The Bush Legacy
by Sharon Sanders
We are now entering the sixth year of a presidency that is the scariest in my lifetime. Scary in the sense, we have a president who has tunnel vision and lacks curiosity about the world around him. He appears unaware of the issues, uneducated and inarticulate, and makes decisions based on his conversations with God. He removes himself from his constituency, has no understanding about the very Constitution that gave him the privilege of being elected, and surrounds himself with like-minded individuals who want to arbitrarily declare war, decide the morals for the rest of us, control our private lives, and see diversity of cultures and difference of opinions as a threat.
I’ve listed the issues as I see them and urge each and every one of you to get involved in the Democratic Party at the local as well as national level. As imperfect as the party may seem to many of you, it is our best and perhaps last chance to bring some sanity back to our country. You can demand that Democrats at each level of government do a better job of articulating your views. We must get out the vote in the ’06 primaries, talk to the younger generation about the issues. So many of our youngsters are not involved and don’t see how much politics, particularly in Washington, affects them. Here in no particular order are just some of the issues that affect us today:
Just about every department in Washington is now headed by a Republican extremist from a lobby against the very organization he or she now heads.
Although the Constitution speaks to the separation of powers, the new Supreme Court headed by Roberts, with the addition of Alito, will undoubtedly give unlimited powers to presidents in declaring war, wiretapping citizens, torturing prisoners, many of whom are being held for unreasonable lengths of time without an attorney or a trial—all in the name of national defense. With the addition of Alito, we can count on Roe –v- Wade being overturned; and we can be sure that many of our rights to privacy will be eroded even further. I find it so interesting that the Republican Party, who believes in the least amount of government possible, feels that government is just fine for imposing their values upon us and telling the rest of us how to live and how to die.
The wall of separation of church and state is already being quietly dismantled. It is because I believe each and every one of us should be allowed to practice any religion or no religion, that I’m so deeply concerned about the faith-based initiative. On the surface it seems like a good idea to help religious organizations help the poor and needy, but just look at the Boehner Amendment on Head Start and you’ll see why I’m so fearful of this wall being broken down—Boehner’s amendment, which has passed the House and is now in Senate committee, states that any Head Start program housed in a place of worship should give that institution the right to hire or fire you based upon their religion—religious discrimination is a pure violation of our Constitution. This very same man, who wants to replace DeLay, and is head of the Education and Workforce Committee in the House, wants to make it impossible for public education to succeed and to direct public funds instead to a private voucher system;
The media are now controlled by the Right and large corporations—even the New York Times is fearful of the Bush administration. We know the leanings of Fox and the whole Murdoch group, but they’ve also gotten to public radio and television. Rove appointed Tomlinson, who used taxpayers’ money to spy on Bill Moyers. I urge all of you, if you haven’t done so, to read Mr. Moyer’s speeches or books on the destruction of a free media by the Far Right;
Because of our weak and biased press, we really have no idea what’s going on in Iraq or what is really taking place in Afghanistan; we are asked to support a president who came to office with one idea: to get Hussein out. Mr. Bush, with his lack of understanding and interest in other cultures, had no idea what the consequences would be. He had no interest in the various factions within the Muslim religion, the hatred between the Shiites and the Sunnis. Although the neo-con intellectuals had a vision of democracy in the Middle East, they also seemed to feel we would be welcomed with open arms. Now we have a quagmire, which neither Democrat nor Republican can get us out of. Yes, we can probably bomb Iran’s fusion plants, and probably will do just that, but what does that do for democracy? How does that reduce the hatred for Americans that is spewing everywhere? It is also my belief that the Republicans are no greater protector of Israel than the Democrats. It is very important for Jews to realize that.
It’s rather incredible that we can borrow ourselves into bankruptcy to fund a war that belongs to Mr. Bush and his cronies, but we can’t find money for education and healthcare and entitlement programs and Katrina. Do we have our priorities reversed? I think so. We still don’t have our borders and ports protected, yet somehow the money keeps flowing into Iraq. And of course, the other mystery is, we’re spending all this money, but our soldiers still don’t have the proper armor and other necessities.
I find it interesting that Jack Abrahamoff has become the culprit who duped the poor, unknowing Republicans, not one of whom, including DeLay and Ney, had any idea they were taking illegal money from that horrible, powerful lobbyist. The self-righteous Republicans are now trying to cover their behinds by writing legislation to stop all these “corrupt lobbyistsâ€. And here lies one of the main problems in America today: with this issue, with the Conyers memo, with the lies about the reasons for going to war, the Joseph Wilson case, the leaks from the White House, etc., we have no press to adequately cover them, we have no television coverage that gets to the heart of these issues, in other words, because the Far Right so cleverly and insidiously dominates every aspect of our society, the average American is clueless about the erosion of our constitution and the destruction of our democracy.
Mr. Bush goes into Black churches and tells them how he’s supporting them, he’s one of them, while he signs legislation to remove or reduce the very programs that were designed to boost the underprivileged, such as Medicaid, Pell grants and the like.
As a result of the energy lobby and Mr. Cheney, we have an industry that continues to burn fossil fuels, generally denying that global warning is destroying our planet.
This is an administration that believes it is just fine for the top tier of corporate executives to make 400% more than the average worker, while cutting the health and pension benefits of the workers beneath them, or cut the number of workers so that their bottom looks great for shareholders; United Airlines is giving their ex-executive, who failed the company, $40,000,000 when they emerge from bankruptcy. They are going to show a large profit next year—how? By using a write-off. That sounds like good business sense, doesn’t it? And their workers, were asked to make huge sacrifices for the company.
Mr. Bush can’t even state his policy on medical reform since there is none, let alone the fact that he is incapable of doing so. Some 80% of senior citizens still have no idea what the prescription bill means.
Our enemies are the immigrants, the foreigners, the United Nations, most of Europe. Medical coverage, education, the massive deficit: no solution. Our friends are Putin and China and Saudi Arabia. Our enemies Castro and Chavez. Does it have anything to do with oil? And remember Bin Laden? We were going to get him but good. What happened to the second number two man last week in Pakistan? Is that putting the cart before the horse?
So, I’m asking you to get involved, support Air America Radio and some of the wonderful online sites like Media Matters, Common Dreams, TrueMajority, Truthout, and the Democratic Party. Support your local candidates, get the vote out so we can reverse the destruction in Congress. As of right now, we have a one-party system.