With two weeks left to go to the election (and, remarkably enough, still a considerable amount of people "undecided"), the country stands at a crossroads once again. I have said before thatr we have already lost the important battle (the 2000 election), but we have one more chance to turn the tide and avoid a disastrous new four years for the Bush administration. This page is, of course, supporting Senator John Kerry for President, and despite my former reservations about him ("too establishment" I thought), I now stand behind him all the way, with no qualifiers. More than just a vote against Mr. Bush, a vote for Sen. Kerry is a vote to affirm that the American Democratic Republic is still alive and kicking, that we have not abandoned the idea of self-rule in favor of a quasi-nobility of corporate CEOs and their toadies in politics. We have a long way to go to reverse the damage that has been done over the past four years, but I still believe, naive though it sounds, that we can accomplish much if we set our minds to it. Things were a lot worse for American workers a century ago, there's no reason to believe that we can't overcome the obstacles we face now.
With two weeks left to go to the election (and, remarkably enough, still a considerable amount of people "undecided"), the country stands at a crossroads once again. I have said before thatr we have already lost the important battle (the 2000 election), but we have one more chance to turn the tide and avoid a disastrous new four years for the Bush administration. This page is, of course, supporting Senator John Kerry for President, and despite my former reservations about him ("too establishment" I thought), I now stand behind him all the way, with no qualifiers. More than just a vote against Mr. Bush, a vote for Sen. Kerry is a vote to affirm that the American Democratic Republic is still alive and kicking, that we have not abandoned the idea of self-rule in favor of a quasi-nobility of corporate CEOs and their toadies in politics. We have a long way to go to reverse the damage that has been done over the past four years, but I still believe, naive though it sounds, that we can accomplish much if we set our minds to it. Things were a lot worse for American workers a century ago, there's no reason to believe that we can't overcome the obstacles we face now.
Juan Cole describes the Bush administration as a right-wing version of Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward", in the sense of political ideology trumping reality. David Suskind's chilling article chilling article in today's NY Times Magazine gives examples of this that ought to frighten every American, especially those of us who live at or near the bottom of the economic ladder. From the article:
- The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
How many of us at work experience that same kind of attitude from our employers? Goals are set without any concern as to how things really are in the workplace, in part because the people giving the orders have never had to do the actual work. Such is how things are with the Bush administration. Rumsfeld says we can secure Iraq with only 130,000 troops, and we will be greeted with flowers. How would Rumsfeld know about what soldiers have to do? He never was one himself, why should he be concerned? Their job is to make him look good, their sacrifices are made for his (and his boss's) glory, not for the defense of the country.
But where Mao's "Great Leap Forward" was in part about modernization, our Great Leap, should Bush regain office, is and will continue to be be a backwards one, back to the days of the Gilded Age where government was little more than the tool of powerful corporations, only now their reach is a global one. I agree with Professor Cole that our Great Leap will not be as disastrous for us as Mao's was for China, we have a social infrastructure that even the Bush administration will have trouble dismantling in four years. But for working people in the US it will be a total disaster. Despite the rhetoric you hear, our taxes will go up, and our ability to pay them will go down. The only ones who will prosper are those who are best at rigging the system for their benefit, and those of us who want nothing more than to work an honest job and support ourselves and our families will suffer. Suffer more, that is.
Suskind's article opens with a prediction that, should Bush be installed for another four years, there will be a revolt within the Republican Party. I don't believe this for a minute. I have come to believe that Republicans and their hardcore supporters are a cult, not a political party. Since Lincoln was shot, and moreso since Teddy Roosevelt abandoned the party over progressive issues, the GOP has had the same mantra: help the rich and the rest will follow. This unchanging attitude and blind faith in the unfettered free market system was a disaster for the country in the 1920's, so again in the 80's, and especially now. We have one last chance to reverse this course, or at least slow it down so that we can rebuild our political power. Let's do it.
Have A Nice, Hot Cup O' Joe!