Asked ... about the polarization he's created, President Bush said, "I take that as a compliment."
- Los Angeles Times, Nov. 4, 2004
Tomorrow - Jan. 20 - marks the official beginning of George W. Bush's final term as president of the United States. Soon he will be a lame duck, and then he will be history.
And history will memorialize President Bush as the most divisive American leader, both here and abroad, that the world has ever seen. After previous elections, Americans put their differences behind them, shook hands, and rolled up their sleeves for the work ahead; we are, after all, the United States. This time however, we are girding our loins for battle and calling ourselves the "Blue States" and the "Red States."
Bush's supporters insist that he received a mandate, but a win of only 51 percent is not, by definition, a mandate. Even Karl Rove, that mastermind of branding, should know better than to call 59.7 million votes against 56.2 million a mandate.
In fact, the election results underscore the division in our country. Nearly half of us see the Bush administration as a manifestation of dangerous, dark vices. The other half sees the Bush administration as a manifestation of Christian values.
On the brink of President Bush's last term, let's review some of his actions - even for a president, actions speak louder than words - and ask if Christian values do indeed underlie them:
Bush says he believes in the sanctity of human life, yet he allowed the Brady Bill to die a quiet death so that assault weapons, used only to kill people, can be purchased by almost anyone, making our neighborhoods less safe and putting police officers in greater peril.
Bush talks about justice, yet he installed John Ashcroft as attorney general, well known for his curious abhorrence of civil liberties.
Bush argues that lawyers are single-minded, yet he advocates that activist ideologues be appointed to the judiciary.
Bush speaks about accessible health care, but he did not sign the Patients' Bill of Rights; instead, he came to the aid of pharmaceutical and insurance companies, wasting $400 billion a year.
Bush claims to be concerned about education by imposing higher standards on school districts, but he does not provide enough money to actually fund the programs.
Bush talked at length about crucial prescription drug reform for senior citizens, but didn't adequately fund that either.
Bush says he cares about the average working Joe, but instead of creating jobs, he enacted more tax cuts for the rich - those making $500,000 or more, and touted outsourcing as a good thing for Americans.
Bush wants to overhaul Social Security by allowing us to invest our own money, but he fails to understand that only rich people invest in retirement funds; poor people invest in food and clothing for their kids.
Bush says he will protect the environment, but he has systematically weakened regulatory safeguards in favor of big business: he intends to soften the Clean Air Act, rewrite the Clean Water Act, eviscerate the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, relax all pollution limits, sell our wild mustangs to slaughterhouses for pet food and foreign tables, and pass a new law to allow corporations to keep information about environmental problems secret.
Bush promised to improve homeland security, but all he did was implement a useless color code, impose the unconstitutional Patriot Act, and turn a blind eye to real problems, such as 90 percent of the cargo unloaded every day in U.S. ports still entering the country uninspected.
Bush calls himself a conservative, yet his fiscal recklessness has resulted in a $350 billion budget deficit, a $600 billion trade deficit, and an $8 trillion national debt, a debt that will burden our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Bush handed White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales a plum - nomination for U.S. attorney general - after Gonzales advised the president that the Geneva protections are not necessarily applicable in Iraq. In Senate confirmation hearings, Gonzales developed a convenient case of amnesia. Simply put, backing Gonzales is backing torture - and Gonzales is Bush's handpicked nominee.
Bush stifled life-saving research that uses discarded embryonic stem cells, yet he continues to send fully developed human beings - our children, not his - to slaughter in Iraq. And he sends them without adequate gear and protection.
Bush calls himself a patriot, yet calls us traitors if we question his judgment.
If George W. Bush won the presidential election on the basis of values, what values are they? What values underlie the decisions he has made so far? Based upon Bush's record, how dare anyone of conscience call his values Christian?
Tomorrow, President Bush will place his hand upon the Bible and, once again, make promises that he will not keep.
I wonder what Jesus would do. If past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior, I'll bet that Jesus would throw the hypocrites out of the temple.
Marilee Swirczek lives and works in a Red State.
