(Apologies to John Houston)
Suppose, just for a moment suppose that there haven’t been any mistakes made by the Bush administration. Sure Bush himself may well be a moron and or a clown but that is irrelevant because those around him, Cheney and his Neocons, are neither. Accept, for purposes of this discussion, that Cheney and his buddies are smart, tough and focused and they believe, with the same conviction as a religious fundamentalist, that corporations not governments should and soon will run this country and the world.
What if the only mistake was thinking these folks have made mistakes. Do a Google search for ‘Bush mistakes’ and you get lots of lists. What if, while we have been focused on the clown OZ, Cheney and the others behind the curtain have been diligently, purposely and successfully executing a plan?
There is more but it is strongly suggested that you rest and drink plenty of fluids before continuing.
Now if you wanted to create a new world order, one in which global corporations openly controlled the world, how would you go about it? Maybe you’d start by reducing or eliminating confidence in the ability of governments to govern effectively. I guess we can all agree this has already been accomplished to a great extent. Next maybe you would have to create a more favorable environment for the corporations. To do this you would need to ask yourself, what corporations want. The answer is always the same, cheap labor, little or no regulation and lower taxes – i.e. a better bottom line.
We have already seen the corporate taxes being lowered and now America’s number one export has become jobs. The short term benefit of offshoring jobs to third world countries is reduced labor costs; the long term benefit is cheaper labor here in America. The same short and long term benefits are true with ‘guest workers’ and illegal immigrants. In both cases the middle class is the loser.
In order to speed the process of creating a cheap labor pool in the US you would need to attack the foundations of the middle class. Hey, if you were a global corporation wouldn’t you view the middle class as an impediment to your global competitiveness? Targets might include but are not limited to, unions, public education, entitlement programs and other services like public safety (fire and police), unemployment compensation, workman’s comp, OSHA, health care for workers, the list goes on. Is there one of the aforementioned that has not been attacked by the Republicans, neocons and Cheney?
The mortgage crisis too is perfectly designed to damage the middle class and when you couple it with the 2005 changes in the bankruptcy law it is downright disastrous. Remember in 2005 everyone was asking "who is the constituency for these changes in bankruptcy laws besides the credit card companies" – well perhaps, it is all part of a larger plan.
If you like and example of what a country looks like when corporations are allowed to run them, look no further than Cuba. American corporations (and the mob) ran Cuba for much of the last century. Cuba became the corporate wet dream – a two tiered society, the wealthy and those who serve them. No middle class.
Finally, let’s address the war and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Many books have been written about the cost in both blood and treasure. The latest book estimates the real cost at three trillion dollars. (I believe the cost will prove to be closer to six trillion.) In blood consider the cost to be a half a million or more dead, including over four thousand Americans killed and approximately thirty thousand Americans wounded.
When it comes to understanding the monetary cost of the war and occupation of Iraq many Americans seem a bit confused. Many seem to think that the money was somehow used up or physically went to Iraq. They do not understand that the money never left the country. The fact is the money was simply taken out of our treasury and given to American corporations (remember they didn’t want any other countries involved).
I recently pointed out to a well known Democratic Congressman, speaking in a public forum, that he was making a mistake by characterizing what is going on in Iraq as a war. I said every time we call it a war rather than what it is an occupation, Cheney laughs and pulls up another truck to the treasury and fills it with more of our money. He quickly apologized and said he knew better and should have called it an occupation but added that it isn’t even our money Cheney is loading up anymore – it is money he borrowed from China.
I have only scratched the surface here and will leave it to you, gentle readers, to access the scope of the damage done. Suffice to say that all these so called mistakes have created a dire economic, social and political situation that will greatly reduce or eliminate the ability of anyone elected this fall to reverse the decline of the middle class. Even more so given that they will also be dealing with the debacle that will be Iraq after the occupation. I fear we are looking at a one term presidency this time around. The Bush administration has successfully run out the clock – certainly no mistake there.
In conclusion, much as been written about the Bush administration’s failure to admit mistakes and take responsibility for the consequences of those mistakes. Well I ask you to consider that maybe they did not make any mistakes. Maybe they have plans and the middle class and our precious democracy aren’t in them. I believe we are at or very near a tipping point beyond which there will be little or no chance of reversing the damage already done. If you reexamine those ‘mistakes’ and ask the time honored question qui bono – who benefits, perhaps you will come to the same conclusion I have -- Mistakes, they didn’t make no stinking mistakes!