From The Crisis Papers
(http://www.crisispapers.org)
Your 2006 Starter Kit: 12 Political Insights
By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers
Bush&Co.'s scandals are coming so rapidly and getting so huge that it's
hard to lay off talking about them at length, but in this new year,
let's step back a bit for some longer-range perspectives.
In no particular order, here from decades of politics-watching are a
dozen bits of insight, most of which were reinforced by events in year
2005. Below each is some discussion of how those truisms flowered in the
Bush era.
1. If you have a sturdy dam that develops a crack, fix it quickly before
the seeping water enlarges the opening and a flood pours down on the
populace.
Given their history and first year in office, the Bush Administration
should have been seen early for what they were -- a pack of rapacious,
power-hungry incompetents. But, after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks, a
frightened citizenry and Congress trusted them to do the right thing.
The nominal opposition party caved early and often. The Patriot Act,
rushed through Congress right after 9/11, opened the floodgates to
shredding Constitutional protections of civil liberties, which then led
to the accumulation of more and more police powers in the Executive
Branch. (Let us never forget Lord Acton's warning: "Power tends to
corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.") Now, four-plus years
later, because the governmental breech wasn't repaired quickly enough,
it probably will take impeachment and conviction to even begin to
restore Constitutional rule in this country.
2. If you persist in trying to force a square peg into a round opening,
you will cause great damage to the peg, to the opening, and frustration
for yourself, because it simply won't go. Corollary: If you're in a deep
hole, first thing to do: stop digging.
The Iraq War was worked out years before the invasion by neo-con
intellectuals who thought their goals would be met quickly once Saddam
was toppled. They did what was necessary to convince Congress and the
American people to support the war -- lied, deceived, swore falsely --
and then ran headlong into a reality for which they were totally
unprepared. As occupiers, they did everything late, wrong or
backasswards, including bringing Iraq full-scale corruption, massive
torture and constant humiliation, and likely civil war and
disintegration of its unitary state. The end result will be a
religiously-dominated state of some sort opposed to U.S. interests,
heavily influenced by Iran. The U.S. eventually will have to leave Iraq,
but even though the handwriting long has been on the wall, Bush refuses
to find a quick, face-saving way out and will "stay the course" until
"victory." Translated: many more thousands of Americans and Iraqis will
have to die because Bush cannot, will not, admit the gross political
miscalculation that led to that war and the need to drastically change
his goals. In all things Iraq, Bush turns out to be extremist Islam's
top recruiting agent. Yet another brief for the impeachment of
Bush/Cheney.
THE "COMMANDER-In-CHIEF" DODGE
3. Secrets eventually surface, especially the worst ones you're trying
to hide.
The Bush Administration is the most secretive in U.S. history -- for a
good reason: They have much to hide, a lot of it criminal in nature. The
latest secret is an outgrowth of the false reasoning that grew out of
the Iraq War and the official policy permitting torture. According to
this twisted logic, Bush can do whatever he wants, including violate
laws passed by Congress, whenever he asserts that he's acting as
"commander-in-chief" during "wartime." Yes, of course, there is no
official declaration of war, but Bush says we're at "wartime," and that
war will last forever -- ergo, shut up, lie back and don't resist your
fate. The latest secret to leak involves his illegal orders to the
National Security Administration to "monitor" (data-mine) phone calls
and emails of millions of American citizens, without first obtaining
court warrants, as required by law. Breaking that law is an impeachable
offense. (Note: These classified secrets are being leaked, by and large,
by Bush Administration military and security officials, conservatives,
anxious to get this reckless crew out of the White House before they
sail our country into even more dangerous waters and crash us on rocks
and icebergs.)
4. It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes. -- J.
Stalin
We have a long way to go to restore integrity and transparency to the
touchscreen and vote-tabulation system in this country -- right now it's
the major political scandal of our time. Secret software controlled by
Republican-supporting corporations can easily be manipulated and
vote-tallies altered without leaving any evidence of the fraud. But a
goodly number of states and localities are raising serious questions
about the legitimacy of the process. Several states have threatened to
decertify touch-screen machines, and some have done so. It is
anticipated that class-action and private lawsuits will be filed
shortly against Diebold, and that the Securities & Exchange Commission
may begin a fraud probe of this leading e-voting company. One can almost
spot a growing trend questioning the viability of e-voting. But, as I
say, we're still in for manipulated tallies in 2006 and 2008 unless
major reforms are demanded and implemented nationwide by the citizenry.
Ironically, when manipulated elections are held in foreign countries,
and hundreds of thousands of aggrieved citizens pour into the streets to
demand an overturning of the tampered-with vote results, the American
media and Bush Administration officials celebrate this example of
democracy in action. Notice any difference when it comes even to raising
the question of whether our elections are honest?
5. Most people passively accept a lot, but when a lot becomes way too
much, they get very angry and usually look to exact revenge on those
doing them dirt.
There is a "tipping point" in all major social upheavals; one day,
things go on as normal and then the next day, when critical mass is just
right, citizens move in a forthright manner. Examples: the American and
French revolutions, the overthrow of Soviet communism, the '60s civil
rights, anti-war and feminist movements. It's taken a while, but the
American people -- including an increasing number of conservative
Republicans -- more and more are indicating that they've lost trust and
faith in the Bush Administration's officials and policies. Keys to this
eye-opening have been the Administration's bumbling Iraq policy, its
utter incompetence in dealing with the Katrina disaster, and its lies
and deceits with regard to running roughshod over citizens' privacy
rights by a Chief Executive who is acting more like a banana-republic
dictator than the leader of a democratic republic. In addition, half a
trillion dollars are being spent on Bush's never-ending Iraq adventure,
while the upkeep of streets and infrastructure, and popular social
programs, are being cut way back. The middle-class is being pushed more
toward the lower end of the economic and cultural spectrum while the
wealthy get virtually all the goodies. The economy remains in the
doldrums. The citizenry are getting fed up and increasingly indicate
their willingness to take out their anger on GOP members of the House
and Senate in 2006.
DEMS IN SEARCH OF COURAGE
6. Bullies feed off submission and acquiescence, and retreat in the face
of united opposition.
It is beyond comprehension why it took an entire first term for the
Democrats to understand that you can't make nice with those who are
working to destroy you as an effective political force. But the Dems did
act as if politics could be conducted as usual, thus becoming enablers
of Bush's most destructive policies and, by so doing, made themselves
essentially irrelevant. In the first year of Bush's second term, the
Democrats occasionally were more feisty, behaving as an Opposition Party
should. But they still tend to tiptoe around controversial topics
(electoral integrity and fraud, for example, which they won't touch with
an 11-foot pole, and withdrawal from Iraq ASAP), still terrified of
being called "unpatriotic" or "soft on terrorism" or "sore losers." Reid
exhibits some starch in the Senate, and Pelosi at times in the House,
and they've been able to keep their forces united on enough occasions so
that, in alliance with GOP moderates, they've been able to give Bush&Co.
fits. Note to Democratic leaders: Stand up straight and fight back, or
you'll wind up on the dung-heap of history, tossed there by your
aroused, angry Democratic base. If they can get no leverage in turning
around their party, they may go the third-party route, along with many
disaffected moderate Republicans.
7. If you compromise on morality at the top, inventing rationales for
bad behavior, eventually that weakened ethical system will work its way
down the chain of command.
For example, if you assert the right of the government to torture
prisoners in your care, eventually torture will be widespread throughout
the system. If you set up secret CIA prisons around the world where
especially recalcitrant prisoners are interrogated with "enhanced"
methods, and you "render" prisoners to countries where excrutiatingly
painful torture methods are employed, you have lost any moral high
ground you might have once possessed. In addition, you guarantee that
U.S. soldiers held prisoner will be treated in the same manner, and you
provide effective recruiting arguments for militant Islamists around the
globe. In short, torture is a self-destructive policy -- "stupid" would
be another word for it. And, of course, once the feds began massive
spying on ordinary citizens, the states and cities followed suit by
spying on local peace groups and non-violent activists.
8. If you invade a country, you automatically become occupiers and de
facto governors of that country. Ergo, you get blamed for everything
that goes wrong. Addendum: It is always easier to get in than to get
out.
The U.S. invaded Iraq based on a neo-con belief that victory would come
cheap, and they could mold the country into a lackey state easily and
quickly. There was no Plan B. Its military Occupation ran into a deadly
reality on the ground: nationalism, tribalism, religious fervor
demonstrated their solid strength (as they do around the world). The
U.S. can not "win" in Iraq, in the same way the U.S. could not "win" in
Vietnam; eventually, America, in a prolonged and unwinnable stalemate,
will have to leave. Better now than later, after tens of thousands more
American troops and Iraqi civilians will have been slaughtered or
maimed. Bush could declare "victory" now: We helped get them on their
feet, they've chosen their own government, they desire us to go, and now
it's time for us to feel good about our contributions and bring our
soldiers home. But he won't. He and his friends still covet all that
oil, and still want to topple a few more regimes in the Middle East;
it's not outside the realm of possibility that as Bush's poll numbers
continue to head for the cellar, Iran's nuclear power plants will be
bombed or Syria will be attacked. Anything to change the subject away
from Bush&Co./GOP crimes and corruption.
IMPOTENCE OF IMPERALISM
9. Imperialism is even more difficult to maintain in the 21st Century
than it was in earlier times.
All imperial countries, blinded by greed and power-hunger (or sometimes
even by idealism), eventually are forced out of their colonies. Ask the
Romans, the French in Indochina and North Africa, the Russians in
Eastern Europe and Afghanistan. The U.S. is no different, and is
learning to its chagrin that ultimate military power doesn't mean
control on the ground. The U.S. is running up a half-trillion in debt
fighting this unnecessary war of choice in Iraq, bringing corruption on
a grand scale to that country, losing its moral soul with its torture
policies; to top it all off, the citizens of Iraq in poll after poll
indicate they'd like us to leave. It's time to learn what history has
to teach about the high price paid for imperial arrogance and
intransigence and get out of there. In short, native populations over
time tend to defend their homelands successfully against foreign
invaders. Even if the U.S. left Iraq, America still would be the 800-lb.
gorilla in the world, and probably could get most of what it wants
through diplomacy and economic power -- "soft imperalism." Overt
imperialism, controlling the world at gunpoint, is on its way out; the
U.S. quagmire in Iraq demonstrates the limits of superpower status. But
Bush&Co. believe history (and the laws of science) don't apply to them.
So much the worse for them, for those around the globe, and for us U.S.
citizens. In the Bush worldview, it doesn't matter that the U.S. is not
liked, it's enough that it is feared; taking and controlling -- that's
mostly what's important to these guys.
10. Ethics always will be years, sometimes decades, behind the
ramifactions of technological/scentific breakthroughs; the passage of
laws dealing with those ramification often will lag even further
behind.
Whatever the weapon or technology, if you invent it, it will be used,
and abused. Our high-tech computing and surveillance systems, for
example, permit the government to mine data on millions of emails and
phone calls at a time -- and so it's doing so, supposedly directed at
foreign terrorists but involving American citizens in the process.
(Since everything connected to this eavesdropping is top-secret, it's
possible that political "enemies" of Bush&Co. are deliberately being
targeted. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.) This type of domestic
spying is against the law -- and should be enough to impeach Bush and
Cheney. Bush is shameless, saying he'll continue to violate the law,
because he's the "commander-in-chief" during "wartime" and thus has the
authority and power to do whatever he chooses to do, so what are you
going to do about it? Similarly, there are technological breakthroughs
that permit even more violations of the right to privacy, and they are
being utilized also, or will be soon. The laws haven't even come close
to catching up with the ramifications of those scientific
breakthroughs.
11. When logic meets faith, most of the time the rational mind
disappears, until the day when brute facts intervene to such an extent
as to demand attention, action and forsaking of denial.
The world is moving so fast, forcing social and cultural changes so
quickly, that many people become frightened, confused, irritated, and
long for simpler, more stable societies of old. Religious fundamentalism
provides all the black-and-white answers; doesn't matter if it's
Christianity, Judasim, Islam, the syndrome is the same. Islam has its
Taliban and strict ayatollahs, we have our conservative religious
leaders, our own tight-assed Christian Taliban and ayatollahs, who
preach the old verities and simplified nostrums that are so attractive
to many of our fellow Americans. No matter what the Bush scandal, he can
always count on that 25-30% who support him on religious grounds. But
more and more citizens are starting to realize the inherent dangers in
permitting such religious power to go unchecked, especially when those
beliefs come into conflict with science -- on, say, global warming --
and are starting to rebel.
YOU HAVE TO KNOW REALITY
12. An organism -- a human being, a nation -- needs accurate information
in order to compose a reasonable assessment of reality and thus survive
the dangers out there. Without that accurate assessment of reality, you
can expect disaster.
Rarely does one get accurate information from the Bush Administration
about anything. Down in their isolated bunker, they either are fooling
themselves, or trying to fool us -- more likely both. The mass-media,
corporate-owned and largely conservative in nature, are complicit in
keeping the truth from their readers, viewers and listeners. (The
so-called "liberal" New York Times, for just one example, had the NSA
data-mining story and could have released it a year earlier than it did
-- and thus probably affected the outcome of the 2004 election -- but,
at the behest of the Bush Administration, chose not to publish it.) To
get a more accurate assessment of reality, one has to go to
less-controlled media: the foreign press, smaller and independent
publications and media outlets (for example, The Nation, Air America,
and a few liberal radio talk-show hosts), and, especially, to the
largely uncensored internet journalists, websites and bloggers. Only
when the wealthy liberal/progressive opposition is willing to put its
money where its politics are -- by buying up and founding cable
networks, newspapers, radio stations and think tanks -- will there be
some political parity in the mass-media. If you want a free press, as
A.J. Liebling said, set up one of your own.
Let us not ignore reporter I.F. Stone's famous maxim: "The first rule of
journalism is that governments lie. All governments lie, but disaster
lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they
give out."
Not a bad description of the Bush Administration. Amen, Izzy.
-------=======+++++++=======-------
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has
taught at various universities, was formerly a writer/editor with the
San Francisco Chronicle, and currently co-edits The Crisis Papers
(www.crisispapers.org). To comment, email crisispapers@comcast.net.
- = -- = -- = -- = -- = -- = -- = -- = -- = -- = -- = -- = -
Copyright 2006 by Bernard Weiner
Copyright © 2006 Ron Mills
Ron Mills
Democratic Victory Network
http://DemocraticVictory.net
Mandate My ASS
http://www.Mandate-MyAss.com
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