Personally I hope so. The idea of community has always appealed to me. But Communitarianism, despite some similiar language, is the antithesis of the Mega-State so beloved by Liberals. It advocates individual responsibility within the context of community. If Bush is a Communitarian, watch for Liberal/Socialists to try and co-opt his ends with Big Government means.

And even Communitarians need a foreign policy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Communitarianism

Friday, February 2, 2001

Bush moves towards 'communitarian' ideology

The White House is stressing social values, where the Right used to prioritise individual rights, says Dana Milbank.

THE US: It's been difficult to pin an ideological tail on the nascent Bush White House. One day the President is called a staunch conservative for nominating John Ashcroft to run the Justice Department. The next he's labelled a bleeding heart for helping prisoners' children and promoting literacy programmes.

The problem, some Bush advisers and friends say, is that conventional political definitions do not adequately explain what the President is trying to do.

His actions have less to do with Left versus Right, they say, than with his embrace of many of the ideas contained in the movement known as communitarianism", which places the importance of society ahead of the unfettered rights of the individual.

The so-called "libertarian" approach espoused by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had the opposite emphasis.

"Communitarianism," or "civil society" thinking, has many interpretations, but at its centre is a notion that years of celebrating individual freedom have weakened the bonds of community and that the rights of the individual must be balanced against the interests of society as a whole.

Inherent in the philosophy is a return to values and morality, which, this school of thought believes, can best be fostered by community organisations.

Many of Mr Bush's early proposals fit this approach. This week, he moved to make it easier for the government to fund religious groups that cater to the poor and disadvantaged.

He also gave a boost to AmeriCorps, the national service programme that sends volunteers to help community initiatives. Two weeks ago, he spoke of the need for character education in schools.

Mr Bush's inaugural address, said George Washington University professor Amitai Etzioni, a communitarian thinker, "was a communitarian text," full of words like "civility," "responsibility" and "community."

"It all hangs together," said Mr Stephen Goldsmith, this week assigned by Mr Bush to help lead AmeriCorps and the new community-building effort. Might the civil society or communitarian label be the element that ties Mr Bush's polices together?

"I don't think it's reading too much into it," Mr Goldsmith said. "This is the President, this is what animates him."

Some of Mr Bush's ideas are objectionable to civil liberties advocates and strict constitutionalists on the Left and the Right, but they have broad support in both parties.

And some other communitarians say Mr Bush's fealty to communitarian thinking is inconsistent. While he espouses a range of community-building policies, his $1.6 trillion tax cut is, at its core, a libertarian idea: give people back their money to limit government, they point out.

They wonder whether Mr Bush's community-minded words are mere drapery, and they suspect top Bush strategist Mr Karl Rove sees it merely as a tactic to please religious conservatives. They fear Mr Bush, who believes in changing individual "hearts" through religious salvation, is more concerned with legislating religion than instilling community values.

There is still no such thing as a card-carrying communitarian, and therefore no consensus on policies. Some favour religious solutions for communities, while others prefer secular approaches.

But both sides believe Mr Bush is nudging the White House in a more communitarian, civil-society direction.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 03, 2001

Answers

Bush is a closet-cartoonitarian.

-- (LeonTrotsky@dog.patch), February 04, 2001.

"communitarianism" which places the importance of society ahead of the unfettered rights of the individual.

Sure sounds like Socialism to me! How quaint that the media folks came up with the "communitarian" spin to make an old concept new again! How "innocently" they maneuver to sneak it into the common vernacular! How Freudian of Bush to have forewarned us years ago of his long-term intentions when he blurted "Life would be easier if Texas were a dictatorship." Having become the President-By-Coup, what did we expect?

-- Hail (Bush@Marx.com), February 04, 2001.

Bush is the most schizophrenic president this country has ever had. The "compassionate conservative" image portrayed to the public is little more than a smokescreen carefully designed to lull the sheeple to sleep. Behind the scenes, he is using the power of the presidency to advance the agenda of those who hold the real power, the New World Order elite.

The mere mention of a tax cut was enough to gain the support of a majority of gullible conservatives. To pacify the objections of liberals he will sing gospel songs in black churches and provide pretentious statements to the media about how he wants to "heal our country". When people perceive him as a "softy" they will forget all about him and leave him free to follow through with his actual plans without questioning them.

The NWO elite engineered his rise to the presidency because he is the perfect puppet for their needs... a greedy idiot, who like his father, lacks any sense of morality and integrity. When offered the prospect of considerable personal financial gains he will not think twice about making the changes in regulations and legislation they seek, regardless of the dire consequences to the people and the planet.

Concealed beneath the fraudulent one-dimensional "compassionate" image being portrayed to the public lies his actual purpose... Bush was put into office to strengthen and expand the corporate facism with which the NWO elite will dominate the world.

-- keep your eyes open ("nice guy" image @ snow. job), February 04, 2001.

Hail--

Communitarianism and socialism are two different animals. Don't worry, you can still live in a cave.

keep your eyes open--

Are you "Hail"?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 04, 2001.

Bush is going to steal abortions from the public and give us all mad cow disease while not paying his taxes, all because Clarence "uncle" Thomas secretly installed him through a coup.

-- Hail to the Trotsky Coup2Kay Nipper Shocked Withoutajope (nutsy@bannana.republic), February 04, 2001.

" keep your eyes open--

Are you "Hail"? "

No.

If I were "Hail" and I wanted to post something additional within the same thread, I would still use the name "Hail".

Why do you ask?

-- keep your eyes open (watch what he does @ not. what he says), February 04, 2001.

The question is: Is Bush a closet communitarian?

The answer is (...drum roll...): It doesn't really matter, so who gives a hoot? All that really matters are his visible sympathies. We could just as easily speculate that Bush as a closet whip and chain fetishist, a closet communist, or a closet scuba diver.

What Bush thinks in the private recesses of his mind only become important to the public to the extent those ideas emerge from the closet. IOW, when it comes to presidents, the policies make the man. If Bush does all the right things for all the wrong reasons, I will be delighted. If he does all the wrong things for all the right reasons, I'll be carrying a torch when the villagers mob the castle.

Gad! I can remember thinking when I was eleven years old that LBJ must be privy to some top secret information that somehow justified the Vietnam war, but he couldn't let the public know because something REALLY horrible would happen. The alternative was just too awful to contemplate - that the whole war was just as pointless and futile as it appeared to be - and we were killing Vietnamese and wrecking havoc on an entire country because LBJ couldn't admit he made a mistake.

I was wrong. What we saw was what we got. Same goes for Bush - whatever he keeps in his closet.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), February 05, 2001.