America's Hour of the Wolf

[JeffR]

A comment on the meaning of success and failure in American politics circa 2006. My first article for OpEdNews.com, a site I recently discovered.

Dialogues about the success or failure of Bush's tenure miss the point. Successful governance has a counter-intuitive meaning for Bush, for his family and friends, his cronies, his well-heeled enablers, his cheering section in the corporate kleptocracy, and the ideological mad dogs of the Far Right, still scarred and resentful from enduring the horrors of peace and prosperity under a Democratic president.

Bush and friends didn’t bother to get government down to the size where it could be drowned in a bathtub (in the famous formulation of Grover Norquist). Instead, they took a cue from California Governor-by-PR-Coup Arnold Schwarzenegger, and pumped it up.

This process includes the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (an agency urged by Democrats, who probably should have anticipated just what a travesty Bush's implementation would be), the astonishing costs of maintaining the illegal occupation of Iraq, the escalated use of pork-barrel earmarks, unprecedented largesse to the corporate sector and free trade initiatives designed to shaft workers and enrich executives. Bush and his henchmen have turned government into the ultimate Ugly American, a bloated, pasty, pushy hedonist hell bent on buying and doing things it can't afford, crowding out the rest of the world at the buffet table of Creation, all so it can shove the last stale éclair into its quivering, drool-spattered jowls and suck up the crumbs with a straw.

The Bush clique then picked up this behemoth and stuffed it in Grover's bathtub. Their deep-pocketed friends in the transnational, post-democratic elites avidly wait for the water level to rise far enough to cover its nostrils.

More at: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jeff_ros_060415_america_s_hour_of_th.htm

[ewagner]

1. One point of disagreement

In a very real sense, Bush has accomplished Grover's goal of getting government down to a size where he could "drown it in a bathtub".

That's the whole point of creating the huge deficits.

That's the trap for the Democratic Party.

If we pledge to eliminate deficit spending; pay down the huge National Debt, we will find that the only way to do it (even by cutting defense spending to "reasonable levels")is by eliminating almost all discretionary spending and maybe even limiting benefits under medicare, medicaid, Social Security and educational loans, etc., etc.. Or, we can commit political suicide and raise ALL taxes...

That was the plan all along....that and the traditional Republican view that the US Treasury is really a "piggy bank" for corporations.

I'm still trying to figure out how we get out of this box, both in terms of politics and governing.

[JeffR]

2. Actually, I think we agree on this

The Bushistas' approach to the Norquist Doctrine ran counter-intuitive to the conventional wisdom, but neatly managed to implement it just the same.

Your identification of this as a "trap" is right on the mark. It's one of many landmines the neo-cons and the corporate-fascists have planted up and down the Potomac. These things will continue to endanger the public good long after the army that planted them has retreated.

[ewagner]

3. Agree....and also...

I have been hearing Bush talk about how it will be history that appreciates his true "genius" in governing...most people think he's talking about the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive strikes and bringing "democracy" to Iraq....he isn't....he's talking about the ticking timebomb of the deficit he left behind that will cause a major upheaval in American politics....he'll be smirking on inaugeration day in '09 because the poor schmuck who takes the oath after him will have to clean up his mess...and may only be able to do it the way Dubya intended all along.

:hi:

[JeffR]

4. Nicely put

I have to wonder why any sane person would want to take over the Oval Office when this miscreant vacates it...

[bemildred]

5. You have to raid the "Piggy Bank".

It's called nationalizing the corporations and having high progressive tax rates. You would be just amazed how much money can be turned up that way ...

[JeffR]

7. True

But the sea-change required to effect such a thing simply doesn't seem possible. Even to many on the left, this sort of thinking will be perceived as "un-American", because it runs counter to so many aspects of the National Myth.

[bemildred]

10. Americans can allow themselves to be screwed as long as they like.

I'm just pointing out that the solution is known, if anyone cares to know it.

[JeffR]

11. What mystifies me

Is how many things are known by a lot of people, but we continue on this road to national ruin. America lags behind so many countries in many important measures, yet Americans won't - or can't - muster the social will to change this sorry situation.

[bemildred]

12. Sticking your head up is always a scary business.

It might get shot off.

It is a bit frustrating, to me too, how thoroughly the American public has been brainwashed to vote against its own self-interest.
But, that's what brainwashing is all about.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. Bringing the American public to its knees through intentional...

...mismanagement and outright looting of the Commonwealth is how the PNAC driven Christo-Fascist Neocons operate. Keeping the masses weak, disorganized, misinformed, and soon impoverished is working for them. Our time to wage the massive revolution of noncooperation that we MUST in order to recapture our democracy is perilously short.

[JeffR]

8. Well spoken

And chillingly true.

:patriot:

[ewagner]

9. Allow me to second that....n/t

[The Traveler]

13. Ya wanna know what happens

when "government is weak enough to drag into a bath tub and drown it?"

New Orleans. The Gulf Coast.

The right wing has often dreamt of "starving the beast" ... draining the treasury and trasnferring the wealth to corporations and the rich. Seems to me like they have been successful.