Anti-Matter: The Bush Doctrine

Halfway through what will become the Bush Legacy, it is becoming clear that what he will be remembered for is inverting the American Ideal, the American Dream, and America: the Symbol.

There's the obvious:
The importation of faith into the public sphere. This is different from religion. Religion has always held a place in the public sphere, in the sense that religion is protected, tolerated, and meant to be separate from the State. But faith as a concept was never an American ideal. Americans were always trained pragmatists, scientists and workers. For a far more salient commentary on the rejection of science and the scientific method in America today, see Small Precautions.

The NY Observer has a great piece on this very subject, from a political point of view. Money quote:

The cost of destroying a secular public life will, if allowed to proceed, undermine the stability of American democracy. All these people on their knees holding candles may not appreciate it, but public religion, not private religious formation, is the enemy of our kind of government. Even in the long-past era when most Americans were some brand or other of Calvinist, religion had to be pushed into the corners of politics so that a nascent secular culture could nourish democracy. In the first half of the 19th century, the battle to drive religion out of the political forum and into the home was not easily nor ever entirely won. Waves of religious mania battered the country and threatened democratic institutions and practice. They still do.

The Christians and their churches, which are using their temporary, strategic, electoral-minority position to gain majority dominance, will live to wish that they hadn’t labored so long to put "people of faith" in the driver’s seat. Other than dogmatism and a built-in resistance to reason, logic and science, sectarian religions have nothing in common except a potential antagonism for each other—one which holds the threat of someday ripping the country to shreds. "Religion" and "faith" are pushing ahead on a common front now, but in due course they will fall on each other with mortal fury. History teaches that the one thing religions hate more than secularism is other religions. With each year that religions are encouraged and given a preferential place, they become more demanding and more truculent in claiming more power and deference. As more members of more religious organizations adopt peculiar and distinguishing forms of dress, headgear and hair, the lines harden and the probability of physical conflict between these groups of faith-based fanatics
grows.

Now you can add Bush's approach to immigration to this list, for which I will keep a running tally. Really, there are two policies here. Given illegals who cross the border temporary working visas. Keep students out. Does anyone see how stupid this is? Raise your hands. Joseph Nye Jr. writes about this in today's NY Times.

Money quote:

Last year, the number of foreign students at American colleges and universities
fell for the first time since 1971. Recent reports show that total foreign student enrollment in our 2,700 colleges and universities dropped 2.4 percent,
with a much sharper loss at large research institutions. Two-thirds of the 25
universities with the most foreign students reported major enrollment declines.

The costs to the American economy are significant. Educating foreign students is a $13 billion industry. Moreover, the United States does not produce enough home-grown doctoral students in science and engineering to meet our needs. The shortfall is partly made up by the many foreign students who stay here after earning their degrees.