Bush’s Open Door

President-elect George Bush hasn’t moved into the White House yet, but he’s already holding the door open to welcome people who don’t necessarily agree with him. The fact that he is talking to environmentalists, to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, to his principal primary opponent, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole, and even to his campaign opponent, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, may not mean a thing when policy is set. But it’s better than not hearing diverse views at first hand, which too often has been the way in which President Reagan has run the White House.

Few have criticized Bush any more harshly than has Jackson. They had a 90-minute lunch on Wednesday, and Jackson criticized the use of Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who is black, in negative campaign advertising about the Massachusetts prison-furlough program. But Jackson emphasized that the important thing about the conversation was that the President-elect wantsto communicate. Symbolism isn’t everything in government, but good signs should not go unheralded. They could lead to substantive change later.

Bush also didn’t promise the environmental leaders anything specific on Wednesday, when he had breakfast with 30 of them at the White House. They handed him a report with 700 recommendations, and he pledged to them that he would protect the environment. But Jay D. Hair, president of the National Wildlife Federation, said that the difference between the President-elect and his predecessor was like “night and day.” He referred to their current or prospective stewardship over the environment, but he could just as easily have been speaking of their approach to government.

Bush has been a public servant for virtually all of his adult life. He does not fear government. He wants to restrain it, to be sure, and the environmentalists, civil-rights activists and other groups will disagree on that approach as often as not. But Bush is listening to groups that have felt that the White House door has been closed to them for the last eight years, and this in itself is a change.