"Buried with Bush"

This post is to say amen, in general, to Fred Hiatt's lament today in the Washington Post:

As the Bush presidency implodes, some of its worst policies mercifully will go, too -- including, we can hope, the torture and unregulated detention of alleged enemy fighters that have so discredited the country throughout the world.

But valuable strands of policy also may end up strewn in the wreckage, victims (in varying combinations) of President Bush's ineptitude, inconstancy and unpopularity. Among these are what Bush called compassionate conservatism, now moribund; American promotion of democracy abroad, now flailing; and accountability in elementary and high school education, losing ground as it approaches a major test in Congress.

As Hiatt points out, compassionate conservatism in the sense of facilitating religious and other private organizations' work with the needy -- the faith-based and community organizations initiative -- is moribund in large part because the administration denied it any real funding from the start ("kneecapped it," as one congressional supporter put it).

As cycles of poverty and hopelessness remain a national scandal, I'd still argue that government policy should aim to mobilize and encourage the efforts of the widest range of community social-service providers, including faith-based providers.  This approach can still encompass a wide range of values and thus, I hope, still be attractive to many Americans.  If the conditions on the government's assistance are marked by a flexibility that respects the different ways that different organizations provide the services, then this approach can embody the Catholic twin principles of solidarity and subsidiarity.   At its best, the Bush initiative acknowledged that personal transformation often plays a crucial role, along with material assistance, in changing the circumstances of those in need -- an emphasis that appeals to many evangelicals.  And liberals in the vein of Sojourners' Jim Wallis likewise have recognized that giving substantial weight to private, community organizations and individual transformation can make the provision of assistance more effective and thus can bolster the case for putting more effort and resources into the whole project.

On educational accountability, Hiatt calls for fixing the problems with No Child Left Behind rather than scrapping it altogether.  He doesn't mention continuing experiments with school voucher programs, but he should (they generally run up against the reluctance of middle-class voters and the determination of the teachers' unions, but they can get enacted for cases of real educational meltdown).

I'm not holding my breath that any 2008 candidates will pick up on this whole package of themes (especially not the Democrats on vouchers, or the Republicans on significant spending).  But I still think there are opening for candidates to appeal across ideological lines, to embrace some of these themes and keep them from being buried with Bush.

Tom