Issue #38
Last Update May 19, 2005
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National What’s Going On? by Gerry Krownstein President Bush has most of the world scared to death. The scariest thing about him is that most people, here and abroad, can’t figure out why he does some of the things he does and says some of the things he says. Here are some theories, none of them comforting.
The How Do We Know Who We are Unless We have an Enemy Theory: Bush grew up amid dedicated Cold Warriors fighting the Evil Empire. Many of these men are his closest advisors, lost and drifting since the Soviet Union collapsed, but reinvigorated by 9/11. Osama Bin Ladin and Mullah Omar were the 21st Century equivalent of Joe Stalin in their eyes, until their lack of success in bringing back bin Ladin and Omar's heads became embarrassing. Saddam Hussein then became the fount of all evil, partly to distract attention from the incomplete success in Afghanistan, partly because Saddam's continued existence represents a failure on the part of Saddam's original sponsor, President Bush's father. Besides, we know we can beat him; we did it before, painlessly. North Korea, unlike Iraq, can hit back, so Bush is not eager, despite his overheated Axis of Evil rhetoric, to start Korean War II. Kim called Bush's rhetorical bluff, and our President hasn't a clue how to rescue the situation.
The Greed is Good Theory: In this theory, Bush's main objective is to make it safe for his cronies and benefactors to loot the American economy (and if possible, the world's). His economic program (tax cuts for the wealthy, privatization of everything, crippling of all regulatory functions, shifting of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich) certainly fits this model. His foreign policy, such as it is, consists of three planks: unimpeded movement of capital and goods without regard to national interests; a repudiation of international treaties and obligations that might in any way restrict the unbridled exercise of vested interests; and a burning desire to invade Iraq, ascribed to Bush's oil buddies' desire to get their hands on Iraqi oil, or at least prevent the French and Russians from doing so.
The Put the Peasantry in Their Place Theory: This theory has it that the Bush administration is a continuation and intensification of an effort begun in the 80's to eliminate sources of power from people who oppose the unchecked exercise of power by the national oligarchy. This oligarchy believes it is divinely constituted and views any questioning of its motives or actions as lese majeste. It actively seeks to widen the gap between rich and poor, so that economic pressures will enforce a docility on the bulk of the populace. Compassionate conservatism is just a slogan; there is no real consideration or understanding of other people's lives.
To this end, they have attempted to destroy (or at least render ineffectual) the two entities that most hinder them: unions and the federal government. Through a combination of economic intimidation (threats of plant closings and the like), legal maneuvers and the assistance of compliant Republican administrations, coupled with the impact of new technologies, unions have become largely irrelevant to most of the nation. The attack on the Federal Government as a guarantor of fundamental fairness in our society has taken a variety of forms: cutting federal revenues to strangle federal spending for anything except defense and corporate bailouts; devolving federal functions to the states, where resistance to local feudalities is meager; dismantling of regulatory effectiveness; and the appointment of the most reactionary Federal bench since Dred Scott days.
Unappreciated by the general public, according to this theory, is that this is not a war of the rich against the poor - the poor are already powerless. In their deep distrust for democracy, this is really a war of the powerful against the middle class, especially the wage-earning middle class, which still has a voice and is numerous. Downsizing, withdrawal of benefits, higher and more regressive state and local taxes, looting of pension funds, all serve to make the middle class wage-earner or retiree more docile and less willing to fight the self-aggrandizement and unfair accretion of power and wealth of the favored few. The collateral damage done to the professional and managerial segment is of no concern either.
Bush's domestic policies track well with this theory, as do his international economic policies. To keep the electorate diverted from the real effects of his policies, and to strengthen his hand in repressing dissent, the Bush administration has adopted a philosophy of permanent war, switching from the Axis of Evil, to Al Qaeda and Afghanistan, to Iraq as the public's attention to each of these began to flag. Permanent war paints objectors to any administration action as unpatriotic, allows vast funds to be diverted from the federal budget, and has allowed our Attorney General to set precedents for incarceration without trial that will one day be extended to non-terrorist cases.
There is an element of truth in each of these theories. I sadly fear that the last theory is the most accurate.
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