Sunday, August 26, 2007
The president in a bubble
Dan Radmacher
Recent columns
- Kaine saw much progress in his four years
- Virginia voted for gridlock on Tuesday
- Project Vote Smart tries to educate Virginia voters
- America should listen to this Cassandra
From the RoundTable blog
It's becoming clearer why President Bush seems so divorced from reality. Actually, the word "divorced," with its implication of the existence of a prior relationship, probably isn't the correct term. Bush isn't divorced from reality so much as completely insulated from it.
This is a president, after all, who once boasted with some pride about not reading newspapers.
He is also known for surrounding himself with advisers who aren't prone to challenge his preconceived notions.
As Ron Suskind wrote in his book "The Price of Loyalty," "The president was caught in an echo chamber of his own making, cut off from everyone other than [a small circle of advisers that] keeps him away from the one thing he needs most: honest, disinterested perspectives about what's real and what the hell he might do about it."
So about the only possibility of reality leaking in through the bubble surrounding the president was when he ventured into public to give speeches.
Or not. It turns out the president's staff went to tremendous lengths to ensure that Bush was shielded from alternate points of view as well as would-be assassins at any public events.
A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which resulted in an $80,000 payout to a couple arrested at the West Virginia state capitol building for daring to wear anti-Bush T-shirts during a speech he gave there, also resulted in the release of the Presidential Advance Manual.
This manual outlines the steps taken to keep protesters out of presidential events, and how to deal with them if they do manage to slip in.
"Proper ticket distribution is vital to creating a well-balanced crowd and deterring potential protesters from attending events," the manual says.
Eventgoers should be carefully screened for T-shirts, folded signs and other indications they might be closet demonstrators rather than loyal party apparatchiks.
If, despite the advance team's best efforts, real people who disagree with the president's policies start to draw attention to themselves, the manual advises the use of "rally squads" -- groups of volunteers strategically placed around the event -- to counter the message and shield the president and the press from any differing points of view.
"The rally squad's task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform. If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protesters (USA! USA! USA!)."
The president and his people do realize, of course, that there are those who disagree with him out there. They will even acknowledge, somewhat begrudgingly, that such people have a right to not only hold countering opinions but express them.
They just need to do it somewhere else. The manual does admit that the purpose of the Secret Service is to guard against physical threats, not hecklers. Still, it suggests having the Secret Service work with local police to set up protest areas or "free-speech zones," preferably "not in view of the event site or motorcade route."
As Bill Neel, a retired steel worker who was arrested in 2002 for refusing to take his sign to the designated protest area during a Bush speech in Pittsburgh, said, "As far as I'm concerned, the whole country is a free-speech zone."
Not in George W. Bush's bubble. There, people with pro-Bush signs are allowed. People with anti-Bush signs or T-shirts are exiled to distant (sometimes a half-mile or more away) free-speech zones. Oddly, in some cases, the press has been barred from the free-speech zones. Meaning, apparently, that protesters are free to speak, but only amongst themselves.
The couple arrested in Charleston weren't causing any kind of disruption. They simply wore shirts with the word "Bush" crossed out on front and anti-Bush slogans on the back.
Citizens of this nation have a right to petition their government with grievances. Bush, whether he likes it or not -- or whether we like it or not -- is the ultimate personification of that government.
He may prefer to live in a bubble safe in the delusion that no one disagrees with him. But he doesn't have that right.
Come on out, Mr. President. The air is much fresher out here.
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
