PAGE 6 — THE DECREE — NOVEMBER 20,1992
Bush’s failure was his own fault
By KEN LEONARD
What can I say? What can an
arch-conservative from the
Buchanan Brigades of New
Hampshire say about the recent
election results?
I could blame the press for let
ting Clinton and Gore get away
with telling some pretty blatant
lies (“these are the worst eco
nomic times since the 30’s,” ig
noring the Carter era). I could
blame Perot for entering when he
was obviously motivated by a per
sonal grudge against Bush.
I will, instead, be a mature
adult and lay the blame where it
belongs: with President Bush.
Ever since he was nominated in
1988, George Bush has been try
ing to distance himself from
Ronald Reagan and the eight
years of growth—in eveiy mean
ingful way, as well as economi
cally. Even the poor get richer
(by 11 percent, according to the
IRS) under Reagan, but Bush
promised to sit down with Con
gress and make deals so as to
avoid the conflicts which marked
the Reagan era.
These conflicjj with Congress
gave us economic growth, the fall
of Communism in Eastern Eu
rope and parts of Central
America, and reduction of waste
in government. Such gains are
well worth any conflict.
For four years. Bush has al
low Vice President Quayle to be
mocked, failing to bring forward
the achievements of the man who,
as a Senator, led the fight to save
the obscure SAM-D surface-to-
air missile now known to us as
the Patriot. When Quayle brought
forward good points in the cam
paign, the press and Bill Clinton
jeered, and Bush made him back
off. Quayle was a lone conserva
tive in a gang of moderate-to-lib-
eral Republicans: Bush, James
Baker, GOP Chairman Rich
Bond, and the rest of Bush’s key
players.
Bush surrendered the social
agenda, giving in to the liberal
demands that he do so. (They, of
course, are going to press theirs
by seeking special treatment for
their cases and funding for their
“choices.” I thought they wanted
the government out of it all.) This
left him with this unconvincing
economic message: Oops, I did
what he would have; I won’t do it
again.
Periiaps true. The “oops” mes
sage, though, is hard to sell.
It is wrong, however, to say
that the election of Gov. Clinton
indicates that the American pub
lic wishes they’d re-elected Carter
in 1980. Or even that they wish
they’d elected Dukakis in 1988.
It means that George Bush blew
it, both in the campaign and in
his term of office.
The Clinton Administration
will be short-lived. The current
economic recovery will continue,
but increased government spend
ing and regulation will soon start
tearing away jobs, and you can
count on a repeat of the Carter
era — in spades.
Socially, every value anyone
holds near and dear will be thrown
away, and Clinton will not only
fail to deliver a cure for AIDS, he
wiU watch his own programs fur
ther its spread by telling kids lies
and by overruling parents in
schools. (Clinton’s wife does not
think that parents should be al
lowed to make decisions “unilat
erally” in dealing with their chil
dren, and that schools should give
sex education, abortion counsel
ing, and condoms even if parents
object. Bill Clinton heartily con
curs.)
What else did Bush do wrong?
He had no idea what he was do
ing at times. James Baker, we
were told, was going to return to
the State Department. Then he
was going to become the “do
mestic policy czar.” If he was go
ing to manage both foreign and
domestic poUcy, what was Bush
gong to do? Richard Darman, who
helped the Democrats write the
1990 budget deal, was rumored
to be on a list of to-be-fired White
House staffers. Conservatives
were glad to see him go; we never
wanted him as Budget Director
in the first place. Then there were
rumors he would be Treasury Sec
retary. As bad as Nicholas Brady
has been, Darman is worse.
Bush lacked the direction of
Reagan, and therefore failed to
prove wrong the popular Repub
lican joke: What’s the difference
between Bush and John Gotti?
At least Gotti has one conviction.
Jack Kemp was right in 1988
when, during a debate, he charged
Bush, “You will kill the Reagan
Revolution.”
That’s what happened. Bush
failed to present a case to re-elect
him, and he wasn’t. Perhaps con
servatives were right to ask him
to decline re-nomination. Maybe
he’d lost the election for any Re
publican — he certainly took
some good Senate and House can
didates with him. In any case.
Democrats are now out of scape
goats. They run it all. Vote Kemp,
1996.
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Unconventional sculpture revealing
By EVERETT M. ADELMAN
Although immediately struck
by the painterly authority and
knowing traditionalism evident in
the artist’s 20-year purview of oil
and watercolor paintings, it was
however the less conventional of
Post-Modernist sculpture of the
past few years that revealed artist
J. Chris Wilson’s autographic
complexity.
In an exhibition at the Rocky
Mount Arts Center, the form is
the metaphor in Wilson’s
“Wrapped Still Life” sculptures
that are cloaked, shrouded,
bundled, and bound, boxed, and
crated. His formal concealments
invite inquiry and engagement
like Pandora’s box.
Unavoidable by any means are
two huge wooden crates, one
monochromed intense blue, ‘The
Sweet Seduction” (1991) and the
other bright red “Red Chair from
St. Simon’s” (1992). Wilson dis
rupts the presciousness of the sa
lon tradition by asking us to wit
ness the “arrival” and “departure”
of two ambiguous collections
coded by color and durably
packed.
The red chair construction sig
nifies heirloom, and its color is
passionate. Among other things,
the unwritten, informal histories
of the antiques that furnish old
homes. The blue crate in proxi
mate view of its red counterpart
not only activates the gallery by
contrasting color and the dynam-
Review
ics of scale, it offers a cooler sense
of concealment and charged sus
picion of its unseen contents.
Nearby in the exhibition stands
another sculpture featuring a
chair, elegantly poised on a low
pedestal, protectively shrouded
and ossified in hydrocal plaster.
Like the furniture of rooms put to
rest indefinitely while the heirs
of such estates are yet to be bom
or like a carved shrouded tomb
stone, Wilson’s choice of objects
and detailing cross-reference his
art and diverse profession^ con
cerns; For instance, a small
hydrocal humoresque called
“Wrapped StiU Life” (1990) with
three small painted bundles
huddled together must in some
context refer to “the three graces”
and Wilson’s academic wit as an
art historian.
Two pieces, although quite dif
ferent from each other,
contextualize the exhibit as a
whole. In site-specific “Rocky
Mount Arts Center, Wrapped Still
Life” (1992), Wilson uses some
adept trompeleoil humor in his
painted wall relief that extends
the Art Center’s interior pegboard
motif into sculptural space.
“Wrapped Still Life Sketch”
(1991) is a conventionally framed
curious assemblage that hangs on
the galle^ w^l among Wils6n’'s'
watercolors. Layers, stacks, pack
ets, and wads of the artist’s work
ing sketches and color swatches
are tied and secured in a hierar
chy of presumed utility and ulti
mately wrapped in cellophane like
a keepsake bridal bouquet. This
piece demonstrates Wilson’s flex
ibility between flat painterly space
and concrete three-dimensional
space.
Chris Wilson has been the
Project Coordinator for the relo
cation and restoration of Wes
leyan College’s Bellemonte
House (c. 1817) since 1988. The
Bellemonte House will provide
additional office space for the col
lege and will open later this
month. Wilson is a Professor of
Art at fiarton College in Wil^n.