America , Come Home!

Recently, New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman wrote about Karl Rove’s American (July 15, 2005}. Depressingly enough, it’s an America many of us have come to know; it’s an America where lies, and rank political ideology substitute for truth. Oh yes, I know, their talk is patriotic; we all heard Bush’s State of the Union Address; America stands as the beacon of freedom loving people; the words stand beyond reproach, but in the world according to Bush, the rhetoric of freedom and democracy are at war with reality. As a graduate of the late Lee Atwater’s school of slime politics, Karl Rove hasn’t been guided by any lofty democratic ideals in managing Bush’s drives for political office. As Frank Rich noted recently of Rove, “Trashing is in his nature. . . . . . . In the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain's wife, Cindy, was rumored to be a drug addict (and Senator McCain was rumored to be mentally unstable). In the 1994 Texas governor's race, Ann Richards found herself rumored to be a lesbian.” Karl Rove has a penchant for running sleezy campains against the opposition with a sick, distorted fixation on sexuality designed to cloud the real issues. Referencing a Joshua Green article published in the Atlantic Monthly last year, Frank Rich noted , in the NYTimes today, "a recurring feature of Mr. Rove's political campaigns throughout his career has been the questioning of an opponent's sexual orientation," (Ny Times 24 July 2005}.
Freedom? Democracy? Reasoned debate? Such notions are alien to the Rove-Bush modus operandi. Machiavelli is a far better model to use in understanding the machinations of the Bush-Rove White House than anything bequeathed by the Founding Fathers.

Basic to any meaningful understanding what it means to live and participate in a democratic society is the idea of a loyal opposition openly and freely subjecting the activities of government to scrutiny. Not in the Bush-Rove understanding of democracy.


Now we’re are told that the FBI has been investigating and collecting files on several domestic groups who’ve been highly critical of Bush policies. According to Eric Litchblau, “The F.B.I. has in its files 1,173 pages of internal documents on the American Civil Liberties Union, the leading critic of the Bush administration's antiterrorism policies, and 2,383 pages on Greenpeace, an environmental group that has led acts of civil disobedience in protest over the administration's policies,” ( NYTimes 18 July 2005}.

In the recent developments surrounding the outing of a covert CIA agent by columnist Robert Novak, it’s clear that both Karl Rove and Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff played a key role in suppling information to the media specifically for the purpose of destroying her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, an administration critic, even though White House Press Secretary Scott McCllen specifically issued a flat denial of such involvement and though he was willing to talk about the case then, his lips are sealed now.

Oh but, have no fear, this tawdry group is not without it’s defenders; the right-wing propaganda machine is working overtime: "The extreme left is once again attempting to define the modern Democratic Party by rabid partisan attacks, character assassination and endless negativity," said Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the GOP congressional committee. The Republican National Committee, virtually a political arm of the White House, urged GOP lawmakers to go public”( AP 14 July 2005). This comment from Rep. Reynolds is typical of the “talking points” recommended by the Republican Leadership in their effort to keep Karl Rove’s fat ass out of the political fire he has ignited.. Yes, son, this is the same Karl Rove who made one of the most highly charged partisan attaches imaginable against democrats at a recent Republican fund rising dinner in New York City.

Make no mistake about it; democracy as we have know it is under siege. CBS’s , 60 Minutes Two, ran a story recently (7/15/2005} focused upon the literally hundreds of people picked up either by US agents, or friendly governments here, there, everywhere and sent to Middle Eastern countries where they can be tortured free from the oversight of the American legal system or of the Press.

Wasn’t it Lord Acton who said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”? Given the torrent of patriotic talk that spews forth from the Bush Administration, there are scoundrels enough to go around; we’re experiencing the reign of right-wing , ideology driven, extremism. The House for the third or fourth time, now, in the last ten years or so, has again overwhelmingly passed legislation making it a criminal offense to defile the flag. Never mind that the Supreme Court has held that the flag itself, Old Glory, isn’t freedom but rather is the symbol of freedom and all that freedom means in our society; it’s kind of a reminder. The high court ruled that people may exercise their freedom, even to the extent of defiling the symbol-- the flag itself. But oh, how the scoundrels, pedaling there patriotic candy, seek to shift attention to largely irrelevant issues while our young men and women die in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, these are the issues that play upon the lips of the patriotic scoundrels as they cut funding for veterans programs.

To be sure, there are other mean spirited, red meat issues at play in this cesspool game of politics being played. There are people in America who are utterly repulsed at the thought of gay marriages and whose understanding of religious obligations oppose extending marriage or family rights generally to members of the gay community. I understand that and think it’s simple minded, but I can accept it as a point of view. However, it’s powerfully clear that many politicians use the gay issue merely as a wedge issue in much the same way that anti-communism was used in the fifties and sixties; if the truth were known, they really don’t care about the gay issue one way or another. Remember former Congressman Bauman? He used to rail on the House floor against the gays. A first class gay basher he was. Well, the long and short of his story is sad; he was spending the evening cruising the gay bars in the Washington area. In a nutshell, involuntarily outed by his indiscretions, Congressman Bauman ended up leaving Congress and his family. Now, I’m not suggesting that all those who rail against gays are closet homosexuals, no; but, I am stating that many, most I suspect, are using the issue to divert attention away from the real issues that confront this nation. Oh, how they so zealously, so self-righteously wrap themselves in the flag and spew forth torrents of ideological bilge or rail against members of the gay community.

To be sure, there have been periods in recent American history marked by strife: the turbulent 60's and 70's came complete with the riots and protests in city streets all over American. At the time few people viewed such political expressions as a sign of America’s political health; however, I think they were wrong; there was a vitality, a vibrant life force at work in those obstreperous demonstrations. Democracy, as Jefferson envisioned it, got a wake up call from the people. Today, in Bush’s America, with the notable exception of a few lonely voices in the wilderness, the Bush minions in Congress and other nationally prominent leaders, march silently in lock-step to the sound of Christian-right-wing babble. Those moderate voices in the Republican party, who in the past, dependably looked beyond party ideology in working for the greater good of society have been largely muted.

The few prominent Republicans who refused to march in step are gone or altogether ignored: Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil who wrote disbelievingly about the bungling in evidence at Cabinet meetings; Richard Clarke, the Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence, who wrote about his inability to get anybody in the Bush Administration interested in the terrorist theat before the 9/ll attack; Christi Todd Whitman, former New Jersey Governor and later head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who wrote a book about the difficulties faced by moderate Republicans in the new Bush right-wing theocracy; and then, there was former Senator, former United Nations Ambassador, former ordained Episcopal Minister John Danforth’s who wrote on the Op-Ed page of the NY Times about the hijacking of the Republican party by the Christian right. He noted, for example, that in all his years in the United States Senate, where he served as a rather conservative Republican (as a Senator, he sponsored Justice Clarence Thomas before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the confirmation hearings) that in all those senate years, and he emphasized this point, he had not spent as much as a minute worrying about what effect gay marriage might have on family life in America, not one minute. Senator Danforth emphasized the importance of maintaining some sense of perspective in our political life.

Because the Republican have a strangle hold on Congress, there are no committee investigations of the Bush transgressions. In sharp contrast poor old Bill Clinton, suffered the harassment of Republican controlled investigating committees for the duration of his presidency, and we, the taxpayers of America, spent 60 plus million dollars to find out that the Clinton’s 75,000 dollar investment in the White Water Land deal was legal. Oh, we did find out that Wild Bill was doing something with Monica; however, Bill’s indiscretions pale to insignificance when put in focus against the backdrop of Bush’s mendacity in leading this nation to an unnecessary war. If there’s to be dissent, it must come from the moderates in the Republican party who, to date, have remained mute. They must find the strength to write new profiles in courage, or the fate of this American democracy is bleak.


Davy Crockett