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Often I hear right wing pundit’s claim that we on the left want failure, want the terrorists to win, want our troops killed, and want the worst for our country. I have seen right wingers dismiss valid complaints as nothing more than a rant from a “Bush hater”, as if hating Bush is some irrational emotion that is primordial in nature. However, I recently became aware of something inside of me that not only concerns me, but also demonstrates that the right wing just might now be correct in their assessment of me.
When Bush was first selected for the presidency, I was more upset than I usually get when my candidate “loses”. And upon reflection, this travesty of an election still infuriates me to my core. My displeasure with how Bush came to be president -- purging of voter rolls, black voters being turned away at the polls, diebold machines, a partisan Governor and secretary of state, and the highest court in the land claiming that voters don’t matter – could have been assuaged had Bush actually been a "uniter not a divider". Instead of seeing that his extremely narrow win was indeed not a mandate, Bush chose to “govern” as if the vast majority of the country endorsed his policies. Never asking for advice from anyone outside of his inner circle, let alone the other party, Bush (the Decider) began his “reign of error”.
Using 9/11 as an excuse for practically all of his subsequent policies, the media and the public bowed to his judgment. After all, we were not privy to all of the classified documents that crossed his desk. As Americans, we all experienced the same sense of horror, vulnerability and anger. Therefore, it was safe to assume that the person whom we looked to for leadership would take the tasks of making us safe and pursuing justice with the utmost reverence, right? The president of the United States of America would never use a national tragedy as a cover for nefarious ends, would he?
President Bush enjoyed an 80% approval rating immediately after 9/11 only because he said things that made many of us identify with him in our grief. Yet, ever since that fateful day, a good number of those who gave him the benefit of the doubt have slowly begun to see that this president is like no other.
We all know the reasons that this president is our least favorite: tax cuts only for the wealthy, environmental policies that are devastating to the planet, not capturing bin laden, an illegal war that was sold to the public with fabricated evidence, energy policies that give big oil big profits at our expense, indifference to the catastrophe called Katrina, playing politics with stem cell research, being "elected" illegitimately not once, but twice, and on and on and on. Those who still support this president, the backwash, usually give one reason for their continued support: he has protected us.
He has protected us? 9/11 occurred after he ignored a daily briefing; the vast majority of experts agree that Iraq is creating more terrorists who wish to harm us; he has done nothing to protect our ports, our airports, our rail systems or nuclear plants; he will not speak with North Korea nor Iran in order to, at the VERY least, reduce hostilities; he antagonizes countries like Lebanon and Syria who will now be a nesting ground for future terrorists. Should I continue?
The backwash is kept in the figurative Bush approval glass by the right wing pundits and mainstream news media that either lack intellectual honesty due to their own agenda or refuse to report news stories that affect all of us, not just blond girls who are now dead; particularly, news stories that would be damaging to this administration. Two examples that make my blood boil (and I mean fucking boil!) come from the “liberal” New York Times. Not only did they support Judith Miller, who aided and abetted this administration in getting us into the quagmire called Iraq, when she refused to identify the country's traitor who leaked the name of a CIA agent, but Bill Keller also stopped the NSA story from being published 2 months before the 2004 election because the offending candidate asked him not to.
These are perfect examples of what our mainstream news media has become: a propaganda arm for the Bush administration, an attack dog for those who oppose the administration, and co-conspirators in usurping our rights not only to know whether we should vote for someone or not, but also our constitutional rights that so many have died for.
This last point cannot be over-emphasized. Our ancestors died fighting wars to ensure that their children could live free and the Bush administration, right wing pundits and news organizations (like the New York fucking Times!) just spit in their faces by making their deaths meaningless by not only giving Bush cover to shred the constitution, but also by making those with grievances with our government fearful of unrestrained retaliation.
At this point, you are probably wondering how my complaints about this administration can support the notion that the right is right about me. Well, I’ll tell you. The enabling Republican Congress stands a good chance of keeping control of Congress. Bush’s approval rating has bottomed out, while the mainstream media continues to give him latitude where none is warranted. Six years into the reign of Bush and one would think that with all the evidence stacking against him our nightmare would be coming to an end by the country overwhelmingly voting Democrats into Congress. But this may not be the case because the backwash, the pundits and the news media see so little harm in supporting the likes of Lieberman and other Bush enablers.
So, when the right wing says we on the left want failure, want the terrorists to win, want our troops killed, and want the worst for our country, I am at the point where I can’t completely argue that I don’t. Although I love my country and do not want harm to any of its citizens, the blind faith that has been granted to this presidency by the backwash, the pundits and the media makes me wonder what it will take for the obvious to sink in to their collective skulls.
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