Bit by bit, one move at a time, the Bush administration is
amassing power, rewarding its friends, hurting the needy,
and eroding Americans’ rights and our reputation abroad. And still there is
little public outrage.
There is virtual silence as the president continues to spin
out his tales of America’s
strength, good fortune, and manifest destiny. Last week’s State of the Union
address was pure Bush: full of rhetoric, obfuscations, and outright lies, all
designed to make us feel good while the president and his administration go
about their dangerous ways.
You can make a game of comparing the Bush words to reality:
รยขรขยยฌรยข “On Sept 11, 2001, we found that problems originating in a
failed and oppressive state 7000 miles away could bring murder and destruction
to our country.” Saudi Arabia?
รยขรขยยฌรยข “Our economy is healthy and vigorous.” And staggering in
debt. And sinking further daily, while the president urges Congress to make his
tax cuts for the rich permanent.
รยขรขยยฌรยข “Far from being a hopeless dream, the advance of freedom
is the great story of our time.” On the other hand: “So far,” writes the Times’ Tom Friedman, “the democracy wave
the Bush team has helped to unleash in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11 has
brought to power hard-line Islamic fundamentals in Iraq, Palestine, and Iran,
and paved the way for a record showing by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.”
“If we keep this up,” wrote Friedman, “in a few years Muslim
clerics will be in power from Morocco
to the border of India.
God bless America.”
The president —
who says what he means and means what he says — set out “a great goal” in his
State of the Union address: “replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports
from the Middle East by 2025.” His energy secretary,
Samuel Bodman, says we should take that goal with a grain of salt, however.
“In a conference call with
reporters on Wednesday,” reported the New
York Times, Bodman said that was “purely an example” of what could be
done.
“And,” wrote Paul Krugman
after the speech, “the administration has actually been scaling back the very
research that Mr. Bush hyped on Tuesday night.” Budget cuts, said Krugman, are
forcing the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to lay off staff members,
including those researching ethanol.
There was no call for energy
conservation. Instead, Vice President Cheney told reporters that drilling in
the Artic National Wildlife Refuge is still very much a live issue.
Among my favorite parts of the Bush speech is his call for
doubling federal funds for research in the physical sciences and his insistence
that we “encourage children to take more math and science and to make sure
those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations.” This from a
president whose appointees overrule science at every turn. And note that the
Republican-dominated Congress has just approved raising the interest rates for
college loans.
(You can also make a darker game of trying to read the
future from the president’s words: We haven’t forgotten about the people in
“places like Syria
and Burma, Zimbabwe,
North Korea,
and Iran,” he
said, “because the demands of justice and the peace of this world require their
freedom as well.” Are we planning to go to war with those countries? Perhaps
not openly; even the president must realize that we don’t have the money or the
military strength to do that. But some news commentators have been warning for
months that the US
is working secretly in Iran
to foment a revolution.)
Bush’s State of the
Union address was the speech of an ideologue masking his actions and his
intentions with emotionally charged rhetoric. Those who question him are
“isolationists,” “protectionists,” promoters of “retreat.”
The Bush language is seductive. “Before history is written
down in books,” he said, “it is written in courage.”
“We seek the end of tyranny in our world.” “We will lead
freedom’s advance.”
“And so we move forward — optimistic about our country, faithful
to its cause and confident of victories to come.”
Maybe he is at last going too far. Many Americans seem to be
waking up. According to a recent Zogby poll, Americans like their privacy and
don’t want the government snooping. And that sentiment has strengthened during
the Bush era.
In December 2001, says the Zogby polling firm, 55 percent of
us were willing to let our mail be searched at random. Now, that’s fallen to 25
percent. Only 50 percent of the conservatives polled said they are willing to
let their mail be searched.
Phone privacy apparently has been a longstanding concern.
Even in December 2001, three months after 9/11, only 38 percent of Americans
approved of having their phone conversations monitored. That percentage has now
fallen to 28.
There is hope, of course, in the 2006 Congressional
elections — the remote chance that Democrats will win enough seats to take
control of the House. And that could give sensible Republicans the courage to
act in the nation’s interest, rather than in the administration’s. But the
reality is that even then, the Bush administration — in control not only of
the Senate and the Justice Department but also, now, of the Supreme Court —
will continue to do what it wants, ignoring laws and the Constitution.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ testimony before the
Senate Judiciary Committee this week made that frighteningly clear.
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2006.
