George Will’s latest, on Tuesday’s State of the Union address, practically sparkles with sanity. On the global democratic crusade:
- The success of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Palestinian elections is but the latest proof of what happens when the forms of democracy are severed from what the president, with a cosmopolitan shrug, dismissively called “our own Western standards of progress.” Now comes wishful thinking, and then cynicism.
Regarding the latter, the watery materialism of much thinking — the theory that social structures and economic incentives trump ideas as shapers of behavior — will interpret the Hamas victory in the benign light of the Garbage Collection Theory of History. On Sunday, on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said: “My hope is that as a consequence of now being responsible for electricity and picking up garbage and basic services to the Palestinian people, that they recognize it’s time to moderate their stance.” Perhaps. But their stance — Israel must die — is, they say, the will of God, who has not authorized moderation in the name of sanitation.
That last line deserves repeating on style points alone. Also worth a copy-and-paste:
- Four days after Hamas provided evidence that the United States cannot anticipate, let alone control, events, the New York Times inadvertently suggested this thought: If the Times and the Bush administration each had sufficient self-awareness, they might be mutually mortified by recognizing their similar mentalities regarding America’s power.
On the front page of Sunday’s Times there began a 7,800-word story on Haiti’s descent, not for the first time, into murderous anarchy. The story about the progress of nation-building and democracy-planting in our hemisphere carried a symptomatic headline: “Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos.” The story’s thesis was intimated by its subtitle: “Democracy Undone.” The thesis was that if U.S. diplomacy had been more deft and single-minded, the Times might not now be reporting this about Haiti:
“Today, the capital, Port-au-Prince, is virtually paralyzed by kidnappings, spreading panic among rich and poor alike. Corrupt police officers in uniform have assassinated people on the streets in the light of day. The chaos is so extreme and the interim government so dysfunctional that voting to elect a new one has already been delayed four times.”
Tonight, on the 1,050th day of the Iraq war (the 912th day of American participation in World War II was D-Day), the nation needs an adult hour, including a measured meditation on overreaching, from the Middle East to Medicare’s prescription drug entitlement. But in State of the Union addresses, rarely is heard a discouraging word.
Mr. Statecraft-as-Soulcraft is sounding better to my ears than half the soi-disant libertarians in D.C. think tanks. Who woulda thunk it?