No More Jury Duty
George Bush's inauguration bash is wrapped less in red, white and blue bunting than in gray worsted. By the composition of his Cabinet, heavily weighted with people who have carried the weight of office before, Bush has completed a process that Ronald Reagan began.</br></br>It is the transformation of the Republican Party. The party now is reconciled to the reality of modern government's role in life. Republicans recognize that governance is a dignified, difficult, learned vocation for seasoned professionals such as Bush has chosen.</br></br>Reagan's contribution to this process was his almost complete acceptance of the welfare state that evolved at a remarkably steady pace under his predecessors of both parties for half a century. Republicans remain free to talk like Jeffersonians, celebrating that government which governs least. But they live in, and want to be the dominant party in, Hamilton's America. It has a strong central government that requires a professional political class for the executive branch.</br></br>Until recently, conservative ideology caused many Republicans to regard service in Washington as akin to jury duty. Perhaps it had to be done, but it was not supposed to be fun or fulfilling or for long. Bush's remarkably seamless transition testifies to a change.</br></br>The passage into the Bush era began well before the election, with the installation of Bush supporters at Treasury (Nicholas Brady) and Justice (Richard Thornburgh). It speaks well of Bush's self-confidence that he has not been afraid to cobble together a large part of his administration from material at hand in Reagan's Washington. The most interesting person in the upper reaches of Bush's administration-Richard Darman-has been here before. Indeed, he barely left.