Bush cannot be treated -- he must be surgically removed

A president once said: "You are the generation that must decide. Will you ratify poverty and division with your apathy -- or will you build the common good with your idealism? Will you be the spectator in the renewal of your country -- or a citizen?" That president, believe it or not, was George W. Bush. He said it at a commencement address at Notre Dame in May 2001. (The transcript does not note whether he had a straight face or not.)

But he's actually getting good at saying things like this. For George W. Bush, this rhetoric is designed to mask the reality of how he governs. It's a spoken word Potemkin village. If he were speaking the truth, he would have said, "I have ratified poverty by increasing it by 3 million people. Increased poverty and growing middle-class casualties have in turn enlarged the divisions between us. Even though I never speak about apathy except in commencement addresses, I understand it because my actions can only produce a certain grinding hopelessness after a time. So do me a favor and stay on the sidelines: The last thing I need at this point is a bunch of concerned citizens in my way. And by the way, let's win one for the Gipper!"

According to Catholic teachings, "the corruption of the best is the worst." George Bush's corrupt use of the concept of "the common good" muddies the water to such a shameful degree that the idea loses all meaning. The point of government is to provide for the common good, but on George Bush's lips it is transformed into an empty platitude. The Democratic nominee has the difficult task, made harder by the clever cynicism of Bush's message mavens, of resurrecting the idea of our common good and breathing real meaning into it.

And as Bush demonstrated at Notre Dame, you cannot talk about the common good without talking about lifting people from poverty. But notice how, in the course of a single presidential pronouncement, poverty suddenly became the responsibility of apathetic college students. It's subtle trickery to equate concern and caring with a cure. Sure, a cure starts there. But, as Bush points out in the same speech, "a determined assault on poverty will require both an active government and active citizens."

This book will show how those sentiments are exactly what the Democratic nominee has to express -- and mean -- as the foundation of a vision that will defeat Bush in November. This vision must link the compelling mission of the moment -- to strengthen our country so that it can stand up to the assaults of this new millennium -- with the pursuit of the common good. A truly strong America is one that can help the less fortunate, can admit mistakes, can once again excite the admiration of people around the world, regardless of their prejudices, by its fine example.

If you accept the inherent link between the common good and a strong America, then the list of what needs to be done becomes obvious. You cannot have a strong America if one-third of eighth graders can't read. You cannot have a strong America if millions of our citizens don't have the basic resources to take care of their health. You cannot have a strong America without strong families. And you cannot have strong families with two parents each working two-and-a-half jobs just to make ends meet.

This is not a left-wing vision. People of good faith, regardless of party, understand that fairness -- rules of the game that all must abide by -- is essential to the public welfare. But fairness and nurturing and a strong safety net do not mean babying our citizens and removing life's inevitable obstacles. The common good is achieved, in large measure, through the incentives that come from competition -- as long as competition takes place on a level playing field.

Here's the message President Bush offered his audience of idealistic college grads: "The methods of the past may have been flawed, but the idealism of the past was not an illusion. Your calling is not easy, because you must do the acting and the caring. But there is fulfillment in that sacrifice, which creates hope for the rest of us. Every life you help proves that every life might be helped. The actual proves the possible. And hope is always the beginning of change."

If you closed your eyes, you would think you were listening to the ideal Democratic nominee -- not the words of a zealous right-wing ideologue who used "compassion" as a campaign slogan, then tossed it aside like a soiled tissue as soon as he stepped into the Oval Office. But when the Democratic candidate uses the same rhetoric it will have to be matched with action.

Different times require different leaders and different strategies. This book is about the coming presidential election, and an alternative moral vision of strength. Without this vision, the public will be fooled again by the Republican fanatics selling strength but meting out punishment and weakness. Ultimately, this book will argue, the Democratic nominee will have to counter the White House's culture of fear and disunity with a bold vision that acknowledges uncertainty and evil in the world without being intimidated by them. Security isn't just about protecting America from terrorists. Security is also about protecting America's families from poverty and a bleak future for their children. True strength will emerge from a vision of New Responsibility that extends beyond caring for your own family to caring for your fellow man.

Excerpted with permission from "Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning Back America," by Arianna Huffington (Miramax Books)

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