It seems to me that bitterness of the current presidential campaign bitterness traces back to two governmental decisions. Both involved a usurping of competent authority, to use just-war terms. I’m tired of the unending arguments over John Kerry’s medals, George Bush’s Air National Guard service, abortion, homosexual marriage, hanging chads, etc. instead of getting into these, let me suggest a root cause of the bitterness over Vietnam and abortion.
Harry Summers, in his classic book On Strategy argues that Lyndon Johnson’s failure ask congress for a declaration of war severed the link between the Army and the American people. If LBJ had gone to congress with a clear statements of objectives he might have secured public support. Since he didn’t, his continually shifting statement of objectives eventually undermined public support for the war. The public didn’t want its sons killing or dying for a government that did not know exactly what it wanted to accomplish. The military couldn’t win a war without a clear objective. Summers' argument is subtle. As an Army officer, he did not argue that it was the public’s or the administration’s failure. Rather, he looked at underlying strategic issues and the military professional’s failure to insist on sound strategy. In 1990, I wrote a summary of Summers’ argument and the response by military professionals.
The other usurping of Congressional authority was Roe v. Wade, which, on dubious grounds, removed the question from the electorate. The court thought it had settled the question. Obviously, it didn’t leading to the bitter political culture, which I discussed here.
Conservatives and Libertarians would view this as evidence that government is the source of the problem. I see it a little differently. In both cases, government acted outside of its sphere of competent authority. The nation is still paying the price.
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