Ruth Marcus Thinks Bush Has Too Much “Manliness”
American flag-waving patriots beware. Harvard professor Harvey C. Mansfield has just written a book entitled “Manliness” and Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post has cleverly and wrongly applied Mansfield’s principles to the Bush administration. If the Marcus editorial is a harbinger of a new tactic of the Dump Bush Squad, it is to our peril.
Where Mansfield sees a dearth of Manliness in action, Marcus sees too much of it, particularly in the person of George Bush, and she thinks other qualities to guide our leadership may just be in order. Marcus asserts, “What this country could use is a little less manliness — and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt.”
That sounds all nice and rosy, in a sensitive kind of way, but where would that leave us? The harsh reality of the world, and I wish it were not the case, is that there are vast chunks of the world population who believe that violence is the natural and proper way to settle differences. These nasty folks would look at the “womanly qualities” that Murcus lists in only one way - as weakness.
And as there is very little difference between a wild animal and a man who would execute another man for becoming a Christian, the wild animal is predisposed to attack percieved weakness. An American President who openly displays self-doubt will be leading the American people to slaughter.
There is a reason why so many attempts to change our National Anthem have failed. The song recounts the actual experience of Francis Scott Key when, after witnessing an attack on the American mainland, sees that the giant American flag flying over Fort McHenry is still intact. War is not glorified but rather, the fortitude of Americans to withstand attack and prevail.
If we listed the qualities that were displayed by the Americans who endured that 24-hour bombardment, you can bet that “restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus” or “self doubt” would not make the list.