Ownership Society
President Bush has been very lucky in the disasters he has had to deal with. Starting out as a president with little foreign policy experience, he was handed the 9/11 wakeup call, which galvanized him into a titan on the world stage. Love him or hate him, you can not ignore him. Now, just a half year into his second term, he has this opportunity to push the core of his agenda, which he calls his "Ownership Society." He also has the chance to put another nail into the coffin of the democrat party.In his second Inaugural Address, President George W. Bush declared once again his desire to build an ownership society. He describes it thus:
And now we will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the needs of our time. To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance - preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear, and make our society more prosperous and just and equal.One might wonder how this could hurt the democrats, since this would seem to be the fulfillment of their dreams, as well as Bush's. The answer is two fold. Primarily, they will never go along with anything that Bush does, so filled with rancor are they. But, just as important, their idea of helping the poor revolves around the idea of entitlement and handout, with the strong implication that this will ensure voters retain a certain loyalty to them and their party. Give a man his rent, and you have created a dependency for another handout every month, when the rent comes due. Give a man ownership of his home, he just might forget who he is dependent upon.
The crazy political theatre that is about to ensue will be a joy to behold. As the administration goes to congress for the rest of the money needed to help the hurricane victims, we will see conservatives promoting a form of welfare, and liberals opposing the aid, with a technical reasoning that will be invisible to most of their constituents. This is going to be fun to watch. Sweat equity, tax abatements, zero rate nothing down mortgages, and private homes going up where the housing projects formerly stood. Why, some of "the poor" might very well become "the rich." And the democrats will oppose it all. It's gonna be great.