There are two views of the current state of affairs. There's the right view, the reality-based perspective. And there's the wrong view, the perspective grounded in insular, inside-the-Beltway thinking.
Listen to those associated with the administration or watch cable news and you'll be confronted with the latter. Talk to everyday Americans and you'll be confronted with the former. Though concerned with the same things, the two perspectives couldn't be further apart.
If we allow this sense of inside-the-Beltway entitlement to dominate the debate, we'll lose focus and succumb to the same negligent incompetence that now plagues many in the media and in power. If we don't, however, we can really make an impact. We have that power. But, in order to do so, we must recognize the problem for what it is.
President Bush isn't the only one in the White House living in a bubble. In a recent interview, First Lady Laura Bush
said, "I don't really believe those polls. I travel around the country. I see people, I see their responses to my husband. I see their response to me."
Oh, really? Well, that makes sense, if you consider the "people" allowed near the First Lady. Just like her husband,
Laura Bush doesn't go before any audience that isn't
hand-picked, or at least pre-screened.
Laura Bush wouldn't know real life if it stared her right in the face. When it did shortly after Hurricane Katrina, she
couldn't even meet with a carefully assembled group without costing workers valuable time building a relief Web site. But hey, that's just par for the course for Bush First Ladies. Former First Lady Barbara Bush, for instance, was visiting the Astrodome after Katrina when she
said, "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this - this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them." Yeah, and I guess those slaves should have been thankful those kind plantation owners gave them all jobs.
Speaking of polls, presidential consigliere Karl Rove thinks he has the answer to his boss's
sagging approval ratings. Speaking before the American Enterprise Institute Monday, Rove
said, "We're in a sour time. I readily admit it. Being in the middle of a war where people turn on their television sets and see brave men and women dying is not something that makes people happy and optimistic and upbeat."
People are upset about Iraq, Karl? Funny, because, had your president not made a
conscious choice to lie America into war, Americans themselves wouldn't have to turn on their television sets and see brave men and women dying. Or, as you probably meant, if you could just force the media to report what's not there, the "good news", Americans would feel better about us being in Iraq.
Either way, Rove's comments show a stunning lack of reality-based thinking. But what else would you expect from a walking
national-security threat who put lives in danger and ruined careers to settle a political score? Rove also
said that people personally like the president. "The American people like this president. His personal approval ratings are in the 60s. Job approval is lower."
Why do you think that is, Karl? Who cares if people like him personally, something I highly doubt? What matters is how he does his job. That the president is polling terribly isn't anyone's fault but his own. He's doing a terrible job. The polls reinforce that.
This inside-the-Beltway sickness, however, isn't isolated to the White House. One evening spent watching cable news quickly reveals a equally stunning lack of awareness. Listening to people like Chris Matthews, Bill O'Reilly, Joe Scarborough and Sean Hannity would lead you to believe that the president is doing far better than he is. Pundits discuss Bush's performance as though his entire presidency is taking place within a video game. Nothing bad, not even the war,
really hurts him. Talking heads discuss "
Middle America" as though its citizens were two-dimensional actors the administration can gobble up for support. Further, they see the president as a superhero, a man impervious to any bad news. Remember how, for instance, they
gushed over Bush's aircraft carrier photo op?
But these are people so distanced from average Americans they can't recognize reality for what it is. Look at
this map.
Seriously, look at it. It's one of those now-infamous red/blue maps of the United States. Only this time, the blue represents the president's sub-50 percent approval ratings. Only
three states - Idaho, Utah and Wyoming - are red.
Three. There, approval for the president rests at a precarious 52, 51 and 50 percent, respectively. We're one more revelation away from a blue America. Think that won't happen? History would argue
otherwise.
That those inside the Beltway are out of touch isn't a revelation. What is, however, is that the Beltway culture has gotten so pervasive that it has infected the media. The Fourth Estate, historically a check on skewed priorities, has become as self-important as those its members cover. Many high-profile journalists are now just as well-off, too. Threats to those in power are threats to them. How else could you explain the media's disdain for bloggers whose only crime was holding their feet to the fire? Who are
we to challenge the status quo? Who are
we to expect reality-based reporting from the media? Why can't
we recognize that not everyone is smart enough to understand how government works?
This thinking, of course, is poisonous, but so is the thinking espoused by people like Laura Bush and Rove. Poisonous because it causes people to lose faith. Poisonous because it causes people to think they don't matter. Poisonous because it places unnecessary roadblocks between Americans and those they elect. Without that sense of powerlessness, we might not be in as big a mess as we are.
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