Man Overboard
By Ruth Marcus
Washington Post
Tuesday, March 21, 2006; A17

I have a new theory about what's behind everything that's wrong with the Bush administration: manliness.

"Manliness" is the unapologetic title of a new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, a conservative professor of government at Harvard University, which makes him a species as rare as a dissenting voice in the Bush White House. Mansfield's thesis is that manliness, which he sums up as "confidence in the face of risk," is a misunderstood and unappreciated attribute.

Manliness, he writes, "seeks and welcomes drama and prefers times of war, conflict, and risk." It entails assertiveness, even stubbornness, and craves power and action. It explains why men, naturally inclined to assert that "our policy, our party, our regime is superior," dominate in the political sphere.

Though manliness is "the quality mostly of one sex," Mansfield allows that women can be manly, too, though the sole example he can seem to come up with, and deploys time and again, is Margaret Thatcher. "Is it possible to teach women manliness and thus to become more assertive?" he wonders, but not really. "Or is that like teaching a cat to bark?" Me-ow!

"The problem of manliness is not that it does not exist," Mansfield concludes. "It does exist, but it is unemployed." Well, um, excuse me, but I think -- it's just my opinion, now, maybe you disagree, and I'm sure we could work it out -- Mansfield has it exactly backward. Manliness does exist. The problem is that it's overemployed -- nowhere more than in this administration.

Think about it this way: Is a trait exemplified by reluctance to ask directions -- "for it is out of manliness that men do not like to ask for directions when lost," Mansfield writes -- really what you want in a government deciding whether to take a country to war?

The undisputed manliness of the Bush White House stands in contrast to its predecessors and wannabes. If Republicans are the Daddy Party and Democrats the Mommy Party, the Clinton White House often operated like Mansfield's vision of an estrogen-fueled kaffeeklatsch: indecisive and undisciplined. (Okay, there were some unfortunate, testosterone-filled moments, too.) Bill Clinton's would-be successor, Al Gore, was mocked for enlisting Naomi Wolf to help him emerge as an alpha male; after that, French-speaking John Kerry had to give up windsurfing and don hunting gear to prove he was a real man. And Bush's father, of course, had to battle the Wimp Factor. Mansfield recalls Thatcher's manly admonition to 41 on the eve of the Persian Gulf War: "Don't go wobbly on me, George."

No wimpiness worries now. This is an administration headed by a cowboy boot-wearing brush-clearer, backstopped by a quail-shooting fly fisherman comfortable with long stretches of manly silence -- very "Brokeback Mountain," except this crowd considers itself too manly for such PC Hollywood fare. "I would be glad to talk about ranchin', but I haven't seen the movie," Bush told a questioner.

There are, no doubt, comforting aspects to the manly presidency; think Bush with a bullhorn on top of the smoldering ruins of the twin towers. After a terrorist attack, no one's looking for a sensitive New Age president. Even now, being a strong leader polls at the top of qualities that voters most admire in Bush.

But the manliness of the Bush White House has a darker side that has proved more curse than advantage. The prime example is the war in Iraq: the administration's assertion of the right to engage in preemptive and unilateral war; the resolute avoidance of debate about the "slam-dunk" intelligence on weapons of mass destruction; the determined lack of introspection or self-doubt about the course of the war; and the swaggering dismissal of dissenting views as the carping of those not on the team.

The administration's manliness doesn't stop at the water's edge. Pushing another round of tax cuts in 2003, Vice President Cheney sounded like a warrior claiming tribute after victory in battle: "We won the midterms. This is our due," Cheney reportedly said. After the 2004 election, Bush exuded the blustering self-assurance of a president who had political capital to spend -- or thought he did -- and wasn't going to think twice before plunking down the whole pile on Social Security.

Mansfieldian manliness is present as well in Bush's confident -- overconfident -- response to Hurricane Katrina (insert obligatory "Brownie" quote here). And the administration's claim of almost unfettered executive power is the ultimate in manliness: how manly to conclude that Congress gave the go-ahead to ignore a law without it ever saying so; how even manlier to argue that your inherent authority as commander in chief would permit you to brush aside those bothersome congressional gnats if they tried to stop eavesdropping without a warrant.

Mansfield writes that he wants to "convince skeptical readers -- above all, educated women" -- that "irrational manliness deserves to be endorsed by reason." Sorry, professor: You lose. What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt.

But that's just my view.

[email protected]


www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001416_pf.html

Christ on a crutch...

What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities...

Wow... Yeah that's exactly what we need. As if America hasn't been filled to the rim with mirls and gays already.

I think 'manliness' is exactly what the administration is lacking, that and character.

Oh jees...........

an article about how "manlieness" has ruined the presidency..........

fucking sexist bitch

Quoted: Quoted: Christ on a crutch... Where's the intelligent political banter?

I am at a loss for words.

Quoted: I think 'manliness' is exactly what the administration is lacking, that and character.

Exactly.  The first 2 years he was in office Bush was a real man that was kicking ass and taking names.  Then he appologized for being a "cowboy" and said he was going to be kinder and gentler when dealing with others and look at what we ended up with.

What a winey little pussy.

After a terrorist attack, no one's looking for a sensitive New Age president.

Wanna bet?

I suppose America would be better off if we would just be a bunch of pansies???

This idiot is nuttier than a whole bag of squirrels.

When terrorists attack you, you don't send them flowers. Well, not FIRST, you don't....

Quoted: After a terrorist attack, no one's looking for a sensitive New Age president. Wanna bet?

Sadly, Zaphod is right.

There is a significant and, I would submit, growing segment of the population that would like us to sit down and have a good cry with the terrorists about their plight and end it all with a positive group hug.

While the 1st ammendment grants them the right to be complete morons, I will continue to vote for people who want to kill the sorry sonsabitches that want to kill us.

Rumsfield isn't manly?

Ok Ruth, why don't you tell me about manliness.

Or better yet, write and article about a book written by some milktoast, socialist professor describing manliness.

What a bunch of psudo intellectual drivel.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Christ on a crutch... Where's the intelligent political banter? I am at a loss for words.

Good

Manliness, he writes, "seeks and welcomes drama

That right there raised the big ol'

Lets see  a "woman presidency" would complain about lots of issues but not want to do anything about them....Why does Clinton's handling of terrorism come to mind? Whats that line about "I think of a man, then remove logic and responsiblity"??

Where as a "manly presidency" makes the tough decisions and "deals with stuff" and takes responsibility for it.

The woman at least knows a real man when she sees one.

She tried to teach Gore how to act like one (Alpha Male) but FAILED. ha ha ha ha

"Had this plane been flown by vegetarian women instead of meat-eating men, this would have never happened"

Airplane the Movie.

I already wrote that idiot a nice email.

Absolutely one of the most hyper-idiotic bed-wetting articles I have ever seen.


CMOS

seeks and welcomes drama and prefers times of war, conflict, and risk.

Bullshit Meter went off the scale on that one.

Manlyness does NOT welcome drama....in early days, women were quiet and dignified.  The ruled the household as the Queen with an iron fist, and the man was the King.  The house was clean and orderly, the King was well fed, and his duties were to go outside the home and make a living.    He DID NOT WANT to hear how horrible the neighbor was today, etc. etc.   He did NOT want DRAMA in the household.   If the Queen went into hysterics over the indians about to burn the house, he slapped her and told her to "git ter reloadin!"  Those are the days the Professor is referring to, and he sugar coats his version of those times.

Manly Men do not seek Conflict, but are  NOT afraid of it....something that people (liberals) today cannot understand.   You do not draw a line in the sand in front of an agressor, then another, then another, and claim that anyone who was willing to defend the first line must Welcome conflict.   The  Manly Man is the one who understands that there will never be a stop to an agressor that crosses the FIRST line--better to hit early and hard and stop it NOW.

AFARR

What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: ...

Ah, I get it.  The author wants us to become French!