President Bush wants this election to be fought on national security. If that turns out to be the defining issue of the campaign, then he will probably be re-elected. However, if John Kerry wants to win, he needs to emphasize what is the unspoken theme of the Bush campaign: victimization.

Playing the victim is a role not usually associated with Republicans. They are the party that is supposed to stand for personal responsibility. If you look at Bush’s re-election Web site, a whole section is titled “Promoting an Era of Ownership.” Conveniently, the section is restricted to economic issues, such as home ownership, savings and investment and Social Security.

However, “ownership” can also imply acknowledgment. For example, a child “owns up” to his misbehavior. The Bush campaign refuses to acknowledge the president’s role in helping to create the situation our nation finds itself in.

Instead, his cabinet and advisors are portraying him as a victim of circumstances. The implicit link is this: Sept. 11 ruined the economy and forced us to invade Iraq. The historic job losses of the last four years? Blame Sept. 11. The growing insurgency in Iraq? Blame Sept. 11.

Consider these recent comments:

• Treasury Secretary John Snow: “The economic repercussions of (Sept. 11) would go on for months, and hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost as a result. Our nation mourned and the process of healing was slow.” (Sept. 14, 2004, New York Economic Club)

• Republican strategist Mary Matalin: “The march to Baghdad was completed more expeditiously than had been expected.” (Sept. 5, 2004, “Meet The Press”)

President Bush chose to respond to Sept. 11 by calling for more tax cuts for the rich. In 2003, the Republican-controlled Congress agreed. The tax cuts have not produced a sustained and broad-based economic recovery. The August unemployment rate is 5.4 percent and the nation has lost 1.7 million private-sector jobs since the president took office. The federal deficit is projected to be a record $422 billion for the 2004 fiscal year.

Bush also chose to respond to Sept. 11 by invading Iraq. That decision has not produced a terrorist-free and stable nation. Instead, chaos has ensued. This has produced an environment where terrorists (both Iraqi and non-Iraqi) control some key areas of the country. More disturbingly, the terrorists cynically depict the occupation as a war against Islam, which fuels the resentment against us. Over 1,000 Americans are dead. More than 7,100 have been wounded. Approximately 13,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed.

There were other choices that the president could have made. He might have pushed for a tax cut that put more money into the hands of the working poor and middle class. This could have stimulated the economy and produced more jobs.

He also might have sent more troops into Afghanistan and increased our chances of capturing Osama binLaden. Instead, he sent in a limited number of troops and relayed on the locals to show them the way to binLaden. It didn’t work.

Sept. 11 has not created the situation our country is in now. The situation has been created to a large extent by President Bush’s responses to Sept. 11. He was not forced to do anything. Nothing was inevitable.

Author Robert Burney once wrote, “Being victimized is about not having choices – about feeling trapped. In order to start becoming empowered in life it is absolutely vital to start owning our choices.”

In the deepest democratic sense, the only power President Bush has is the power the majority allows him to use. Since January 2003, both the presidency and the Congress have been in Republican hands. As party leader, President Bush has had 20 months to act on his agenda with minimal interference from the Democrats.

President Bush is not a victim of Sept. 11.

Neither are we.

Karl Trautman chairs the Social Sciences Department at Central Maine Community College.