“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” – C.S. Lewis, “The Abolition of Man.”
THE FORGE OF WAR: Some interesting results from the latest poll from the New York Times. One number that piqued my interest was that most Americans still don’t really have a clue who John Ashcroft is. But of those who did know, his favorability rating was 31 percent and his unfavorability rating was a mere 8 percent. And to think of all the money, time and ink that some people have spent trying to peg him as the source of all evil. I guess no one really internalizes Frank Rich. Then there’s the astonishing fact that 61 percent of Americans approve of president Bush’s handling of the economy, even during a recession. Bottom line: there doesn’t seem to be a massive disconnect in people’s minds between domestic and foreign affairs. This makes intuitive sense to me. One of the reasons that Bush’s poll numbers are so high is partly patriotism in a time of crisis, but also surely that people admire the crisp, effective and mild-mannered presidency the war has revealed. The idea that this will have no impact on his clout in domestic matters seems to me to be unlikely. The analogy of his father doesn’t hold. Before the Gulf War, 41’s image with the public was already pretty set – out-of-touch, inarticulate, pushed around by his own party, not as impressive as Reagan. The war didn’t change this identity; it merely helped give the old guy more respect. But this war has come at a very different time for 43. In Dubyah’s case, the best analogy, I think, is Thatcher. She dealt with a surprise attack early in her first term – the Falklands. She performed brilliantly under pressure and saw her approval ratings grow domestically – even though her economic policies were never very popular, and she precipitated a brutal recession in her early days. The war transformed her image when it was still formative in the eyes of the country. It never changed. I think there’s a good chance the same thing is happening with Bush, which is why Democratic faith that they can compartmentalize the war and insulate it from domestic politics is, in my opinion, misplaced. This poll suggests I may be right. Well, we’ll see, won’t we?
THE CULT OF PESSIMISM: Useful piece by Jake Weisberg on how war pessimists endure, against all the odds and against all the evidence. Speaking of which, this latest piece from the Guardian probably deserves a prize for finding the dark lining in every silver cloud. Don’t kid yourselves: these people never ever learn.
The Dish 