Balkinization

Good Ol' Boy Fools Matt Yet Again

The incomparable Matthew Yglesias is, unfortunately, still in the thrall of the "Bush is stupid meme." Would liberals and progressives please stop doing this? This is how you wind up flat on the pavement with your hands pinned behind your back and your pockets picked.

I've said this before and I will say it again: just because someone doesn't care a hoot about public policy debates doesn't mean they lack intelligence. Thinking that way may be comforting to liberals' sense of superiority, but it will cause them to miss out on what Bush is about, which is not good policy but the exercise and maintenance of power. Yeah, maybe George don't know much about history, but he does know how to kick the left's behind and pull the wool over the country's eyes.

So stop telling yourself that this guy is stupid. What liberals should be reminding each other is that Bush is shrewd, crafty, cunning and ruthless.

Like lots of good old boys in the South, George W. Bush wants us, as he himself says, to "misunderestimate" him. And whenever we do that, he takes advantage of us, time and time again. Ann Richards misunderestimated George W. Bush and she got booted out of the Texas governor's mansion. Al Gore misunderestimated Bush and he ended up losing the presidency not once but twice, once in November 2000 and once again in December.

I'm a liberal, and an academic, and I know that both groups tend to look up to expertise. They admire people who know the facts and have a firm grasp of the important issues of the day. But that's not the only kind of smarts in the world. In his own way, Bush is as clever a politician as Bill Clinton was, although his style is different in important respects. What he understands is not policy but power: how to get it, how to keep it, and how to wield it. That's why his White House is secretive and disciplined almost to the point of parody, and that's why he keeps getting his way even though he can't talk about the most basic policy debates without stumbling. He leaves policy to the wonks and intellectuals he despises. He's after bigger game: political control. While you have a good laugh making fun of how he mispronounces words and mangles policy questions, he's going to use every trick in the book to bury you. And believe me, he knows a lot of tricks that you don't. It's time to take this guy seriously. Telling yourself how stupid Bush is may be a good way to make yourself feel better about the fact that you are out of power. But it's not going to help you defeat him in November.

Posted 10:45 PM by JB [link]