Grand Ambitions
Bush sees a historic opportunity to shape American government
Rarely have the stars been aligned as they are right now for George W. Bush. And he intends to take full advantage of the fact. The president is interested not just in setting an agenda for the second term, he tells aides, but in laying the groundwork for what he calls "liberty's century."
Everything Bush has been doing since his re-election reflects this audacious goal. To re-energize his administration and make the government bend to his will, Bush is deploying trusted White House aides into key cabinet jobs. He's developing an extensive blueprint for Congress next year. Over the longer term, Bush hopes to make the Republicans into America's permanent majority party while creating an "ownership society" in which individual citizens--not government or employers--create and protect their own wealth. "The president learned the lesson of his father--and fixed it," says a senior White House official. "The trouble with his old man is that he didn't run on anything in his re-election campaign [in 1992, when Bill Clinton defeated George Herbert Walker Bush]. But President Bush did, and it's the boldness of the agenda that will be his legacy."
In fact, few other presidents have had the opportunities that Bush now enjoys. Not only did he win a clear majority of the popular vote, but Republicans increased their majorities in the House and the Senate. Bush is also likely to have up to three openings on the Supreme Court, which would give him the chance to reshape the nation's judicial landscape. On foreign policy, the death of Yasser Arafat creates at least the potential for significant movement toward peace in the Middle East.
One has to reach back a long way to find similar moments. In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected overwhelmingly along with a Democratic majority in Congress ready to continue his New Deal. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson was master of all he surveyed after his triumph, which enabled him to build on his Great Society. In 1972, Richard Nixon enhanced his own power after his landslide re-election victory. But each man, ultimately, went too far. FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court with allies, but southern Democrats joined with Republicans to stop him. LBJ ran into opposition to his escalation of the Vietnam War and didn't run again. Nixon was kept in check by a Democratic-controlled Congress and had to resign in the wake of Watergate. The problem for second-term presidents, according to Rutgers political scientist Ross Baker, is that they often overreach. "The sense of no limits," he says, "can be very dangerous."
Shuffles. But, for the moment at least, Bush is moving ahead at flank speed. The resignations of six of his 15 cabinet secretaries, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft, set the stage for two more departures: Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. Meanwhile, Porter Goss, Bush's choice for the CIA, is shaking up the intelligence community (story, Page 22).
The pattern is clear: Bush, with Vice President Cheney as his potential enforcer and White House counselor Karl Rove as his political and domestic-policy guru, is installing a Dubyacracy, populating the government with men and women who will enthusiastically carry out his conservative agenda. High on that agenda: pursuit of the war on terrorism, winning the war in Iraq, and reforming Social Security, the tax code, liability laws, and the immigration system. "The president is invigorated," says a Bush adviser. "He's thinking about all this methodically and strategically."
And the breadth of his objectives suggests that Bush's legendary confidence has only intensified since Election Day. "The president is sending up to Capitol Hill very big, important legislation," says political scientist Baker. "This is not incremental policy change. This is something that usually follows an electoral blowout." Historian Robert Dallek agrees that Bush is "feeling his oats" but warns that "uniform control" by one party in Washington sometimes brings out internal divisions that undermine or complicate a president's agenda.
That may already be happening. Social conservatives are demanding that Bush heed their wishes in judicial appointments and other areas. "There's the appearance of solidarity, but it's more an illusion than reality," says Dallek. In addition, congressional Democrats argue that the country remains deeply divided, and they will aggressively challenge many White House priorities. Yet Bush tells aides he wants to seize what he considers a historic moment. It is, after all, the dawn of liberty's century.
This story appears in the November 29, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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