What a difference two years make
By Les Aaron, Mar 7, 2003
Two years ago, I was thinking ahead. Making new plans, full of confidence and enthusiasm for the future. Things were looking good. America had the respect of the world.
We were working or having luck finding jobs, which was a far cry from that innocuous sounding "downsizing" that raised its ugly head during Bush's dad's tenure and seemed to symbolize his disdain for the average worker and citizen.
If I want to think of one symbol of Bush's dad's administration, it was the debate where he flippantly checked his watch while that poor woman was eating her heart out trying to explain how her medical benefits were insufficient. That deficit attention disorder was definitely inherited by his progeny who can't seem to retain a complex thought in his alcohol damaged brain.
In any event, for some reason quite unknown to me it seems that I have been tossed down the rabbit hole. I now inhabit a negative universe where everything is backwards. The future is the past and vice versa. Let me give you a few examples:
Things in Korea have not changed one iota since I left for there with a contingent of Screaming Eagles back in the fifties. As a military adviser attached to S3, I had top level access to security reports; the only difference now is that the son is running things (just like dad incidentally) and they have nuclear weapons and missiles.
Nor have things changed much since the days of 'blackballing' and McCarthy when everyone who wasn't a committed anti-red was probably a "pinko." Just substitute terrorist for red or communist.
Ashcroft has uprooted the Constitution; obviated the First Amendment and privacy guarantees with the excuse of preserving our Democratic way of life. It seems you first have to destroy it to preserve it.
No doubt, ironically, Adams and Jefferson and Franklin would have been seen as today's terrorists.
And I am transported back to the Cold War that I thought had been put far behind us with the same cold warriors still in power.
Novak is still around sans Evans his other hawk friend who
talked about falling dominoes. None of that has changed. The thinking is set in concrete.
Rumsfeld is still raving and ranting. So is Cheney who manages to feather his nest while wrapping himself in the flag. Surely, the old man who still hopes for a 'new world order' is lurking in the shadows still advising junior one suspects. Even Kissinger, the ultimate Dr. Strangelove, has resurfaced in the position of honest, objective public citizen. well, at least that didn't last long.
Who would have believed that all of those jobs created by Clinton who gets no credit for anything from these clods would have evanesced.
Don't these Republicans get it? Every time they elect one of their own, the economy goes into a tailspin and the country goes on deficit spending while they attack the Democrats for doing all of the right things.
They don't seem to learn.
Now, we have no jobs, the future looks bleak and there is threat of nuclear Armageddon. There is still talk about not having a war, but it is pretty clear it is a done deal. A deal prearranged in DC by the hawks with their global agenda. And this delay is simply to complete the buildup without leaving a vacuum. Those guys inside the beltway are just trying to put a happy face on their actions. But it won't fly.
And so here we are back into the cold war of no jobs, no prospects, bleak stock market, war on the horizon, no friends in the world, an environment growing increasingly more unpredictable, a dying ecosystem, attempts to rape what is left. It would seem that Republicans like it this way. They get off on adversity. It is part of their built in hate systems for everything they don't personally endorse. That seems to be the one thing most Republicans are good at: Hate.
Meanwhile, the rich get break after break, the redistribution of wealth turning us into a limited monarchy of sorts or France prior to the revolution. Mrs. Cheney our new Marie Antoinette.
All I do know is that if we could get into such an incredible mess with compassionate conservatives running things, maybe it is still possible to reverse the outcomes and see some light at the end of the tunnel once again. I sure hope so. I would hate to go to my maker not knowing whether we ever learned our lesson.
If I had one wish, it would be that every presidential candidate be examined for his suitability for the office. I don't think it would be out of line to suggest that when a brain scan of our presumed leader reveals nothing, we should take that into consideration when we go to the polls.
I'd like to see voting where people understand history, government and current events vote for qualified men and women, and all their voters get counted. Maybe this is asking too much. But, hey, if the Attorney General can get away with enrobing Justice, I don't think I'm out of line trying to give justice an opportunity to get back a little.
© Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 by MikeHersh.com and identified authors. MikeHersh.com invites you to broadcast any material at this site, provided you identify the source as MikeHersh.com. All print, Internet, email and other summaries, excerpts or other written reproductions must include this blurb and a link to http://www.MikeHersh.com.