Unless you count Walter F. Mondale's "I will raise your taxes" speech at the 1984 Democratic convention, that was the last genuine attempt to impose discipline on a nation of spoiled brats. Absent a major war, there seemed no way to get people to see past their narrow self interests...

Well now we're in a major war, and lo and behold, we still can't get people to see past their narrow self-interest. Even war itself is no longer the moral equivalent of war.

If ever there were a time for President Bush to appear on national television and give the public the unvarnished, unpleasant facts, it was last week. I really expected, if somewhat natively, that Bush's State of the Union address would include a Churchillesque call for blood, sweat and tears.

Instead, we got assurances that our allies would pay for the war and that any interruption of our cozy prosperity would be minimal and brief. A few days later, Bush's proposed 1992 budget confirmed my worst suspicions--that war in the Gulf means business as usual on the homefront.

Why didn't Bush use the opportunity to renege honorably on his irresponsible "no new taxes" pledge? Why didn't he use the sense of national emergency to impress upon the public that we are faced with a number of national emergencies? Why didn't he urge special interests to to put aside their parochial agendas and pursue the national interest? Why didn't he urge Americans to tighten their belts and start investing in the future?

Bush has irretrievably lost his last, best hope to transform the face of American domestic politics. According to a Newsweek poll, a quarter of Americans believed that anti-war protestors should be silenced. A Crimson poll found that 24 percent of Harvard students thought that suspending civil liberties in time of war was justified. If so many people are ready to trash the Bill of Rights on account of the Gulf War, surely a majority would be willing to stomach a tax hike and some cuts in entitlements.

In his 1968 presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy '48 spoke to an audience of medical students of "intolerable conditions...attributable to the neglect and indifference of men." One of the students challenged him: "Where are you going to get the money for these federally subsidized programs you're talking about?"

"From you!" Kennedy replied.

That we cannot imagine George Bush (or any member of Congress) saying that today, even with the nation at war, is our country's greatest shame.

If America is at war, why are Americans still acting like a bunch of spoiled brats?