A President of All the People

In the grand scheme of things, and particularly in a critical election year, the issue of presidential audiences is probably not of the greatest importance. Except that where and to whom a president speaks tells us a lot about how he views his relationship to the people he is oath-bound to serve. Before we see the last of the incumbent president, I hope someone takes the trouble to review all the public speeches the president, and for that matter the vice-president, and for that matter the entire cabinet, have given and the nature of the audiences to whom they spoke. The point is simple: this administration's officials from the top down do not speak to general audiences representing a cross-section of the American people.

This Bush administration has systematically, and cynically, chosen to speak only to audiences whose acceptance and acceptability are guaranteed. Without any research whatsoever, and based only on observation of the staged backdrops to presidential and other speeches, I am willing to wager that George W. Bush and virtually his entire cabinet have never, during this entire administration, spoken in a forum whose doors were open to all.

Think back. Can you remember a presidential speech where the audience was not hand-picked? My guess is this paranoid manipulation and hand-selection of favorable audiences dates to the second Nixon administration, where the president became so unpopular he could not appear before ordinary Americans. This, of course, was also the period that gave rise to the Cheney-Rumsfeld, Addington-Yoo, blue state-red state carving up of America into us versus them and the anti-Constitutional "unitary executive" imperial consolidation of power.

If you are out to set up an imperial presidency and an imperial foreign policy, you are probably well advised to speak only to audiences of carefully selected robotic ditto-heads, those who surrendered objectivity, critical judgment, and reflective thought a long time ago and who will chant "stay the course" and "support the president" every time stage manager Rove flashes the cue. But if you still believe, as I do, that we live under a Constitutional government where are leaders are elected to serve all the people under a system of checks and balances and are to be held accountable in every regard to the people they serve, then we should demand leaders with the courage to face all their constituents on all occasions and address all relevant issues of the day.

By the way, I also don't recall even one press story in the past seven years calling into question this undemocratic practice of imperial audience staging.

Comments

[littleblackcat]

I may be wrong but I do lean toward conspiracies with what I see as good reason. I can't walk on water and it wouldn't be the first time nor will it be the last if I am wrong. The repub. party has never gotten over its blue funk about FDR being able to effect the Herculean accomplishment of lifting the nation out of the horror of the Great Depression, dusting it off, putting in place training programs and setting up projects that provided real work for jobless Americans. Perhaps not single-handledly but certainly through his amazing leadership, integrity, pride and faith in his country and fellow Americans, and INTELLIGENCE. Nixon was on the political scene in the late forties during Truman's tenure. Eisenhower was sought by both Democrats and repus to run and oh, how I wish he had chosen the Democrats. Eisenhower himself said he had no business being President, he was not a politician but a military man and that he would pretty much leave politics to those with the experience. This gave Nixon an open door to start putting the skids on the stunning progress made by FDR. The repus thought they were shoo-ins for the 1960 election, going around with the idea that Kennedy would have the nation genuflecting three times a day because he was CATHOLIC. The CATHOLIC CHURCH would be taking over the country!!! We elected (HONESTLY, no vote-switching needed) Kennedy anyway and no one had to genuflect unless they chose to go to church and do so of their own free will. The repus took a stinging beating and crawled under their rocks to lick their wounds. Under Kennedy, when the country stood up, shook itself, began to listen to new ideas and new goals, this nation fairly HUMMED with ambition and love of just being an AMERICAN! The repus' wounds began to fester, and conveniently John Kennedy was assassinated. When Robert Kennedy decided he would run in '68, there was absolutely NO WAY Nixon was going to be elected. Robert Kennedy was assassinated. The nation's crumbled ever since.

[josieb]

Bush and Cheney and the whole administration is as foreign to me--more so--than snyone from another country. Mostly, I mute them whenever they come on tv. I have no respect for Republicans and less and less for the Democrats, who talk about ending the war and then give Bush all the money he wants for it. The only one with any courage or conviction is Dennis Kucinich, who tried yesterday to get the ball rolling on the impeachment of that sob, Cheney. I really think we need another revolution and that might clear the air--for a while.

[scot38]

I wondered when someone would make a point of this. I knew that the President talked only to select audiences, I didn't realize that the cabinet also talked only to pre-selected groups.

Excellent writing.

Jim

[RuralEclectic]

Seems to me, if this has not been done, it is a strong symptom of inadequate journalism. Isn't this just the basics of reporting about a government official. It does seem it would be useful to compare what is said in other addresses such as weekly radio addresses, state of the union, etc. Also, there are the times when he claimed to be speaking directly to the people of other countries, such as Iran. Content comparison seems most appropriate and seems to me a rather standard technique.
On the same front, it seems that this also happens in campaigning where it is expected that audiences might be more restricted since the objective is to first get elected and then speak to all the people. Yet, even in this context, it is important to look at all forms of communication for accuracy and consistency across audiences and over time. I do think the media is getting better at this, especially due to the internet nexis for what is being communicated. Folks able to send in campaign speech, email,fax,phone call content, etc. And others able to pull this together and do the analysis.
Maybe someday it will be accountability and authenticity in government instead of dodging and acting.

[texanna]

Gary, it's much worse than just having hand-picked audiences. The crux of the issue is HOW they hand-pick the audiences. People have been arrested and jailed for driving a car with an anti-Bush bumper sticker, for standing on the side of the road that Bush's motorcade will take with an anti-Bush sentiment, for wearing a T-shirt with an anti-Bush comment. These are all exercises of our First Amendment Rights! That's the issue, Gary, not just that Shrub can't take the heat of public opinion.

[ljsfolly]

There have not beenmany if any times that Bush or Cheney has spoken to a group which has not been carefully chosen by their cronies or workers and sad to say not too many people realize this. When I talk to people I know are republicans and tell them that they look at me like I just got off a ufo. I don't know why the media has not made more of a point of telling this piece of the story. The military is a forced audience and there has been a couple of times when questions have been not expected but the smooth lying guys just glaze over the issues and change the direction of the talk to something they can just re-speak. How many times have we been pounded with 9/11 and wmds when it came to be talked about Iraq and Sadamm. The real nuts jobs in charge of countries (elected of course or dictators like bush) who have the real wmds have been accepted as friends in the white house and those who might not be so friendly never get talked to like a responsible administration should be doing. That is call diplomatic and bush/cheney don't do that. Rice is a fourth stringer who might be more trouble causing than she is worth.
That Fema had a fake news conference is what all of the talks Bush/Cheney have done when you consider the interviews are done by the soft guy who likes them or the controlled speeches with "friends".

[Kendo Nagasaki]

Barbara Superdome just called. She is very angry at all these nasty posts about her son and told me I will not go to heaven because I am such a heretic. And if I have the nerve to wear my ImpeachBush T shirt again I will be arrested by the Blackwater SS taken to Guantanamo and waterboarded.

[janmB]

Gary would have made a good PREZ. Too bad the American people had so many hang-ups regarding sex but certainly still some have no problem with going to war on false premise.

[RobertaInCT]

Bush does not see himself as president of all the people. He is the mouth piece of a very dangerous section of American society. It should not be a suprise at the lack of press coverage of the administration's staging over the past seven years. This staging could not have been pulled off without the help of the MSM who always played up the power of his base.

[dkbinmd]

Thnak you, Mr. Hart, for calling attention to the blatant contempt that Bush & his administration routinely displays for any American who does not blindly support him 100%.

I witnessed this up close when he made an apppearance in the medium-sized midwestern city where my sister is Mayor. She was chased down by Bush's support staff at home on a Sunday afternoon & asked to sign a document stating her support for him. It was made clear that if she declined to sign it, she would be excluded from the podium when Bush spoke at one of the local high schools. She is & always has been an independant, & has served her city for 20 years. It was a huge slap in the face.

Why has this practice been tolerated & accepted throughout the country? Are we just too apathetic to care about the precedent that it sets? It is one of the reasons that I turned away from the Republican party after 30 plus years.

[gardenbookie]

nuthinbutnet...I agree with you 100%. He will sit back on the front porch of his Paraguayan Palace, counting all the money he's sucked out of Middle Class America. He will never be tried for War Crimes. He will never be prosecuted for any of the crimes he has committed...until the day of his final judgement.

[Bobby]

Good job Mr. Hart. I have often thought the same thing. Bu$h oftens speaks before military groups. Now I know the military is too orderly to have any protesters, but having this "President" speak to them must gall them. First, I don't care what the Dan Rather haters say, Bu$h was AWOL from his cushy Air National Guard duty. Secondly, he has stretched the military to the limit. Thirdly, he has caused more than 3,800 American deaths and countless others wounded in the war in Iraq that was based on lies and waged only for the war profiteers and big oil companies. Finally, the Bu$h administartion says that they care about the military, but the recent stories about Walter Reed and other veteran's hospitals and also the way that the veteran's benefits are cut, doesn't wash. I'm glad that more vets are speaking out, even if it isn't during a Bu$h photo op.

[TomR]

----
This Bush administration has systematically, and cynically, chosen to speak only to audiences whose acceptance and acceptability are guaranteed.
----

It's not cynicism. He's a cowardly little boy who can't take the heat when dealing with anyone critical of his selfish, corrupt, and feeble mind. He was a coward during the Viet Nam war, hiding away in the champagne unit of the Texas Air National Guard and at times not even bothering to show up. He was a coward who had to sit in Cheney's lap when testifying in secret before the 9/11 Commission. He's been a coward who's too afraid to meet Cindy Sheehan and answer her questions. With cowardice, he taunted the enemy and further jeopardized the lives of our soldiers while saying from a safe distance, "Bring 'em on." He made fools of our soldiers by laughing and pretending to look for WMD under his desk in the White House while real soldiers died looking for WMD in Iraq.

President Bush isn't qualified to run a lemonade stand. Anyone who voted for him should hang their heads in shame at their own stupidity.

- Tom

[VivaZapata]

Unreported, or certainly underreported, is the fact that in January of 01 the motorcade bringing W to the inauguration ceremonies was pelted with all things rotten. From that moment on the neocons knew that they had to be very selective as to who the president was paraded in front of. The antipathy towards him has only grown worse. As the abhorrent absurdity of his overseas debacles are revealed and the economic conditions for working people here deteriorate (and all of the presidents from LBJ on can share in this blame), Mr. Bush might as well build a Hitlarian bunker. He'll need that much insulation.

[mskttylttr]

During the 2004 election, I was working as a volunteer on behalf of the Democratic opposition. President Bush was scheduled to speak at Red Rocks Ampitheatre near Denver and a group of our volunteers went out to greet him with the idea of forming a human chain along the roadside to the ampitheatre, in symbolic protest of the Iraq war and the lives lost in that conflict. I was not present, but understand that, initially, the Secret Service was not going to allow the protestors to assemble in a place where they could be seen by the President and all others who were going up to listen to Bush's "Sermon on the Mount." Finally,and after much argument, the Secret Service acquiesed and the group was allowed a small area along the road in which to assemble. Busloads of "christians" in church school buses caravaned up the hillside to the hear the "Sermon". As the buses passed, these "christians" flipped off my friends and cursed at them.
The point of my story: Only the faithful have been allowed to attend Bush's Nuremburg rallies and those who protest were branded traitors or kept away from any area where the press or public could see that not everyone was drinking the Koolaid. Nice post, Mr. Hart...keep them coming!