Did I over-react? It’s worth looking at the full quote as produced by the Washington Times:
“I fully understand that the job of the president is and must always be protecting the great right of people to worship or not worship as they see fit. That’s what distinguishes us from the Taliban. The greatest freedom we have or one of the greatest freedoms is the right to worship the way you see fit. On the other hand, I don’t see how you can be president at least from my perspective, how you can be president, without a relationship with the Lord.” (My italics)
Now notice that Bush is explicitly qualifying his defense of religious freedom (or the freedom to have no religion at all) by saying that the presidency, in his view, should nevertheless be reserved for people with a relationship of a personal nature with “the Lord.” He isn’t simply saying that he doesn’t see how he could have endured the presidency without faith; he is asserting that he cannot see how anyone could be president without a “relationship with the Lord.” Now I can see how this might be simply a slip of the tongue: just a projection of his own experience with nothing more to be inferred from it. But given how this administration has consciously eroded the distinction between church and state – fusing the two with federal funds, using religious groups as its political base, incorporating religious leaders into policy-making, and defending public policy decisions on purely religious grounds (calling civil marriage licenses “sacred,” for example) – this is worrying. To put it bluntly, on the separation of church and state, I don’t trust these guys.
FAITH AND ITS LIMITS: Look, I share Bush’s faith, admire it, respect it, and am quite sure it has helped him greatly in a terribly difficult time in the White House. More: I’m glad he has a relationship with Jesus to guide him. If he had said just that, it would be an inspiring and innocuous statement. Likewise, I have no problems with presidents’ invoking God in speeches and the like. But Bush went further. He linked the office of the presidency to religious faith. And as president, his words carry weight. No, he cannot legally prevent atheists from running for president (although his party would never nominate a non-Christian for president and would be hard-pressed to nominate someone who isn’t an evangelical). But if an atheist were to run, Bush’s position would logically be that, in his view, the man or woman would be unable to be an effective president, because they would not have the spiritual resources to withstand the pressure of the job. I do think that’s over the line. The deists who founded the republic would also be excluded on Bush’s reasoning. They had no “relationship with the Lord.” (And “the Lord” in this instance is quite obviously Jesus, not the Jewish God. So Jews and Muslims are excludable as well.) The deeper point is: the president represents all the people, including atheists. As president, he should not be opining that people who have no faith in “the Lord” are somehow handicapped for the highest public office. Imagine if an atheist president said that “I don’t see how you can be president, at least from my perspective, if you believe in something that cannot be rationally proved.” The religious right would immediately proclaim the man a bigot (and they’d be right). Bush is not a bigot. He just sees the world through the prism of his own life. As a man, that is his right. As president, he shouldn’t be sending signals that some people, because of their irreligion, are incapable of representing all the people. And that applies especially because an overwhelming majority of Americans agree with him.
THE GOOD NEWS: In the Washington Times interview, Bush seems really committed to ratcheting down government spending. Money quote:
Look, I fully understand there are people saying, “Can’t America deal with these twin deficits?” It’s an issue which we’re concerned about as we go into the second term. And you’ll see us submit a tough budget and call upon Congress to enact it. I’ve had a good record, by the way, of getting Congress to pass the budgets we’ve submitted. And we’re going to fund the war. I mean, we get soldiers in harm’s way, they’re going to have what they need. And we’ll protect this homeland. But the nondefense discretionary spending and nonhomeland discretionary spending is tough; it’s going to be tough again. It was less than 1 percent last time. I’m not going to give you a number yet; we need to get the process right. But it will be – it will be tough.
He’s right, in my view, to tackle social security; right to insist on benefit cuts as well as part-privatization. I just wish he hadn’t mortgaged our future with that new Medicare entitlement (Apparently he thinks it will save money in the long run. Try not to laugh too hard.) Still, there are real signs that the Bushies are talking the talk on spending control. We’ll see, I guess. Walking is another matter.
The Dish 