THE MENSHEVIKS COULDN'T FIGURE OUT THE BOLSHEVIKS EITHER:

Bush's Second Term: If the president is elected again and acts on his words, he
may become a transformational figure. (DAVID BROOKS, 9/04/04, NY Times)

White House aides like to say that George W. Bush is a transformational president. That's an exaggeration, but if he's elected to a second term and acts on the words he uttered on Thursday night, he just might be.

He's already gone a long way to transform the Republican Party. This was a party united by the idea that government is the problem, that it should be radically cut back. On Thursday night, Bush talked about government as a positive tool. "Government must take your side," he exclaimed.

He went on to propose a sprawling domestic agenda. Many of his proposals are small or medium-sized, and media rebutters have complained that not all of them are new (which is a ridiculous way to measure a policy idea). But cumulatively, they really do amount to something.

Bush proposes to build community health centers, expand AmeriCorps, increase the funds for Pell Grants, create job retraining accounts, offer tax credits for hybrid cars, help lower-income families get health savings accounts, dedicate $40 billion to wetlands preservation, and on and on and on.

The President has thus far: radically altered the tax code in favor of savings and investment; passed public education vouchers nationally and public/private vouchers for D.C.; passed Health Savings Accounts; used executive orders to impose the faith-based initiative; begun the process of errecting a vast free trade network; and established the geopolitical principle that national sovereignty is dependent on democratic legitimacy. But the neocons still await the transformation? The 2004 election isn't about whether to start the revolution but whether to continue it.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 4, 2004 9:34 AM