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

[realitytrumpsbull]

The correct answer, on this administrationer,
is impeachment. While the U.S. Dollar still
has some residual value, shovel a bunch of
money into a truck and go give it to The
Donald, and have him go and do the honors
if he hasn't left for Hawaii already, or
something.­..why The Donald? Because when
you've got an army of billionaires trying
to run things, who really needs government
anymore? Shut down Congress, they don't really
seem to do anything anymore except rubber-
stamp checks, and then you won't have these
annoying country things getting in the way
of the revenue stream etc. What the hell,
go for broke! LOL

[maryec]

You are so right. Nobody complains, everybody goes along. It's craziness. This is why I do not buy newspapers any more or watch television news, local or national. Just looking at the headlines from a distance is enough to make me sick. Example: this morning's Washpost in the vending box by the bus stop said something like "Democrats suggest costly solutions to global warming." Don't tell me that is "news." That is pro-Republican spin, pure and simple.

[srmorris]

My issue isn't so much that the President only speaks to people that already support him. My issue is that he only listens to people who already support him.

[leftLibertarian]

Mr. Hart,
Your party is soft on the criminals Bush and Cheney.

[rhdsma]

Remember, he's the uniter, not the divider. And a compassionate conservative. And it's hard work.

[Ravenlea]

I just learned that there's an MSNBC poll right now on the topic of whether or not people think Bush should be impeached. When I voted just now, 89% of almost 600,000 people had voted YES. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904

[mikegoodyearaz85338]

Aren't you guilty of the same thing by blogging on this site?

I assume this means that the Democrats will now appear on Fox News for a debate.

[PatA]

and people are arrested if they appear outside the facility where he is....for things like signs, teeshirts with messages against him, etc. etc.

we've lost so very much.

[Freedoms Friend]

This may also be the first President or V.P. that is too hated, in the world at large, to feel that they can be even seen in public in any foreign land, this despite the protection offered by C.I.A. and secret service.
Impeach NOW, even if it will fail, it needs to be recorded for history.

[KeysDan]

Senator Hart. Your audience observations have been noted by many for a long time. Limiting campaign audiences to carefully selected ticketholders (except for the occasional rabble rouser that may have sneaked in, perhaps, wearing a dreaded peace T-shirt) is one thing, as bad as that may be, but allowing only a very, very friendly crowd to see or hear the President of the United States is quite another. It is all the worse, in my view, when the most frequent audiences for all manners of issues are military, suggesting something of a junta government. However, these selected audiences are only a part of the dissent management lessons that Bush et al. have learned from the Nixonian period. It would not look good if children and old ladies got tasered by a Bush Bro--well at least not rich, healthy children.

[LiberalLo]

What pisses me off more than anything else is when dumya speaks in front of a military audience. They are a captive audience and have no choice, but to sit there and listen to his BS and they damn well better applaud or they will be punished. How dare he use our military to inflate his ego!

[Dandy12]

I suppose he's very careful these days... I'm sure that he wouldn't appreciates boos, and/ or objects thrown at him.

[MPeter]

Thank you Senator. When I read your piece, five Presidential candidates leaped up in my mind. Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama and Obama--the one man who does not believe in blue or red states, asian, mexican, native, black or white Americans but just Americans. Thank you Senator.

[jonboy3000]

Gary:
I don't like it when Bush uses military folks as a back drop for his speeches. Last week, he did that with a group of graduates from an Army training program. It just sickens me because those folks have to sit there straight face and take it whether they agree with him or not. I would love to know what some of those folks are thinking when he is speaking. This president is so unpopular that he can't go before a real audience of thinking people who are free to respond to his speech. He would be booed and heckled. In the past we have had presidents who had some policies which were unpopular but they were not afraid to face the public. People also respected the office of the president and were respectful in their demeanor toward him. Bush has made a mockery of his office and deserves no respect. In fact after 2000, I have never really acknowledge him as my president. He is just a pretender to the office. He is an uneducated man who knows nothing about the precedents and traditions of the office which he is in. Read the chapter in the book Founding Brothers about George Washington's farewell. This one man modeled for us the office of the presidency and established its respect and tradition. Bush has single handedly tarnished and diminished the office of the presidency. I feel we have lost something given to us by our founding father. Will we ever recover it?

[kellygrrrl]

Those puppets in the audience at the Heritage Foundation look more brainwashed than a Scientology Audit Room.

the way the rise and applaud on cue as the sh!t spills from the mouth of the sewer is like watching a horror film.