Bacevich is somone I've admired since reading his New American Militarism. (Links to posts I've written about him can be found here, here, and here.) A self-described conservative, he, along with some of the writers for American Conservative Magazine, is among the few conservative public thinkers who fits the description principled conservative. If there were more conservatives like him shaping the public dialog, we might actually be able to get somewhere in defining a common ground that serves the best interests of the country as a whole.
This interview with Moyers, which can be seen here, is a breath of fresh air and a dousing with cold water. He represents a way of looking at our situation outside the categories of left and right, Republican Democrat, and shows us the truth about what has become of us. He's all about sanity and restoring the idea of America, and about seeing clearly through the delusions and manipulations of the political class.
An excerpt from the transcript that echoes some of the things I've been saying about how our poliltics has devolved into a ceremonial democracy:
You say, "Beginning with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, "the occupant of the White House has become a combination of demigod, father figure and, inevitably, the betrayer of inflated hopes. Pope. Pop star. Scold. Scapegoat. Crisis manager. Commander in Chief. Agenda settler. Moral philosopher. Interpreter of the nation's charisma. Object of veneration. And the butt of jokes. All rolled into one." I would say you nailed the modern presidency.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, and the – I think the troubling part is, because of this preoccupation with, fascination with, the presidency, the President has become what we have instead of genuine politics. Instead of genuine democracy.
We look to the President, to the next President. You know, we know that the current President's a failure and a disappoint – we look to the next President to fix things. And, of course, as long as we have this expectation that the next President is going to fix things then, of course, that lifts all responsibility from me to fix things.
One of the real problems with the imperial presidency, I think, is that it has hollowed out our politics. And, in many respects, has made our democracy a false one. We're going through the motions of a democratic political system. But the fabric of democracy, I think, really has worn very thin.
Because the people abdicated their responsibility to be vigilant and to hold their representatives accountable.
Somewhere along the way we lost of our sense of what the proper role for the president is, and in doing so we began the slow degradation of our democracy to a point where the executive branch sees itself as accountable to no one. The problem with government is not that it's too big, but that we allowed it to operate without any accountability. It's as if Americans have an infantile need for a strong big-daddy leader to whom they long to entrust absolute authority. Nothing could be further from what the idea of America stands for. The power elite has been adept at finding a way to exploit that need to get things set for themselves in a way that insures their continued domination of the system.
In the long run its about developing politically mature electorate. That's a long-term project, and it's a task for the cultural sphere.
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