The Legacy of Bush's Big Ideas

It's fun and it's cool to hate Bush, plus it's easy to do. He invents words as often as liberals invent rights. When it comes to wars I sometimes think more sophisticated strategy and diplomacy goes into the Risk game I play with my friends.

But for all the idiocy, he still has the big picture right. In the long run that is what's remembered.

Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton were intensely hated by many people during their presidencies but since then have been viewed more favorably. Kennedy bungled, among other things, the Bay of Pigs invasion, but we remember him for his visionary and optimistic liberalism. The Reagan Administration survived the Iran-Contra Affair, multiple lobbying scandals and other controversies. Today he is remembered for his upbeat charm and aggressive conduct of the Cold War. Clinton's popularity ratings sunk into the mid 30's during the Lewinsky Affair; today they are in the high 50's as we recall the blissful prosperity of the 1990's.

Scandals and controversies inflame the nation as they happen, but time tends to melt the edges away to leave the raw core. We remember presidents for the big things they did and the big American ideas they announced.

Bush hasn't conformed to the popular or the conservative will. In his second term he has done things he feels are right, regardless of their popularity on either political side. Isn't this what we hope for from politicians?

Social Security and health care present major long-term solvency issues that most politicians would prefer to leave for the future. Bush has been one of the first bold enough to talk about them and to propose the adoption of free market measures, which will prove to be most efficient.

Lower taxes and commitment to free markets worldwide has rejuvenated the economy. The last two years have seen above average growth in gross domestic product. This year will likely be no different. The unemployment rate is a historically and internationally low 4.6 percent. Bush has taken leadership in immigration reform by proposing a reasonable compromise that has angered both liberals and conservatives, a sure sign that it is a good plan.

Now our favorite jack in the box - Iraq. Bush's entire legacy probably rests on this big idea. The Bush Doctrine states that the United States should spread liberty by force to free foreign people and as a means of self-defense. In 15 years Iraq will be secure and free and al-Qaeda will be nearly extinct. The Middle East will be held by the nascent but strong grip of democracy.

Rather than the actions he took in the war on terrorism, the inaction he took in Sudan should be remembered as his crimson sin.

Yes, I know it's not cool to defend the President. But history will remember the big Bush ideas and forget the smaller mistakes. Look at his big ideas through an honest, dispassionate and long-term lens. He will be remembered as an above average president who set a fundamental course for posterity.

Tim the Alternative

Tim Behrens initially objected to being the subject of a column. In a jokingly wise and stoic voice he said, "I have no hippie wisdom to bestow on others; I lead by example, not by words."

Tim graduated from the competitive, suburban Elk Grove High School and ranked 9th in his class with a 32 on the ACT. He took numerous AP classes and was involved with multiple extracurricular activities. He worked diligently - that's what adults expected of him.

Things changed when he got to the University. He stopped working hard. He grew out his hair and beard to the point that he claimed, with a laugh, to be able to blend in as a Green Street bum. Most began to wonder whether he stopped caring about his life. Some thought that he was refusing to grow up. They said this, of course, because they correlate the value of a life with wealth and status.

The irony is this - that was the time he began to care about his life, the precise opposite of what his critics claimed. Tim, a recent graduate in psychology, consciously chose to slack off and to enjoy his life. He went out on the town frequently, made a millionaire's wealth in friends and rolled around in his four years of freedom like a gleeful, guilt-free pig.

So what changed his mind?

In making this decision he reasoned, "Most people our age think that all you need is a job that makes a lot of money. If I had a choice between working an office job the rest of my life making $200,000 and doing something more active, like being a fireman, for $50,000, I would definitely choose the $50,000."

Adulthood is the murderer.

Those who society deems most successful are lawyers, investment bankers, engineers and others who end up slaving for 60-to-90 hours a week. They become trapped by the responsibilities and pace of adulthood.

It is shocking to slow yourself and to realize, even for a few fleeting seconds, that you are alive. We breathe, we think, we feel, we live. But the hurried tasks of modern life sweep those thoughts away, rarely allowing us the chance to think them. An infinite supply of sophisticated chores await the well educated.

Charles Foster Kane spent his life amassing wealth, status and art. His dying word was "Rosebud," the name of his boyhood sled. An artifact from the only pure and happy time of his life, something that others thought should be burned with the other "junk."

Ralph Waldo Emerson often discussed the simple, untainted wisdom of the child, "The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child."

Sometimes I wish that I knew as much now as when I was a kid. Tim still does. That is his secret. In the last few pristinely conscious moments before death, will we judge our lives based on how prominent and wealthy we became?

Slow and slow your step, recall that you are alive.

What is our generation?

When running through the pages of American history, we gain the vision of an optimistic democracy that motivated the sacrifices of previous generations. They died in wars, they starved in depressions and they blackened their lungs with industrialization. They toiled and they dreamed, not just for themselves, but also for us.

Today their dreams ride toward reality. Our generation sits on the cusp between what humanity was and what humanity will be. We are unique, not because we have no physical threats, but because we have no ideological threats.

We are the first generation that can look upon the world and see that our form of government and economics has triumphed. What legions and armadas did for past empires, democracy and capitalism are doing for us. Therein lies the difference - empires can rule the world through violence and subdue others for a time, but inevitably their bloody grip unfurls. Our success has been in conquering the realm of ideas. Mercantilism, fascism and communism have all died as legitimate alternatives to America. Terrorism remains a physical threat, but not a legitimate threat to the ideological current of humanity.

We are the transitional generation. We will determine how future Americans will act in this new era of ideological peace. This will define us. Our generation owes a debt to the struggles of our ancestors. We are charged with pushing on America's circle of empathy, so that its diameter covers the world.

This task is made practical because the beauty of our ideological empire is that democracy and capitalism forge a synergy between our national interest and the welfare of humanity. It was in the interest of our national security and of humanity for us to supplant Saddam with democracy. It was in our interest of regional stability and of humanity that we should have militarily intervened in Rwanda and Sudan. Even in instances where no national interest can be identified, we still have the moral duty to use our wealth and our power to combat the evils of the world. For the first time in history, the good guys are the ones with the power. For the first time in history a country has so much power and wealth that it can begin to look beyond its artificially drawn borders, which mystically proclaim that we should only care about people who live on this side of the map's line and not on that side.

While the diffusion of democracy upon all of humanity is inevitable, our generation must hasten its spread. We are imbued with the responsibility to throw the dreams of all humans who struggled before us into reality. Our predecessors don't ask of us even one-tenth of what was asked of them. Our generation must stand up and lead. We should release our wealth, empathy and humanity across the globe, not because we have to, but because we understand that it is the right thing to do.