Does God speak through Bush?

Published 5:00 pm Thursday, October 21, 2004

Kathleen Moore is an Oregon State University philosophy professor married to a scientist. At the start of her presentation to the Columbia Forum on Tuesday evening, Moore asked if there were any hard scientists in the room. Our environmental reporter Kate Ramsayer sheepishly raised her hand.

Kate found herself in a situation that most journalists encounter every now and then. They must write about something out of the territory of how their own mind works. In a nutshell, Dr. Moore talked about the feeling side of the intellect. “The human brain does much more than the rational, analytic,” she said.

Moore’s message was welcome in this season of bitter partisan political discord. It caused me to remember an admonition I sometimes offer to callers: Politics isn’t rational, I suggest. Moreover, the bulk of what you see on television political advertising is aimed at the feeling side of the brain.

I’ve also told callers they shouldn’t look to politics as a source of happiness. It is only about allocating power and resources and brokering deals.

If Kathy Moore’s talk was the live performance highlight of my week, Ron Suskind’s article “Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush” was the highlight of my reading week. The piece appeared in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.

Is God telling President Bush to loosen clean air standards or despoil the environment?Formerly of The Wall Street Journal, Suskind’s resourcefulness puts him in the top tier of journalists. In this article, Suskind provides glimpses inside the Bush White House that very few other writers have obtained. He confirms that the inner circle of this White House is much smaller than that of any other modern presidency.

The startling analysis that Suskind delivers is that well behind the public face of George W. Bush is someone who is acting entirely on instinct and without the give-and-take of analysis that is common in high government circles. The intolerance of dissent that is common at Bush political rallies is enforced even within the very small Bush inner circle. High-ranking officials who dare to ask Bush to explain his positions are not invited back.

It appears there are parallel Bush campaigns. There is one that we all may see through television commercials and public speeches. There is another, less visible campaign that occasionally leaks out.

Suskind uses the word “messianic” to describe the kind of language that emerges from those private meetings. “Three months ago, for instance, in a private meeting with Amish farmers in Lancaster County, Pa., Bush was reported to have said, ‘I trust God speaks through me.’ In this ongoing game of winks and nods, a White House spokesman denied the president had specifically spoken those words, but noted that ‘his faith helps him in his service to people.'”

Bush’s reliance on instinct, based on a connection with God, and his unwillingness to have his decisions questioned is a dangerous combination. What would happen in a second term when the Iraq War really begins to deteriorate? Will the nation wait for the president to have a messianic revelation?

I wonder whether God is telling George W. Bush to loosen enforcement of clean air standards or despoil the environment.

The most powerful language in Kathleen Moore’s Tuesday night presentation revolved around children. What questions will our children and grandchildren ask decades from now, she asked. What were my grandparents thinking when they allowed streams to be polluted, allowed the ocean to be polluted, traded profits for clean air and water?

At the end of her talk, Moore was asked if she had hope, despite the deterioration of the environment of which she had spoken. She was hopeful, she said. “Am I sane? That’s a different question.” Moore said people have to keep trying to make things better, because there is meaning in the work itself.

– S.A.F.