January 07, 2002

Frodo W. Bush? I think

Frodo W. Bush?

I think I understand why Andrew Sullivan feels he needs to do his part to burnish GWB's image here and there whenever the opportunity presents itself. I tend to agree with him that Bush is often misunderestimated, and that his leadership in this current crisis has been impressive, confounding the low expectations of many of his critics, who are often improperly reluctant to admit it. Sometimes, however, Sullivan allows himself to get carried away, as in this entry in his weblog, entitled "George W. Baggins." Caught up in the excitement of the Lord of the Rings, and always on the alert for edifying GWB parallels, he makes the following observations:

as a parable, I can immediately see why the first installment has struck such a nerve. In some ways, all liberal societies are like the Shire. They’re instinctively peaceful, geographically lucky, a little complacent, and always vulnerable. Every now and again, real evil threatens and we’re all asked to fight. Tolkien’s response is very English and the virtues he ascribes to Hobbits, like their idiosyncrasies, are also classically English. It has a very Second World War feel to it – the plucky little Brits fighting the evil Nazis.

So far so good, and quite right; but then:
Isn’t Dubya a classic Frodo? His dad, Bilbo - I mean, Herbert Walker - had his own little adventure with the dark forces, but poor Frodo is stuck with the legacy. He doesn’t change with the experience; his old and rather ordinary virtues just seem appropriate to the task. After the first installment, we have no idea when and how the real, final struggle with the global forces of evil will take place. But we know enough to believe that Frodo/Dubya will be able to cope.

Is GWB a "classic Frodo?" Let's hope NOT. I hate to ruin the ending, but the Lord of the Rings climaxes in a grand moral failure on Frodo's part. In the end, on the brink of triumph, he cannot summon the fortitude to carry out his mission and succumbs, temporarily, to Evil himself; the world is "accidentally" saved through the meddling of the debased, pathetic Gollum, who bites off Frodo's finger, ring and all, and falls into the Crack of Doom. I suppose there was something like this moral failure in GHWB's "going wobbly" in the Gulf War (and unfortunately, there was no Gollum standing by...) Let's hope we do better this time.

Posted by Dr. Frank at January 7, 2002 01:48 PM | TrackBack