The "Bully Pulpit"

The "Bully Pulpit"
by Ted Lang, Associate Editor

December 12, 2002

Columnist Ted Lang Americans are incrementally losing their personal freedoms because they are simply not being informed as to how Congress and the President are gradually legislating our freedoms out of existence. Whenever issues close to the interests of either of these branches of our national, centralized big government are critical to an elected official, the prestige of their office is invoked to sound off to the press.

It is this dimension of highly visible public office that former President Theodore Roosevelt described as the "bully pulpit." He used the term "bully" to describe things of an awesome or magnificent nature. Roosevelt was a magnificent and manipulative speaker. Consider that public address systems, radio, television and the Internet weren't available in his time.

There were newspapers back then, plenty of them, and that is how the substance of his speeches was communicated. There was also a fairer distribution of editorial opinion. This no longer true and the smaller press is now dominated by notably larger and more powerful newspapers which offer only a liberal point of view.

The large papers, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, etc, believe in one thing only: All societal problems can be solved by Big Brother government. "Ted" Kennedy has used President Teddy's "bully pulpit" to instruct that individual freedoms must be "faced down" in order to promote the general welfare. Individuals are selfish and greedy - all they care about is enriching themselves. Never mind that this self-serving motivation that goes far beyond mere survival is captured in capitalism and has given us the wealth and freedom we all enjoy.

And as socialists like Kennedy denigrate individual achievement, they applaud as better the efforts of groups of individuals accountable to no one; namely, government. But if the individual parts are inferior, how does their sum total create something better? Isn't the motivating basis of a violently out-of-control mob the loss of individual identity? And when that lost identity translates to actions from Big Brother government, what is the effect on personal freedom?

If government has exempted itself from accountability, and the mainstream press supports only big government solutions, how will the electorate be informed to protect itself from freedom-encroaching ever-expanding central government? Combine this with the mainstream press' double commitment to not only big government, but also the total subservience to one political party.

As Teddy Roosevelt emphasized use of the "bully pulpit," so would he also abhor signing into law any legislation deferring constitutional validity to a federal court. That is precisely what George Bush did in signing into law "campaign finance reform," which severely weakened political opposition as guaranteed by the First Amendment.

It is the responsibility of those in political office to inform the electorate when an opposing view is silenced by an enemy press. The media opposes Bush and Republicans, not because they are wrongfully subverting our freedoms much more so than have Clinton and his Democrats, but because they oppose the traditional GOP political posture of smaller government and less taxes.

Bush has subverted our Constitutional freedoms more so than any other president in history. Why doesn't he use the bully pulpit to explain the temporary nature of both the freedom-destroying Patriot Act and the Homeland Security monstrosity? Why doesn't he explain and limit the life expectancy of these "war" measures and give us a cut-off date? Explanations are indeed in order, since the "Honorables" in Congress passed these unconstitutional laws without ever bothering to read them. And who listens to a press that always opposes Republicans?

When will President Bush address the Nation on these most critical matters of human freedom in America today? When will he explain why an invasion of illegal aliens from Mexico should be accepted and exempted from law, while two million Americans rot in prison, a good many of them for minor drug offenses? President Bush, why not use the "bully pulpit?!" ***

In addition to his work at The American Partisan, Ted Lang is a government analyst and a political freelance writer. He has written for numerous websites such as USA Daily, where he is a columnist, The Patriotist, Sierra Times, as well as New Jersey newspapers. Lang holds a BA in political science and an MBA.

Photo of Columnist Ted Lang courtesy of the author