Like Woodrow Wilson (Who Lost Popular Support) President Bush Has Neglected the Home Front While Fighting His War

A frequent criticism of President Bush is that domestic issues have suffered in the last four years. The reasoning behind this assertion is that Bush has been so focused on the war on terrorism that the home front received little attention. In fact, history suggests that this has been the case before.

Between 1917 and 1920, President Woodrow Wilson was consumed with winning World War I and negotiating a peace treaty. Between December 1918 and June 1919 Wilson spent only ten days in America, because he was in Europe trying to bring an end to the war. His focus on the war and foreign affairs allowed many domestic issues to fester and worsen.

High inflation raged in 1919 and 1920. Prices rose by more than 15 percent a year. The cost of living index rose 80 percent between 1916 and 1919, and it went up to 105 percent a year later. By 1920, the gross national product declined by 10 percent, 100,000 businesses went bankrupt, and 5 million people found themselves unemployed. By 1921, unemployment was at 12 percent.

Not surprisingly, as President Bush has focused almost exclusively on the war on terrorism in the last three years, domestic issues have suffered. The unemployment rate went up to 6 percent. Over 1.6 million Americans have lost their jobs, making it the first time since the Great Depression that a presidential administration lost more jobs than it created. The number of people living in poverty has risen by 14 percent. The number of people without health insurance has risen by 5.2 million people since Bush took office, to a total of 45 million. Those with health insurance have seen premiums for family coverage increase by 59 percent since Bush took office. Bankruptcies have increased by 33 percent since 2000. And we now face the largest deficit in history, at nearly $420 billion for 2004.

President Wilson’s focus on the war, at the expense of the home front, permitted a severe decline in civil liberties. In 1917 The Espionage Act was passed, outlawing even public criticism of the war and its conduct. The Trading with the Enemy Act, passed the same year, allowed the U.S. Postal Service to prevent the mailing of foreign-language magazines and newspapers that were thought to be offensive to the government. The Masses magazine was barred for suggesting that the war was a concoction between Wilson and big business. In 1918 the Sedition Act was passed, which prohibited “uttering, printing, writing, or publishing any disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language” about the government. One man was imprisoned for remarking that this was “a rich man’s war.”

President Bush’s tunnel vision toward the war on terrorism has likewise allowed for a decrease in the protection of civil liberties. The passage of the U.S.A.Patriot Act now allows the government to conduct searches without prior notification. It is the first federal law to permit a search, based upon a seach warrant, without prior notification by the courts. It also permits the F.B.I. to force any person or organization to turn over, without probable cause or a reasonable doubt, “any tangible things” such as library records, emails, medical information, or business and educational records. This is contrary to the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures and guarantees a notice to the person whose property will be searched. Much as the new laws of World War I were used against people and entities who did not pose a threat to the war, the Patriot Act is also being used for purposes entirely unrelated to terrorism. Of 962 suspects who have fallen under the jurisdiction of the Act, a recent study demonstrated that two-thirds were not involved in terrorism-related cases.

Both Presidents Wilson and Bush decided to focus almost exclusively on their respective wars and pursuing foreign policy, at the expense of domestic concerns, in order to be successful. Wilson did bring an end to the first major military conflict of the twentieth century. Wilson worked tirelessly in Europe to secure acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles, which officially brought an end to the war and created the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations. Similarly, Bush has worked to improve America’s security against Al Qaeda and other terrorist forces. He invaded both Afghanistan and Iraq as two major offenses in the war on terrorism. Public opinion polls show that most Americans approve of his anti-terrorism efforts and believe he has done a good job in this regard.

However, President Wilson paid a price for his inattentiveness to domestic issues. Since he was in ill-health, he did not run for re-election in 1920. Instead, James Cox, the governor of Ohio, ran as the Democratic nominee, and campaigned on continuing many of Wilson’s policies. In the words of President Bush, Cox promised to “stay the course.” Meanwhile, the Republican nominee, Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio, campaigned on a policy of “returning to normalcy,” by promising to focus on domestic issues. The senator won easily.

We will soon know if President Bush suffers the same historical fate for the tunnel vision of his war.