The Era of Incompetence

In October of 2005, Sam Rosenfeld and Matt Yglesias made a seemingly rich case for what the called "The Incompetence Dodge." My own problem with their analysis is that it understates the magnitude and uniqueness of George Bush's incompetence. Had anyone known in 2001 that which we know today, it's not exactly a wide stretch to believe that Social Security might well be privatized ... by virtue of people lacking the faith in this administration to handle their money.

Enter John McQuaid with a more somber look at this facet of the current administration. While responsibility for the bridge collapse in Minnesota may not rest on any one person's shoulders, it does manage to serve as an unfortunate metaphor. As McQuaid puts it:

The United States seems to have become the superpower that can't tie its own shoelaces. America is a nation of vast ingenuity and technological capabilities. Its bridges shouldn't fall down.

And it's not just bridges. Has there ever been a period in our history when so many American plans and projects have, literally or figuratively, collapsed? In both grand and humble endeavors, the United States can no longer be relied upon to succeed or even muddle through. We can't remake the Middle East. We can't protect one of our own cities from a natural disaster or, it seems, rebuild after one. We can't rescue our citizens when they're on TV begging for help. We can't even give our wounded veterans decent medical care.

We're supposed to be an optimistic, problem-solving nation, the country that tamed a vast wilderness, won World War II and the Cold War, put men on the moon, built the Panama Canal and the Hoover Dam. But somehow, can-do America has become a joke, an oxymoron. We've become the can't-do nation, slipping on every banana peel on the global stage.

I've recently found myself in a few discussions with a friend - rabidly Republican/Conservative - who seems to have settled his worldview according to the joke, "What's the difference between a liberal and a conservative? A conservative is a liberal who has life experiences." Hell, at first I thought it was a joke until he fleshed out the concept in more detail. Only one problem. What life experience over this past 6+ years leads anyone to think anything positive about either conservatism, George Bush, or the Republican Party?

Iraq? Katrina? Walter Reed?

How about the GAO calculating that 30% of weapons given to Iraqis cannot be accounted for? How about the government sending millions of US dollars into an Iraqi black hole of payola that got us ... well ... we simply don't know.

Simply put, what part of that experience elicits confidence in the abilities of George W. Bush or anyone else in his administration? If you're still not convinced, there's certainly a wonderful tale to be told about how the former Sec. of Education left the administration once his HISD Miracle was coming undone in my own backyard ... only to be replaced with a fellow UH alum who's role now is to soften the blow that Republicans were eager to see hit K-12 education a mere matter of months ago. Never let it be said that consistency matters to today's Republican.

It's not uncommon (or even uncalled for) for partisans on both sides to conclude that the world spins a bit more perfectly when their own party is in power. But there's still a certain modicum of competence you expect to see. Texas may have problems to contend with, but it hasn't exactly gone to hell in a handbasket under Governors Bush & Perry in the past dozen years. I'm not one to suggest that Reagan was a stellar President, but there were certainly areas where the nation improved on and excelled under his watch. Even allowing for missteps like Iran-Contra, the Cold War still ended thanks to a lot of finishing nails being put in the coffin during his tenure.

All that to say that the incompetence of this particular administration is one that is entirely unique. There's no dodge to simply say that none of us had a realistic explanation for how this would all go down during the 2000 election. The only dodge that I see before me is the one by those still clinging to the myth that we're on the verge of success in Iraq and that none of the other ills we've been witness to over the past 6.5 years warrant blame on the part of anyone in the George Bush administration.

Simply put, his administration is not one that historians will have to take years to evaluate properly (a myth that many Republican commentators and bloggers have once tried to spin on an un-accepting audience). The verdict has been in for a while now. This is an administration permanently marred by incompetence. Check back in 10-20 years and I'll be willing to bet the verdict will be the same.