It was September of last year, and the polls showed George Bush pulling away from his Democratic opponent in the race for the White House. On the stump, the favorite was launching into one of his preferred rhetorical themes. ”Back under Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, American flags weren`t selling all that well,” Bush told a crowd of supporters in California. ”But in the Reagan-Bush years, flag sales have taken off.”
It was a popular refrain in the Bush campaign, a red, white and blue tactic that would help the Vice President surge past Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in the polls.
Bush would turn up at a flag factory, and Old Glory would provide a constant backdrop at campaign stops, whether it was as bunting draped at rallies or emblazoned on the side of Air Force 2.
What Candidate Bush did in the 1988 presidential campaign was capture the flag. By his actions in the aftermath of the Supreme Court`s flag-desecration ruling two weeks ago, it`s clear President Bush intends to hold on to his political possession.
But why? He`s already president, and is three years away from a re-election campaign.
The fact is, presidential campaigning never stops. ”It`s a calculated decision,” said one Democratic pollster. ”He`s decided he`s better off running for re-election on the basis of politics than on the basis of solving problems.”
Initially, Bush signaled a low level of distress with the court`s flag ruling, particularly since a pair of justices named by Ronald Reagan had sided with the 5-4 majority.
But opinion polls and the congressional hue and cry over the flag energized Bush. A Newsweek poll a few days after the ruling indicated that 71 percent of those surveyed supported the idea of a flag-desecration amendment to the Constitution.
Four days after the controversial ruling, Bush was on a platform in front of the Iwo Jima monument, with its famed sculpture of the flag being raised by Marines on Mt. Suribachi.
Bush assured those in attendance that devotion to the flag was a bipartisan affair. But he was accompanied by the Republican minority leaders in Congress, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas and Rep. Bob Michel of Illinois. There was no room at the rally for Democrats.
Dole set the tone for the flag debate with a chilling political reminder for those with doubts about the propriety of and the necessity for a constitutional amendment.
”Vote against the amendment; voice your opposition,” Dole said at the Iwo Jima rally. ”It`s part of the wonderful process we call democracy.”
Democrats, get that message: Vote against the flag amendment and consider the TV ad your next opponent will put together against you.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Bush had succeeded Reagan in gaining control of the national symbols, in personifying what Republicans delight in calling ”family values”-God, country, flag, capital punishment, balanced budgets, the ”rights of the unborn,” saying no to drugs.
Bush ran hard on these issues. That effort, paired with the ineptitude of the Dukakis campaign in responding to charges and attacks, paid large political dividends.
Democrats are weary at losing out in the values game. During the campaign, whenever Bush was criticized for implicitly questioning Dukakis`
patriotism, Bush`s defenders, led by campaign manager Lee Atwater, would talk about those family values and their man`s hold on them.
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Bush`s deft manipulation of red-meat issues-Willie Horton, the furloughed Massachusetts rapist; the American Civil Liberties Union; the pledge of allegiance; no new taxes-was about all that was needed to push Dukakis aside. Democratic resentment over being whipsawed on the flag and patriotism, crime and a host of other apple-pie issues is now part of the national political fabric. And it sometimes manifests itself in bitterness and black humor.
Last week, for example, Rep. Jack Brooks, a crusty Texas Democrat who saw combat in the South Pacific in World War II, lashed out at Democratic nemesis Newt Gingrich, the conservative Republican congressman from Georgia who went to the front on the flag debate.
Gingrich, 46, had a deferment during the Vietnam War, a fact Brooks knew well. But the Texan felt compelled to bring up the matter again in the context of the flag furor as Gingrich`s name was mentioned.
”He had a deferment in Vietnam?” Brooks said, his voice dripping sarcasm. ”Gingrich did? That big strapping SOB?”
A recent survey conducted by Democratic pollsters Harrison Hickman and Paul Maslin spelled out the scope of the problem for many disaffected Democrats at the national level.
The poll, which provided ammunition for Democrats who believe their party is increasingly out of touch with voters, indicated that many Americans are alienated by what they perceive as Democratic Party positions.
According to the poll, Republicans had a strong edge over Democrats in
”maintaining a strong national defense” and in evoking ”more confidence . . . on improving the economy.”
The poll also indicated that voters felt Republicans did a better job representing traditional values.
Many Democrats believe their problems with White House occupancy will not be solved until they concoct a way to retrieve a share of the family values. Having lost five of the last six presidential elections, many in the party believe a little flag-waving is in order.
Self-proclaimed Democratic centrists insist that the party`s emphasis is too focused on particular interest groups and constituencies, too caught up in narrow, dead-end issues.
For example, before the Iowa caucuses last year, Democratic presidential hopefuls expended time, money and rhetoric on the ”notch babies” fracas, which was a small-bore political scrap involving age requirements for Social Security benefits.
As an issue, notch babies disappeared the day after the votes were counted in Iowa.
Assessing his opposition during the 1988 campaign, Atwater, now head of the Republican National Committee, made a typically tough call: ”Democrats get totally preoccupied with things voters don`t care about.”
Democrats would like to alter that reality and take hold of some issues to which voters respond viscerally, to use Bush`s own word in describing his feelings about flag-burning.
But it`s evident, based on his Yankee Doodle Dandy performance in the last two weeks, that George Bush is not going to loosen his grip on the red, white and blue.