Fifty years ago, a controversial Republican politician got a lot of publicity by saying that if you didn't agree with him you weren't a loyal, patriotic American.Now, a controversial Republican politician is running a television ad saying that if you don't agree with him you aren't a loyal, patriotic American.
The more things change ...
The current White House occupant sees things in black and white. He believes that he wears the white hat, and that anyone who isn't in his posse is wearing a black hat and should be hunted down.
The truth is much more complex, not just shades of gray, but an entire rainbow of colors. And the president's hat is far from white. This president:
- Pretended Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks and lied about Hussein's non-attempt to buy yellowcake uranium;
- Took a budget surplus, which could have been used to pay down years of Republican debt and make life better for our children, and gave it away to his rich friends;
- Created the largest deficit in history;
- Created the highest unemployment rate in a generation;
- Will probably be the first president to lose jobs since the Great Depression;
- Conspires to ruin our natural resources by gutting environmental laws for the benefit of a few large campaign contributors.
And now the president's two biggest domestic policy initiatives, the Medicare bill and the energy bill, turn out to be little more than windfalls for the drug and oil industries.
With all this, George W. Bush and his coterie seriously wonder how people can believe that he, his administration, and the Republican party could possibly be considered corrupt, unpatriotic, and bad for America.
Is it possible that George W. Bush has never heard of the first, fourth, fifth and sixth Amendments? Perhaps he just doesn't like the Bill of Rights? After all, how can he get things done when people who disagree with him are allowed to voice their disagreement? How can he get more tax windfalls for his rich buddies when people keep talking about the rising deficit? How can he ruin the environment when people keep trying to preserve it? How can he keep ignoring the real threat posed by terrorists, like Al Qaeda, when free Americans keep bringing it up?
Perhaps President Bush doesn't realize that, as the commander-in-chief, daddy can't protect him this time. After all, daddy protected him when his scholastic record wasn't good enough to get into Yale. Daddy protected him when he pocketed millions of dollars from a failing Harken Energy while cheating the stockholders. And daddy, along with brother Jeb, protected him when he seemed to be losing the big vote.
So now he's throwing a tantrum. His television ad comes just short of accusing anyone who disagrees with him of the worst of all crimes -- treason. His behavior is exactly that of a spoiled child. And this spoiled child has nuclear (or should I say ‚"nucular") weapons. This spoiled child has a security bulldog, in Attorney General Ashcroft, who will happily lock up anyone he claims is really, really bad and throw away the key. And this spoiled child is being showered with money from special interests -- from drug pushers (excuse me, "pharmaceutical companies") to Big Oil executives (excuse me again, "energy producers") -- who have no real care for what's best for America, but care only for the lining of their own pockets.
Perhaps this spoiled child needs to be given a time out.
Of course, nobody tells the President to stand in the corner. But we can tell him to go away. We can spend our time and money to overthrow him in traditional American style -- at the ballot box. The greatest lesson we can give to our Arab neighbors in this ever-shrinking world is to show them a political system that works. The greatest step we can take to combat terrorism is to remove from power a political party whose lies and belligerence only foster the growth of terrorism.
We can stand up and be counted as loyal, patriotic Americans.
Copyright 2003, Dan Jacoby
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