“Happy Days Are Here Again”
“Happy Days Are Here Again” Those were the words that were spoken by Senator Trent Lott as he walked off the Senate floor after hearing of Harriet Miers withdrawal. A mere three days later Senator Lott’s comments seem to be almost prophetic. Monday October 31st 2005 will be remembered as the day that President Bush’s second term was reinvigorated, and I think that “Happy Days are Here Again” would be an appropriate slogan for the reinvigorated administration. President Bush’s first term in office gave conservatives many reasons to be happy. The success of his tax cuts and the subsequent strengthening of the economy once again proved the truth behind supply side economics. America returned to a strong and responsible foreign policy that it had not seen since the Presidency of Ronald Regan. The benefits of this muscular foreign policy can be seen in the transformations of countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, The Ukraine, Kuwait, Lebanon and to a lesser extent countries like Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Libya. The President fulfilled a campaign promise by signing a partial birth abortion ban that was very important to his conservative base. President Bush ran for reelection in 2004 on the record of a very successful term both at home and abroad.
The first year of the President’s second term met with more moderate success. Our foreign policy continues to produce miraculous results, two Iraqi elections with participation near 10 million, but a series of misadventures threatened to hamstring the administrations domestic policy. In a period of months the President was struck by the unprecedented (though largely exaggerated) tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, various legal clouds surrounding members and allies of his indictments and the absolute failure of one of his nominates from the Supreme Court. Liberal commentators were already starting to float the idea that the President had become a lame duck and would quietly ride out the last three years of his presidency without any major accomplishments. On Monday October 31st the President managed to reverse course and prove all of these predictions to have been premature.
Three events allowed the President to regain the momentum that he had lost, and if treated properly can allow him to make his second term in office as successful as his first. These three events were; the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, the UN’s condemnation of Syria and head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff’s October 18th promise for real immigration reform. There are issues that if treated properly will appeal to a both the President’s base and a broad section of the American people.
The President ran on a platform that promised the appointment of judges who would honestly interpret the constitution and refrain from using the bench to legislate. This is an issue that increasingly resonates with the American people. The coverage of the John Roberts hearings started to teach people that Judicial activism means a lot more than a judge who supports abortion, no matter what. I started to teach people that there are larger issues at play then the “right to privacy”. By nominating a true strict constructionist the President invigorated his followers who already understand the value a judiciary rooted in constitutionalism and gave himself a second opportunity to teach the rest of the country why that is so very important.
Judicial activism has steadily taken away our rights to self government and if it is clearly explained most Americans will find it repugnant. Even vocal supporters of Roe can surely find a case of judicial activism that will horrify them. Judicial activism is a danger to everyone no matter what their political views, because it is unpredictable and the justices who practice it are never held accountable for their actions. In the early part of the 1900s activist judges were mostly seen as enacting a conservative agenda, and for the last few decades they have been forcing liberal values onto the American people. The President should go right to the American people and explain to them that what is at stake with this nomination is not “women’s rights” or “worker’s rights” (or any of the other nonsense spouted by people like Ted Kennedy, and Chuck Schumer) but the future of our very democracy. The president cannot stress enough that the most critical right at stake here is our right to be free from the tyranny of an oppressive judiciary.
The President should explain that the theory of Judicial activism led to cases such as Dred Scott, Coker V Georgia (banning the death penalty as a punishment for rape) and Roper V Simmons (banning the death penalty for 17 year olds). Liberals, and more importantly moderates, need to be wary because the winds could change and they would once again be on the losing end of the equation. Through careful presentation the President can use the Alito nomination to regain popularity amongst large sections of the American people.
The second stage of the rebound platform should revolve around regime change in Syria. The UN passed a resolution that would force Syria to cooperate with the investigation into the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. If we were too force the Syrians to take this resolution seriously it would spell the end of the Asad regime. The chief suspects in the investigation include Bashar Asad’s brother, his brother in law and his former puppet President in Lebanon. The humiliation and showing of weakness that the Asad regime would suffer if it were forced to hand over top government officials, who coincidentally happen to be related to the dictator, would be a blow from which the regime could never recover.
This may sound easy, and in a sense it can be. But there is still work to be done. Left to its on devices the UN will fail to hold Syria accountable to the resolution. That is where the President comes in. He needs to take the case to the American people and make them understand the horrible crimes that Syria has committed against its neighbors over the last 25 years. He needs to demonstrate the role that Syria has played in helping and maintaining the terrorism in Iraq. Syria has been instrumental in allowing bathists and other terrorists to murder Americans and this is the President’s opportunity to tell the American people that he is going to put a stop to it. Whenever the UN starts act as if they are going to allow Syria to slip into the background, the President needs to make a grand speech on the floor of the UN to hold their feet to the fire. This strategy will satisfy the most hawkish amongst us who are just itching to see regime change in Syria and the “multilateralists” who think that only the UN’s blessing makes an international act legal. The vast majority of Americans would rejoice at seeing a man like Bashar Asad brought to justice.
The one issue that has really come to the forefront in the last few months is immigration reform. People are becoming increasingly determined to see that we have a fair, safe and effective method of controlling our borders. Republican congressman in both houses have started to push proposals that would fix immigration reform. On October 18th Michael Chertoff proposed a plan that would start to make our immigration reforms better for everyone involved. This is one area that the President has not yet shown he is going to take advantage of the opportunity, but now is the time for him to come into the forefront. The President needs to explain that immigration reform is about making things more equitable for immigrants who wants to come into America legally and safer for people who already live here. He needs to make the people understand that this not about xenophobia but safety and equity. But most of all he needs to grasp this opportunity and act.
President Bush is being given a rare second chance to make his second term as historic as his first. If we look to his first term for precedent we should be confident that the next three years will be very memorable and very successful. The President and Tom Delay might not always agree on every issue, but I think that one think we can all agree on is that “Happy Days Are Here Again”
The first year of the President’s second term met with more moderate success. Our foreign policy continues to produce miraculous results, two Iraqi elections with participation near 10 million, but a series of misadventures threatened to hamstring the administrations domestic policy. In a period of months the President was struck by the unprecedented (though largely exaggerated) tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, various legal clouds surrounding members and allies of his indictments and the absolute failure of one of his nominates from the Supreme Court. Liberal commentators were already starting to float the idea that the President had become a lame duck and would quietly ride out the last three years of his presidency without any major accomplishments. On Monday October 31st the President managed to reverse course and prove all of these predictions to have been premature.
Three events allowed the President to regain the momentum that he had lost, and if treated properly can allow him to make his second term in office as successful as his first. These three events were; the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, the UN’s condemnation of Syria and head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff’s October 18th promise for real immigration reform. There are issues that if treated properly will appeal to a both the President’s base and a broad section of the American people.
The President ran on a platform that promised the appointment of judges who would honestly interpret the constitution and refrain from using the bench to legislate. This is an issue that increasingly resonates with the American people. The coverage of the John Roberts hearings started to teach people that Judicial activism means a lot more than a judge who supports abortion, no matter what. I started to teach people that there are larger issues at play then the “right to privacy”. By nominating a true strict constructionist the President invigorated his followers who already understand the value a judiciary rooted in constitutionalism and gave himself a second opportunity to teach the rest of the country why that is so very important.
Judicial activism has steadily taken away our rights to self government and if it is clearly explained most Americans will find it repugnant. Even vocal supporters of Roe can surely find a case of judicial activism that will horrify them. Judicial activism is a danger to everyone no matter what their political views, because it is unpredictable and the justices who practice it are never held accountable for their actions. In the early part of the 1900s activist judges were mostly seen as enacting a conservative agenda, and for the last few decades they have been forcing liberal values onto the American people. The President should go right to the American people and explain to them that what is at stake with this nomination is not “women’s rights” or “worker’s rights” (or any of the other nonsense spouted by people like Ted Kennedy, and Chuck Schumer) but the future of our very democracy. The president cannot stress enough that the most critical right at stake here is our right to be free from the tyranny of an oppressive judiciary.
The President should explain that the theory of Judicial activism led to cases such as Dred Scott, Coker V Georgia (banning the death penalty as a punishment for rape) and Roper V Simmons (banning the death penalty for 17 year olds). Liberals, and more importantly moderates, need to be wary because the winds could change and they would once again be on the losing end of the equation. Through careful presentation the President can use the Alito nomination to regain popularity amongst large sections of the American people.
The second stage of the rebound platform should revolve around regime change in Syria. The UN passed a resolution that would force Syria to cooperate with the investigation into the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. If we were too force the Syrians to take this resolution seriously it would spell the end of the Asad regime. The chief suspects in the investigation include Bashar Asad’s brother, his brother in law and his former puppet President in Lebanon. The humiliation and showing of weakness that the Asad regime would suffer if it were forced to hand over top government officials, who coincidentally happen to be related to the dictator, would be a blow from which the regime could never recover.
This may sound easy, and in a sense it can be. But there is still work to be done. Left to its on devices the UN will fail to hold Syria accountable to the resolution. That is where the President comes in. He needs to take the case to the American people and make them understand the horrible crimes that Syria has committed against its neighbors over the last 25 years. He needs to demonstrate the role that Syria has played in helping and maintaining the terrorism in Iraq. Syria has been instrumental in allowing bathists and other terrorists to murder Americans and this is the President’s opportunity to tell the American people that he is going to put a stop to it. Whenever the UN starts act as if they are going to allow Syria to slip into the background, the President needs to make a grand speech on the floor of the UN to hold their feet to the fire. This strategy will satisfy the most hawkish amongst us who are just itching to see regime change in Syria and the “multilateralists” who think that only the UN’s blessing makes an international act legal. The vast majority of Americans would rejoice at seeing a man like Bashar Asad brought to justice.
The one issue that has really come to the forefront in the last few months is immigration reform. People are becoming increasingly determined to see that we have a fair, safe and effective method of controlling our borders. Republican congressman in both houses have started to push proposals that would fix immigration reform. On October 18th Michael Chertoff proposed a plan that would start to make our immigration reforms better for everyone involved. This is one area that the President has not yet shown he is going to take advantage of the opportunity, but now is the time for him to come into the forefront. The President needs to explain that immigration reform is about making things more equitable for immigrants who wants to come into America legally and safer for people who already live here. He needs to make the people understand that this not about xenophobia but safety and equity. But most of all he needs to grasp this opportunity and act.
President Bush is being given a rare second chance to make his second term as historic as his first. If we look to his first term for precedent we should be confident that the next three years will be very memorable and very successful. The President and Tom Delay might not always agree on every issue, but I think that one think we can all agree on is that “Happy Days Are Here Again”
posted by the-rubber-stamp at 11:42 AM
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