Rather, Bush's manner of speaking is evidence that Clinton's political style is not idiosyncratic but symptomatic. The conflation of culture and government is far advanced. James L. Nolan Jr., professor of sociology at Williams College, understands the implications of the dialectical relation between compassionate government and the therapeutic culture. The therapeutic ethos increasingly infuses civil case law that elevates the status of emotions by awarding damages for distress unrelated to physical injury. It treats crimes as pathologies, in drug cases especially, but also sometimes regarding burglary, prostitution, domestic violence, writing bad checks and other offenses.
Clintonesque rhetoric is part of the substance of therapeutic politics.
Count the ways government insinuates itself into intimacy with citizens. However, compassion means the prevention or amelioration of pain, including the emotional pain of disappointment or hurt feelings. A compassionate government's work is never done. That work, and the government that undertakes it, is unlimited. But Bush, like all thoroughly modern masters of the politics of pathos, understands that the therapeutic ethic sternly forbids such sternness.