer of CBS News in an interview in January that he wanted to create a policy center focused on the spread of democracy and Alexis de Tocqueville's vision of America as a nation made better by its "associations," or community groups.

"I would like to leave behind a legacy or a think tank, a place for people to talk about freedom and liberty, and the de Tocqueville model, what de Tocqueville saw in America," Mr. Bush told Mr. Schieffer. "I would like for there to be a place where young scholars come and write and think and articulate and opine and teach.""

News flash, Mr. President: there are already lots of places where young scholars come and write and think and articulate and opine and teach. We call them "universities". You've been to several, although we understand you might not remember much from your time there.

But seriously: who would have thought that George W. Bush was a fan of de Tocqueville? Nothing about him suggests a special respect for those free and independent American citizens, jealously guarding their right to participate fully in public life, that de Tocqueville so admires. His conduct does not reveal anything like de Tocqueville's concern for the separation of powers, his wariness of excessively concentrated power, or his fear that Americans might one day be rendered servile and acquiesce in their own enslavement.

In fact, the idea of Bush as an admirer of de Tocqueville is so odd that it occurred to me that he might be confusing de Tocqueville with someone else entirely. So, as a public service, I present a few excerpts from de Tocqueville for Bush to reflect on.

"Unlimited power is in itself a bad and dangerous thing. Human beings are not competent to exercise it with discretion. God alone can be omnipotent, because his justice and his wisdom are always equal to his power. There is no power on earth so worthy of honor in itself or clothed with rights so sacred that I would admit its uncontrolled and all-predominant authority. When I see that the right and the means of absolute command are conferred on any power whatever, be it called a people or a king, an aristocracy or a democracy, a monarchy or a republic, I say there is the germ of tyranny, and I seek to live elsewhere, under other laws."

"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it."

"I can conceive of a society in which all men would feel an equal love and respect for the laws of which they consider themselves the authors; in which the authority of the government would be respected as necessary, and not divine; and in which the loyalty of the subject to the chief magistrate would not be a passion, but a quiet and rational persuasion. With every individual in possession of rights which he is sure to retain, a kind of manly confidence and reciprocal courtesy would arise between all classes, removed alike from pride and from servility. The people, well acquainted with their own true interests, would understand that, in order to profit from the advantages of the state, it is necessary to satisfy its requirements. The voluntary association of the citizens would then take the place of the individual authority of the nobles, and the community would be protected from tyranny and license." (He later says that the United States most closely approximates this ideal.)

"What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class." (In re: the estate tax, and Bush's own biography.)

And lastly, just for Bush: "In New England, where education and liberty are the daughters of morality and religion, where society has acquired age and stability enough to enable it to form principles and hold fixed habits, the common people are accustomed to respect intellectual and moral superiority and to submit to it without complaint, although they have set at naught all those privileges which wealth and birth have introduced among mankind. In New England, consequently, the democracy makes a more judicious choice than it does elsewhere.

But as we descend towards the South, to those states in which the constitution of society is more recent and less strong, where instruction is less general and the principles of morality, religion and liberty are less happily combined, we perceive that talents and virtues become more rare among those who are in authority.

Lastly, when we arrive at the new Southwestern states, in which the constitution of society dates from but yesterday and presents only an agglomeration of adventurers and speculators, we are amazed at the persons who are invested with public authority, and we are led to ask by what force, independent of legislation and of the men who direct it, the state can be protected and society be made to flourish."

George W. Bush: even though you are neither young nor a scholar, you could do worse than to reflect on what de Tocqueville saw in America yourself.

Comments

[Frank]

Hilzoy- Perhaps you are misunderestimating Bush, he may intend that the study of de Tocqueville be limited to his think tank, not merely available there. :)

[DaveC]

News flash, Mr. President: there are already lots of places where young scholars come and write and think and articulate and opine and teach. We call them "universities".

Everybody gets to articulate and opine and teach, except perhaps John McCain and Condaleeza Rice.

Ahem.

[Anarch]

Everybody gets to articulate and opine and teach, except perhaps John McCain and Condaleeza Rice.

John McCain applied for a teaching position? Condaleeza was fired from Stanford?

[snorter]

"who would have thought that George W. Bush was a fan of de Tocqueville?"

dude, like, Bush was a permanent resident of duh Tokeville for many years, in between stints in duh Tootville.

[Jackmormon]

The last thing we need are more think tanks, where "teaching" means "press appearances."

Endowing a couple of university chairs or a specialized "democracy center" within a university would have a greater impact on young scholars.

A think tank would have a more immediate impact on policy debates, however, so there's that.

[Debbie(aussie)]

It really makes me wonder if there are two GW 's. The one who talks as you've posted and is tolerant of gay's (see Andrew Sullivan) and the president. They don't fit. Maybe your previous post, about why he was the republican choice and this one, are part of the story.

[Katherine]

What's gotten into him lately, anyway? Take this:

''I very much would like to end Guantánamo; I very much would like to get people to a court,'' the president said in an interview with the German network ARD.

``And we're waiting for our Supreme Court to give us a decision as to whether the people need to have a fair trial in a civilian court or in a military court.''

Um, what?

[Fledermaus]

What's gotten into him lately, anyway?

Yeah, this and his greatest accomplishment in the last five years (SPOILER: it is that one time he caught a big fish). I'm beginning to suspect that he is even less involved than I ever suspected.

I've been stuck on his whole "I'm the Decider" spiel from a few weeks back. I finally figured out how he ticks. To paraphrase Omar Khayyam: The decider decides; and, having so decided,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure him back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it

I've been stuck on his whole "I'm the Decider" spiel from a few weeks back. I finally figured out how he ticks. To paraphrse Omar Khayyam: The decider decides; and, having so decided,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure him back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it

[Fledermaus]

Whoops, apparently there is an echo in here.

[carpeicthus]

So-called conservatives have been misappropriating Alexis for some time now. Newt Gingrich wrote an introduction to one of the latest widely disseminated editions.

[hilzoy]

So no one is particularly tickled by the quote about those persons who are invested with public authority in the Southwestern states? I quite liked it, myself (she sniffed...)

[Frank]

I think the misappropriation may be intended to cause people to forget what Alexis really stands for in the same way conservatives have successfully stolen Adam Smith.

[DaveC]

John McCain applied for a teaching position? Condaleeza was fired from Stanford?

Good point. McCain and Rice are neither teachers nor librarians,

[DaveC]

Now I don't blame the librarian if he decides to leave Ohio State, because he has no future there, and as Professor Phelps says:

Out faculty seeks a university that is a beacon of intellectual freedom, high scholarly standards and freedom from discrimination based upon sexual orientation. I look forward to the day when we can say with assurance that our library manifests the same principles.

So obviously getting rid of this librarian will make the university a better beacon for intellectual freedom, whatever that means.

[GreginOz]

This little snippet tells me...
"...First, as DailyKos convincingly argues, the true scandal of the Duke Cunningham hooker story is likely the gender of the hookers. There are some very carefully parsed statements regarding Brent Wilkes' Watergate "hospitality suites," such as the claim of the lawyer for Shirlington Limo's Chris Baker that his client was "never in attendance in any party where any *women* were being used for prostitution purposes."

...that he was quoting deCOCKville:-)

[Anarch]

Good point. McCain and Rice are neither teachers nor librarians.

So in other words, your original post was completely bogus. Got it.

[Uncle Kvetch]

So no one is particularly tickled by the quote about those persons who are invested with public authority in the Southwestern states?

I loved it, Hilzoy. Tickled pink, even. So there.

[Jon H]

Next thing, he'll be talking about starting a nonprofit that builds houses.

We'll probably hear about that when his approval rating dips below 30.

[john miller]

You mean tomorrow?

[Phil]

Thank heavens we have DaveC around to stick up for fag-bashers. You truly make the world a little sweeter, Dave.

[Kent]

I liked the southwestern thingy too, fwiw. Don't feel sad, Hilzoy. You write (and quote) so many wonderful things that if we all posted every time we loved one of them in particular, we would start to look a little silly.

[Dan]

Perhaps he meant Torquemada?