This excellent roundup of American politics since 9/11 chronicles the biggest powergrab since the Great Depression. The final paragraph reminds us just how important the “history books” of the future are to current politicians.
September 11th has turned the Bush presidency into a big deal. Before the aircraft struck, Mr Bush looked like a small-bore president—divisive, to be sure, but divisive about little things. On the morning of September 11th Mr Bush was reading “My Pet Goat” to a class of second-graders. His speech-writer, Michael Gerson, was working on a speech on “Communities of Character”. America is now as divided as possible about Mr Bush. His supporters regard him as a “transformative” figure like Ronald Reagan. His critics view him as a catastrophe—possibly the worst president in American history, according to Sean Wilentz, a Princeton historian. But, thanks to September 11th, nobody can dismiss him as a mere footnote.
They want their names immortalized, and that means starting wars, expanding power, violating liberties, and generally making a mess of things. What presidents are heralded in the books read in schools? Those who cracked down on dissidents, forced people to unify, started wars and drafted people, centrally planned the economy, and otherwise failed to let people run their own lives.
Somehow there has to be a way to change the verdict of history, so that the supposed good guys become the bad guys that they really are. For more, see Reassessing the Presidency.
