[Winona Online Democracy]
Title: RE > What the Democratic mayor of St. Paul,
Minnesota
I thought this forum was to be used primarily for "local
issues," but since the door has been opened . . .
The call for moderation in politics by St. Paul Mayor Kelly is
all very well and good. I certainly agree that our political
discourse has become poisonous rather than reasonable. However,
to suggest that our current president is above the fray is either
incredibly naive or disingenuous.
The Bush administration's politics, engineered as they are by
Karl Rove, is as nasty as anything I've ever experienced in politics.
Look at what was done to defeat John McCain in the 2000 primary in
South Carolina or what was done to defeat Senator Max Cleland in
Georgia. Consider the current campaign against John Kerry by the
so-called "Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth."
Consider what happens to anyone from the government--such as Paul
O'Neill, Richard Clarke, or Joseph Wilson--who is critical of the
current administration.
This is also a Republican presidential campaign that, rather than
being open to all the people, screens attendees and/or carefully
selects audiences (as at military bases), and which sees our
vice-president making appearances on the Rush Limbaugh show. If
anyone thinks Limbaugh contributes any light to our political
discourse they just haven't listened. For a vice-president to
give Rush Limbaugh the respect of his office by appearing on his show
is outrageous. People like Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter,
Sean Hannity are poisoning the well. And no, I wouldn't say the
Michael Moore or Al Franken are paragons of moderation on the other
side.
I'm afraid the people currently in power in the Republican Party
have taken us to a new low in modern times: Tom Delay, the Speaker of
the House, has brought gerrymandering to a new low in Texas.
Bill Frist, the leader of the Senate, breaks tradition and campaigns
against Tom Daschle in South Dakota. And this current version of
the Republican party has behind it a truly imperialist foreign policy
in the neocon Project for the New American Century (see their
"Statement of Principles," published in 1997 where the case
for the invasion of Iraq is all but spelled out:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm) and a
domestic policy designed to starve the government in order to do away
with many social programs developed during and since the days of the
New Deal, started by Newt Gingrich and his "Contract with
America" and carried on by Grover Norquist and his Americans for
Tax Reform and its "Taxpayers Protection Pledge"
(http://www.atr.org/). Grover Norquist has stated that "Bipartisanship is
another name for date rape," and "We are trying to change
the tones in the state capitals-and turn them toward bitter nastiness
and partisanship." There is an honest way of governing and
legislating and a dishonest way. I fear the current Republican
leadership has all but given up on the traditional method of open
debate and compromise.
Rather than "stay the course," as Mayor Kelly
recommends, I fear for us all if the current administration has
another four years during which they won't be held accountable to the
American people in another election. I could explain and give
facts and figures to show how the War in Iraq has been a mistake, why
the job situation in the country with outsourcing is bad, how we have
reversed direction in protection of the environment, how the situation
for social security-medicare-health insurance-drug prices have all
deteriorated or remain problematic, how our standing in the world has
declined, how a $230 billion surplus has been turned into a $4.5
billion deficit, how scientific research has been thwarted and
scientists insulted, how our schools have suffered under a testing
program that is inadequate to their needs, how most of our state and
local governmental entities have been made to shoulder more burden,
how corporate corruption has gone insufficiently corrected, how war
profiteering by Halliburton and its properties has been allowed while
the duties of our troops on little pay and limited benefits have been
extended beyond what they contracted for and what is fair. I
could list more, but I trust you get my point. If you'd like
evidence for any of the assertions I have made here, I'm ready to
provide it.
Immediately after 9/11, we were a country hurt by terrorism but
proud and united. We had the support and sympathy of most of the
rest of the world at that time. I was a supporter at that time
of President Bush. But since then the current administration and
far too many of the people behind it have been dividers, not
uniters.
--
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