COVER -> American Dreams
I began early to make preparations for the second Bush Administration. I refinanced my house, paid off some credit cards, and took out subscriptions to The Nation, Liberal Opinion, The Progressive and Harpers, all good publications with a leftward tilt.
I bookmarked Tom Paine.com, American-Politics.com, VillageVoice.com and of course, G21.net because I felt there would be a need for intelligent discourse and debate in the coming chill of winter and impending Bushism.
I've debated purchasing a gun as I expect they will be cheap and plentiful for the next four years, but I'm holding off pending the 2002 Congressional elections.
As I write this liberals are outraged over Dubya's selection of archconservative John Ashcroft as attorney general.. Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way said:
"With the possible exception of Senator Jesse Helms, I do not believe anyone in the United States Senate has a more abysmal record on civil rights and civil liberties. This nomination is an insult to every person who is committed to our nation's promise of equal justice for all."
Ashcroft, a Missouri Republican, was defeated in his bid to retain his Senate seat by Mel Carnahan, former Missouri governor who was killed in plane crash during the campaign. Carnahan's widow, Jean, will serve until a special election in 2002.
Naturally, anything that gives liberals fits pleases conservatives no end..
"It's a splendid and obvious appointment. He graciously did not contest what we all thought was an unconstitutional and unfair way that his seat was taken away from him by a dead man," says Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum. Apparently, Phyllis didn't get the memo from our illegitimate president that you're supposed to make nice with the Democrats.
Then again, I'm not buying all the "bipartisanship" bull, either. Has anyone heard red meat right wingers like Tom "The Hammer" DeLay and Trent Lott mutter a single word that smacks of "healing" and "coming together for the good of the country?" Power is to Republicans what crack is to addicts. They live for this stuff. The GOP and the corporations, special interests and religious conservatives that control have waited eight years to get back into the White House. A clean win would have been better, but a tainted outcome will do.
Bush has no mandate to rule and no vision to inspire. But he's president and that's enough for the forces that pumped millions of dollars into his campaign. Who needs a mandate when you've got the power to control the national agenda for the next four years?
It didn't have to be George W. Bush. Almost any Republican not named John McCain would have done fine. It almost wasn't Bush, but a stolen election and a politically activist right-wing Supreme Court saved Bush from himself.
So, please understand if I'm not buying into this forgive and forget crap. Blame it on my cynical nature that I can't forget those Jewish and African-American voters in Florida whose votes didn't count, were discarded or totally disenfranchised. It's hard to think of a guy who lost the popular vote by over half a million votes but won it through a scam and swindle that Don Corleone would have envied as "my" president.
George W. Bush is not my president. I refuse to recognize him as a legitimate Chief Executive when he enters office under a shadow of a fraudulent election. In other countries you would have citizens taking to the streets under similar circumstances. The idea of an American intifada might be abhorrent to our corporate-owned media, but when the democratic process is hijacked by money and power, I can think of few better justifications for revolt in the streets.
That isn't going to happen. Nobody's going to stand up to advancing tanks to put Al Gore in the White House.
What I keep in mind is what House Majority Leader Dick Armey said following Bill Clinton's first go-round as the leader of the free world. "Your president is not that important for us," Armey sneered to House Democrats. Those are words worth taking to heart and keeping in mind.
Dubya is "their president." He's not important to me and I will work for the next four years to undercut, undermine, hinder, harass and neutralize him in every possible way at every opportunity. The American electorate rejected Bush on November 7. Over a month later five conservatives on the Supreme Court---three who should have recused themselves for conflict of interest---circumvented the will of the people and elevated a political neophyte with the thinnest of resumes to the most demanding job in the world. In light of the tactics employed to save Bush from himself and hoist him into the White House not opposing his presidency is appeasement and surrender.
For a brief time, Americans had an opportunity to see high-power, big money, corporate politics playing hardball in Florida and they didn't like what they saw.
The rules of the game not only kept changing, both sides ignored them when they couldn't be bent or broken to serve their own selfish ends. The whole damned state should have been recounted, but Gore didn't want to count all the votes and Bush didn't want to count any.
The truth has been kidnaped, hidden and buried by Fat Tony Scalia, Katherine Harris, Jeb Bush and James Baker and we may never know who really won Florida. The result is a political system that was exposed as corrupt and spread out like so much toxic waste contaminating respect for the U.S. Supreme Court's independence from partisan concerns in the end. It took the Bush forces 36 days after the election to finally drive a legal stake into Gore's heart and claim their sullied prize.
My anger sustains and drives my resistance to George W. Bush and all that he stands for. Martin Luther King said the hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of greater moral conflict. Right here and now seems like an excellent time to begin the battle against Bush's army of darkness and I'm comfortable in knowing there's no lack of soldiers committed to waging the good fight. Refusing to pledge allegiance to an illegitimate president is patriotism in it's purest form.
JEFF WINBUSH is a freelance writer based in Columbus, Ohio. He wrote for G21 from 1997 - 1999.