The Competence Dodge
Oct. 30th, 2006 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forsythIn many ways, the incompetence of the Bush administration is one of its worst features. But not just in how badly it means they screw things up. It's bad because it gives their supporters an easy excuse to advocate the same stupid things again. "Well, SURE, invading Iraq turned into a huge mess, but that was because the Bush crew was incompetent! Sure, tax cuts for the rich didn't work last time, but they were done wrong!" Etc.
In a lot of cases, the things the Bush administration have done haven't turned out badly just because they were bungled. A lot of their ideas are just plain bad ideas, which can't help but turn out badly. No matter how competently they're executed. But the blatant incompetence of Bush and his cronies give the apologists for bad ideas another excuse to pretend it's not their fault.
Of course, the incompetence isn't really unique to Bush and his crew. It's integral to modern conservativism. Remember Regan's "Government's not the solution, government is the problem," speech? Yeah. When people think the government is the problem, they're not going to have any reason to try and run it well. For starters, because if they ran it well and it worked, it'd completely undermine their claims about government being the problem. And secondly, if they figure government's going to get it wrong, the don't have to care if they do it right, and can just do whatever they think of, no matter how dumb.
On the other hand, I guess it'll be nice for them to have a talking point other than "It was all the liberals' fault!" though I'm sure they'll break that one out too.
In a lot of cases, the things the Bush administration have done haven't turned out badly just because they were bungled. A lot of their ideas are just plain bad ideas, which can't help but turn out badly. No matter how competently they're executed. But the blatant incompetence of Bush and his cronies give the apologists for bad ideas another excuse to pretend it's not their fault.
Of course, the incompetence isn't really unique to Bush and his crew. It's integral to modern conservativism. Remember Regan's "Government's not the solution, government is the problem," speech? Yeah. When people think the government is the problem, they're not going to have any reason to try and run it well. For starters, because if they ran it well and it worked, it'd completely undermine their claims about government being the problem. And secondly, if they figure government's going to get it wrong, the don't have to care if they do it right, and can just do whatever they think of, no matter how dumb.
On the other hand, I guess it'll be nice for them to have a talking point other than "It was all the liberals' fault!" though I'm sure they'll break that one out too.
