We Don't Need Bush to Fix Our Culture

(Ed Note - Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on June 24, 2004)

At a recent news conference President Bush declared it was his job to change our culture -- to replace a "do what feels right" mentality with an "Era of Responsibility." The image is comic; one could almost imagine Bush wearing a trucker hat emblazoned "Jesus is My Homeboy" as he spoke. Well, on behalf of the culture he so desperately wants to reform, thanks, but no thanks, Mr. President.

Don't get me wrong; responsibility is a good thing. It's just that a man who evasively describes his first 40 years of life by saying "I did some irresponsible things when I was young and irresponsible" doesn't really have the credibility to tell anyone how to live their life. Especially when his conception of responsibility has less to do with personal accountability and more to do with a punitive, fundamentalist version of morality. The hypocrisy reeks and our generation has grown up with a knack for sniffing it out.

During his three years in office, Bush continuously has pursued policies that inhibit personal responsibility and has shown that when it comes to himself, his administration and his corporate backers, responsibility is a nuisance to be dodged. Accountability is a concept applied to others.

Bush's conception of responsibility tells him to deny non-violent drug offenders the education and treatment that could make them responsible citizens. It vilifies a woman's right to choose even as it seeks to outlaw practical sex education that could reduce abortion rates. Bush's vision of responsibility preaches cleaner air but excuses corporations from environmental regulations while limiting the rights of citizens to hold corporations accountable. It condones the abuse of prisoners and then shifts the blame onto the backs of our soldiers.

In Bush's "Era of Responsibility," the buck always stops somewhere else.

We don't need Bush to fix our culture; the culture is all right. We don't need him to tell us how to live responsibly. The culture is becoming responsible of its own accord. We don't need an "Era of Responsibility" that preaches one thing while it does another. We need a new Culture of Opportunity that provides us with the resources to live responsibly.

Doing what feels right and living responsibly are not mutually exclusive. It feels right to have a job when you get out of school. It feels right when you know you have health coverage. It feels right when you can trust your government to act responsibly in the world. And when you practice safe sex, it feels pretty good.

A movement is growing in this country. Through such organizations as Music for America, artists and music fans are becoming politically active in greater numbers than we've seen since the '60s. They are working to register, educate and motivate their fans to take responsibility for their lives and participate in the political process.

In his State of the Union speech, Bush said it was the job of government to counteract the "negative influences of the culture." It is not Bush's job to unilaterally change our culture. Nor is it his right.

Culture is powerful because it is fundamentally democratic -- trendsetters can point the way, but everyone has to agree in order for change to occur. A movement is under way -- a movement of artists and fans, activists and average Joes, bachelors and bachelorettes. Our culture is waking up and realizing that it has the power to counter the negative policies of our government. In a few months, we may see the end of the "Era of Responsibility" and the rise of the Culture of Opportunity.