A TPM Reader responds …
But there’s a reason for all these post-mortems: President Bush made the promotion of democracy abroad a centerpiece of his rhetoric, a touchstone of his public pronouncements. This administration has a genius for packaging its policies to appeal to ideals that the public cherishes, especially when its actions diverge most sharply from those ideals. That’s why when we aligned ourselves with odious and repressive regimes around the world in our war on terror we did so under the guise of spreading freedom. “Promoting Democracy” turns out to have been of a piece with the “Clean Skies” and “Healthy Forests” initiatives; asking what has happened to the “freedom agenda” is like asking what has happened to the president’s defense of the environment. He hasn’t just given us more of the same, he has covered the fact that he was making things worse by loudly proclaiming that he was making them better.
I take this point. There needs to be an accounting and Baker’s article in the Post provides it. I guess all I’m saying is that it’s worth keeping in mind that this wasn’t a bold initiative that fell short for whatever reasons. It was, to paraphrase Bertrand Russell’s famous interlocutor, claptrap all the way down.
