Not surprisingly, the Republican Party's response to a rising groundswell against the Bush administration is off the mark. From a posture of fearful vulnerability, they paint their opponents in a simplistic light - as full of hate and all facets of evil.
With a campaign war chest overflowing with money from wealthy, self-seeking individual and corporate donors, they are starting to spit fire at the opposition.
One example is Sen. John Ensign's recent remark on the overwhelmingly high attendance at the state Democratic caucuses recently: "At the end of the day, it won't be hard for Nevadans to see that Sen. Kerry and the Democratic message of protest and pessimism are out of sync with this state." At best, this shows an effort at political optimism. At worst, this betrays a profound misunderstanding of what is really happening at the grass-roots level across this nation.
If there is protest and pessimism, it is about the favoritism shown to the special interests that fund the current and former Republican campaigns- the oil, coal, logging, nuclear, gun, auto and other industries. (Recent polls show that far less than half of ordinary citizens believe the current administration cares about them).
Our protest and pessimism are about our loss of stature in the eyes of the world and our inability to keep meaningful diplomatic ties. It is about our loss of civil rights, at the hands of Attorney General John Ashcroft and the recklessly drafted "Patriot Act."
If there is hate, it is for the policies of an administration that has woven a tapestry of deception, paraphrased in part below:
n "Yucca Mountain will not become a high-level nuclear waste repository unless shown to be absolutely safe by sound science." (The repository has since been approved by the president and Congress, in the face of clear opposition by "sound science.")
n "This will be a fiscally responsible administration." In fact, a budget surplus of more than $200 billion in fiscal year 2000 (inherited by this president) has dropped to a projected budget deficit of $520 billion in fiscal year 2004. Spending in Washington is at unprecedented levels, even taking into account the war in Iraq and the added costs attendant to 9/11/01. Many Republicans are, themselves, alarmed at the free spending in Washington.
n "There will be 4 million new jobs added during the next four years." The truth is that we have suffered a loss of 3.2 million jobs during Bush's tenure - 7.2 million if we count what Bush promised!
n "The threat of attack by Saddam Hussein is imminent." If not an outright lie, this is certainly a dangerous distortion which led us into a pre-emptive strike on a sovereign nation. In itself outrageous, this attack has left us in a quagmire of our own making. The loss of lives is inexcusable, as is the siphoning off to this misbegotten war of vital funds needed at home.
n "Protection of the environment is a high priority." In truth, Bush's allegiance to special interests has eclipsed his obligation to protect the general public against brazen assaults on our environment. One by one, environmental protections have been weakened or struck down as oil, coal, logging and other interests prosper. Just one of many resources vulnerable to Bush's systematic despoiling of wilderness and wildlife habitats is the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, where his cronies would like to drill for oil.
n The president long supported two vital gun-control measures - the renewal of the assault weapons ban and a proposal to close the "gun show loophole" that currently allows anyone to buy a gun at a show without a criminal background check. (This was where the two teens at Columbine High school got their guns and is also where Hezbollah, the Taliban and Hamas can and do procure firearms for their causes).
Beholden to the National Rifle Association and the gun industry as he courts their campaign contributions, Bush has become an election year "turncoat" and moved to defeat both measures. He also supports a bill, now on the Senate floor, granting immunity to the gun industry from lawsuits of injured victims, regardless of the industry's proven complicity in furnishing guns to criminals through unscrupulous gun dealers. Gone will be the basic right of these Americans to their "day in court."
Mr. Bush, wrongfully appointed president by the U.S. Supreme Court after losing the popular vote, is a tragedy for our country. A boon to corporate interests, Washington's CEO has fostered regressive policies that hurt nearly everyone else. Thinking people will hopefully see the peril of handing four more years to this president.
Susan Paslov is a retired attorney who teaches English as a second language.
