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George W. Bush’s War for America: Conservatism on Trial. Lecture Plan. Culture Wars Continued: the “50:50 Nation” thesis George W. Bush’s Mission: the triumphs and trials of American conservatism. The 2000 Election. CONTEXT Era of divided government - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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George W. Bush’s War for America: Conservatism on
Trial
Lecture Plan
1. Culture Wars Continued: the “50:50 Nation” thesis
2. George W. Bush’s Mission: the triumphs and trials of American conservatism
The 2000 Election
CONTEXT
• Era of divided government
• Culture Wars: the religious right and Clinton
• Judicial politics
Bush v Gore December 2000
Implications:• Impossibility of reforming the system• The “Cult of the Constitution” against the
will of the people? • Partisan balance, but Republicans have
better access to courts and media• Public and media sanguine
The 50:50 Nation?Winning party’s percentage of the popular vote:
1996 Clinton 49.2
1996 House Republicans
48.9
1998 House Republicans
48.9
2000 Gore 48.4
2000 House Republicans
48.3
2002 House Republicans
50.9
2004 Bush 50.7
2004 House Republicans
50.1
2006 House Democrats
52.3
The 50:50 Nation?
The 50:50 Nation?
The 50:50 Nation?
The 50:50 Nation?
The 50:50 Nation?
• Political realignment since 1970s means that parties now reflect liberal-conservative divide
• Does the two-party system exaggerate differences over “values” as a means of buttressing their support? (c.f. pre-1932 political system?)
Bush and the Christian Right• Personal story:
redemption• “Faith politics”• “God gave us
this man” (Falwell)
Bush Before 9/11
• “Compassionate conservatism”?• Bipartisanship?: Education Act, 2001• Christian evangelicals: John Ashcroft
as Attorney General• Economic conservatives: huge upper-
income tax cuts• Nationalist: pulled out of Kyoto
protocol, refused to sign up to International Criminal Court
September 11, 2001
This crusade will rid the world of evil-doers. We’ve never seen this kind of evil
before, but the evil-doers have never seen the American people in action before
either… This will be monumental struggle of good versus evil, but good will prevail.
President Bush, September 16, 2001
9/11 as God’s Judgement
“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians, the ACLU,
all of them who tried to secularise America I point the finger and say you
made this happen. God will not be mocked.”
Jerry Falwell, September 15, 2001
Implications of 9/11 attacks
• Challenge to states’ monopoly of power• Exposed Americans to issues of nature of
US power in the world• Re-orientated American political agenda• Radically altered cost-benefit analysis in
West’s struggle against Islamist terrorism
• Creation of international consensus
Bush’s Worldview
Bush’s Worldview
(a) The world is a dangerous place(b) Self-interested nation-states are the key
actors in world politics(c) Power, especially military power, and the
will to use it, is all that matters(d) Multilateral agreements and institutions
are neither essential nor necessarily conducive to American interests
(e) American exceptionalism: purity of motives; what America wants is good for everyone
(f) ACTION is all that is respected
End to Consensus: invasion of Iraq
• Christian fundamentalism & Israel Lobby
• Neo-cons: the “Bush doctrine” (pre-emptive war)
• Oil interests: Cheney, Halliburton, corporate profits from Iraq
• “Democratisation” and “modernisation” of Middle East
Project for a New American Century, Letter to President Clinton, January 26, 1998
We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power… Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater…
The road to the Iraq invasion
• Link Saddam Hussain to Al Qaeda: Jan 2003: 44% of Americans thought Iraq was behind 9/11 attacks (Knight Ridder poll)
• Creation of threat: “WMD”, exaggeration of intelligence
• Stress need for immediate action: Discredit Hans Blix, UN process
• Invention of Niger connection, smearing of Joe Wilson, revealed his wife as a CIA agent
The Role of Oil
• US support for Iraq in war against Iran
• Decades of ties between Bushes, Saudis, Bin Ladens
The “Home Front”
• New language: “homeland”• Debate over civil liberties: the
PATRIOT Act, Guantanamo Bay• Implications of American casualties,
American “barbarism”: lost moral high ground?
• Limit sacrifice: more tax cuts, no draft
2004 Electionhttp://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/election/index.php?nav_action=election&nav_subaction=overview&campaign_id=178
2004 Election
Bush’s Legacy
• Limits of conservatism?• Limits of revolution?• Dangers of “America Alone” foreign
policy and exceptionalist ideology on which it is based?