THE NANNY IN CHIEF

Bush Thinks He Knows What's Good for You, and He'll Spend Money to Prove It

There's barely a speech by President Bush that doesn't cite the glories of
human freedom. It's God's gift to mankind, he believes. And in some ways
this President has clearly expanded it: the people of Afghanistan and Iraq
enjoy liberties unimaginable only a few years ago. But there's a strange
exception to this Bush doctrine. It ends when you reach America's shores.
Within the U.S., the Bush Administration has shown an unusually hostile
attitude toward the exercise of personal freedom. When your individual
choices conflict with what the Bush people think is good for you, they have
been only too happy to intervene. The government, Bush clearly believes,
has a right to be involved in many personal decisions you make -- punishing
some, encouraging others, nudging and prodding the public to live the good
life as the President understands it. The nanny state, much loved by
Democrats, is thriving under Republicans.

Just recall Bush's State of the Union address last week. People used to
ridicule President Clinton's laundry list of micro-initiatives. But Bush is
no different. Where once education was essentially the preserve of states,
school principals and parents, this President has expanded the federal role
in unprecedented ways. The No Child Left Behind Act holds states and
localities accountable for meeting educational standards in order to
qualify for federal funds. No wonder Ted Kennedy originally signed on.

In his speech, the President unveiled millions of dollars to randomly test
high school kids for drug use. He is doubling the federal money currently
spent to admonish teens to practice sexual abstinence. He is spending
hundreds of millions of dollars on antidrug propaganda and sending federal
agents to bust pot clubs for those using medical marijuana to ease the pain
of crippling diseases. Republican Senators are even trying to withhold
federal funding from states that allow medical-marijuana ads on public
transport. These are not unrelated measures. The President is proud of his
Big Government moralism. As he put it in his first State of the Union
message, "Values are important, so we have tripled funding for character
education to teach our children not only reading and writing, but right
from wrong." Sounds inoffensive enough. But who exactly determines what is
right and what is wrong? Churches? Synagogues? Parents? Teachers? Nah. The
Federal Government.

Once upon a time, Republicans believed in leaving it to the private and
voluntary sectors to do the important work of building citizenship and
values. Remember the "thousand points of light"? These days those
lightbulbs need government subsidies. One of the key beliefs of this
President is that federal money should be funneled to religious groups that
blend proselytizing with important social work. His faith-based initiative
largely withered on the vine, but he has done what he can. In last year's
State of the Union message, he proposed almost half a billion dollars to
pay for mentors for disadvantaged high school students or the children of
prisoners. This year he proposed an extensive government program to coach
newly released ex-cons into better lives. Ever wonder who these
government-backed mentors are? And what exactly they're preaching? Maybe
you should, because you're paying for them.

States' rights? Only if the states do what the President believes in. How
else to explain the vast expansion of federal power that the Partial Birth
Abortion Act entailed, limiting the rights of states to regulate abortion
as they see fit? On medical marijuana, the Bush doctrine has led to federal
agents' overruling state laws that tolerate the use of pot for medicinal
purposes. Gay marriage? The Bush Administration is close to backing a
federal constitutional amendment that would overrule any state that decided
to give marriages -- or even civil unions and domestic partnerships -- to
gays. States' rights are all well and good -- as long as the states don't
do things that some Republicans disapprove of.

Want to lose weight using ephedra? You can't. Bush's FDA has banned the
over-the-counter supplement. Steroids? You heard the Nanny in Chief. And if
you're a scientist researching a touchy subject, be prepared to feel the
breath of Big Government down the back of your white coat. Early on in his
Administration, the President -- not scientists or patients -- decided
exactly how far federally funded research into stem cells could go. Cloning
technologies? Forget about it.

There has always been a tension in conservatism between those who favor
more liberty and those who want more morality. But what's indisputable is
that Bush's "compassionate conservatism" is a move toward the latter -- the
use of the government to impose and subsidize certain morals over others.
He is fusing Big Government liberalism with religious-right moralism. It's
the nanny state with more cash. Your cash, that is. And their morals.