|
CounterPunch
December
28, 2002
The Power of
Audacity
by RICHARD PROCTER
The Bush/Rove Dynasty of Darkness understands
the power of audacity. They want it ALL, RIGHT NOW, FOREVER,
and they're daring the Democrats to step up and stop them. And
instead of stopping them, the Democrats are saying, "Ah,
me too! Sort of..."
Can you remember right after the "election"
of 2000, when pundits clucked about how Bush was going to have
to govern from the center because he not only lacked a mandate,
he lacked a simple majority? Can you remember Bush's first pronouncements,
when he told us he wanted to be perceived as being "humble"?
Instead of humility, Rove/Bush took their
cue from radical wingnut/Bush advisor Grover Norquist. Norquist
has professed a desire to "starve government so completely
we can get it into a bathtub and drown it." He has a portrait
of Lenin in his living room, and often quotes Lenin's words to
his fellow wingnuts -- "Probe with bayonets, looking for
weakness."
Rove/Bush saw a weakness -- Democratic
fatigue/fear. The Democrats clearly wanted some breathing room
after the (Republican-caused) tumult of the Clinton impeachment
debacle. They wanted to be perceived as "nice," and
"helpful" to the process. They were hoping they were
right about Dubya -- that he was just a slightly dim puppet of
big business who, if left to his own devices, would spend his
days playing T-ball on the White House front lawn and reading
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to school groups.
Did even the most pessimistic lefty ever,
in his/her worst nightmares, believe that Rove/Bush would be
this audacious?
* Roll back every progressive piece of
environmental legislation in the last 30 years (including bills
authored by Republicans), and put big business whores in every
regulatory position of authority?
* Eliminate key parts of the Bill of
Rights with the "Patriot Act" to give John Ashcroft
more leeway in dealing with whoever he deems an enemy?
* Shove through a gigantic tax break
for the richest one percent of taxpayers, while turning a large
surplus into a hideous deficit? And threaten even bigger tax
cuts, producing bigger deficits, so the wealthiest one percent
can have bigger bankrolls?
* Take such a radical, way-out view on
corporate reform that even sober Republican CEO's are grumbling,
because no one wants to play the stock market anymore, for fear
of getting ripped off?
* Bring back a convicted felon (Poindexter)
to run the single most intrusive government agency ever conceived
("Information Awareness Office") that would have George
Orwell shaking his head in wonder?
* Put forward a string of radical right-wing
ideologues for Judges -- the very kind of "activist"
Judges that the right-wing has been decrying for years?
* Screw families with autistic children
by slipping in a rider to the Homeland Security bill that denies
them their day in court against Eli Lilly, after taking multimillions
of Big Pharma-bucks during the last two campaigns?
* Shove through a multibillion dollar
gift to Defense contractors disguised as a "Micro-Star Wars"
missile non-defense system that EVEN DONALD RUMSFELD says won't
shield us from foreign attack?
* Declare that ONLY wingnut Republicans
can be on science panels. ONLY wingnut Republicans will be appointed
to office, ONLY wingnut Republicans will find a home in a Homeland
Security Department stripped of civil service regulations. And,
oh, by the way, Lobbyists? "You not only must fill the coffers
of the GOP, but you also have to starve the other side, and we'll
be watching."
Bush/Rove know just how to cover this
audacity -- with a tsunami of bland p.r. speak. "I'm a uniter,
not a divider." Right. Even the most timid opposition to
any Bush/Rove atrocity elicits a response like, "They're
just playing politics," or "They're obstructionists."
We all know what "Compassionate Conservatism" means
now -- slashing school lunches, denying the elderly affordable
prescription drugs, denying the victims of medical malpractice
the right to sue the offender, and most of all, LYING.
Lying is a key part of the Bush/Rove
audacity machine. They certainly learned during the Clinton years
that if Drudge says it and Limbaugh repeats it, Big Media will
report it -- and that makes it true. Where to begin with the
Bush/Rove lies?
* They LIED, again and again, about Saddam
and bin Laden being in cahoots.
* They LIED about the California energy
crisis being caused by "failure to build enough power plants"
(Enron, anyone?)
* They LIED about Saddam having nuclear
weapons (or at least they haven't proven it, despite every opportunity
to present even the smallest wisp of evidence)
* TheyLIED about the Kyoto Accords (and
every other piece of environmentally sound policy) lacking "sound
science." (?)
* They LIED about giving approval for
a seat on the 9/11 Commission to the families of the victims
(how tough would it have been to appoint Warren Rudman?)
Both sides know that every Bush/Rove
budget number is a lie.
Both sides know that virtually every
Bush/Rove press release about Iraq is a lie.
Both sides know that every single word
that comes out of Ari Fleischer's mouth (including "and"
and "the") is a lie.
And the poor, pathetic Democrats? It's
almost as if they can't believe that Bush/Rove are being so mean,
nasty and BOLD. They seem to think this is all a bad dream, and
they'll wake up and everything will be nice and collegial and
friendly again.
There's only one hope for the Dems, and
I have no confidence whatever they'll avail themselves of it.
The only way to fight audacity is with more audacity. Instead
of fighting a hopeless defensive battle where the Dems try to
make hideous, outrageous Bush/Rove programs slightly less egregious.
The Republicans get to be the big, bold, swaggering newsmakers,
and the Dems are relegated to role of timid, ineffectual, wimpy
rubberneckers.
ADVICE TO DEMS -- GET AUDACIOUS YOURSELVES!
Imagine the headlines if the Dems did
any of these things --
* PROPOSE A NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM,
WITH 0% PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT FOR SENIORS -- Here's an audacious
premise -- health care is a RIGHT for every American, not just
another "consumer product" designed to enrich folks
like Bill Frist. Some things aren't negotiable -- like health.
And how do we pay for this? Well, that 28 BILLION dollars from
the non-workable micro-Star Wars program is a start...
* PROPOSE A RADICAL "SOAK THE RICH"
TAX PLAN TO ERASE THE DEFICIT -- Oh my God! Soak the rich? No
one wants that...except everyone who makes less than $500,000.
* PROPOSE A NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY
BASED AROUND THREE WORDS -- GET OSAMA FIRST -- Tell Junior he
can't go off on any more foreign adventures until he keeps his
promise to get Osama dead or alive. Be tougher than he is on
this.
* PROPOSE THAT ANY CEO THAT MOVES HIS/HER
CORPORATION TO THE CAYMAN ISLANDS TO AVOID TAXES BE SENT TO A
"SUPERMAX" PRISON.
* NOMINATE YOUR OWN JUDGES -- That way
when Bush tries to shove some Confederate stooge like Charles
Pickering down your throats, you can point to your own nominee
and say, "Gee, here's someone who actually FAVORS the Martin
Luther King Holiday, like, oh, say 95% of the American people."
Bush/Rove and the wingnuts have mastered
the p.r. technique of "getting out in front" of every
issue as it comes up. Notice how they were all over the Sabbath
Gasbag shows screaming that Nancy Pelosi was a "Latte Liberal"...and
notice that when Bill Frist was put forward, no one on the other
side accused him of, oh, say, making millions from a family HMO
eyeball-deep in fraud, and inserting that rider in the Homeland
Security bill to hose the parents of autistic kids.
Our system depends on a vigorous debate.
Right now, the vigorous debate consists of one side holding a
very large mallet (Bush/Rove) and one side acting like a compliant
tent peg (guess who). If the Democrats don't learn the power
of audacity, we'll be a one party system. If that happens, well,
Dubya himself said it best -- the Evil-Doers will have won.
Rich Procter
is a cranky, disaffected Democrat whose work often appears in
"SmirkingChimp.com".
He can be reached at planetniner@yahoo.com
Yesterday's
Features
Kathy Kelly
Crossing
Borders
Christmas in Iraq
Kurt Nimmo
North Korea: Calling Bush's Bluff
Elaine Cassel
How the Grinch Stole the Pardons
Cairo Declaration
Against
War on Iraq and in Solidarity with Palestine
Norman Madarasz
Secular Steps in Preparing a War:
an address at Cairo
Gary Leupp
Notes on the Cairo Conference
Neve Gordon
Christmas
Eve in Bethlehem
Kenneth Roth
An Open
Letter to President Bush on the Torture of Al-Qaeda Suspects
Pierre Tristam
War Toys and the National Character
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|