It’s been a long time since we had an Orange Alert huh? Remember those? Seemed like every time suspicions of the Bush Administration’s mishandling of 9-11 came up, or bad times in Iraq, or my absolute personal favorite, The Democratic Convention, we were all running to the store to buy duct tape and check our mail with anthrax proof gas masks.
An amazing coincidence?
Anyone with half a brain cell who actually paid attention to the Bush Administration’s complete and utter exploitation of the multi-colored Terror Alert Level System will not be shocked by accusations that Bush used it to his political advantage.
Keith Olbermann’s recent Nexus of Terror Timeline however, will still disgust you beyond belief. He lays down 17 minutes of Bush abuse on the issue of terrorism for nothing more than political gain. He reads off an overwhelming array of evidence, laid out in chronological order that details just how low the Bush Administration sunk to maintain political power in Washington.
Fear, fear and more fear will be one of Bush’s chief legacies, a failed President who choose to direct America’s resources and attention toward its own self-destruction. With a war that costs more than any American war in history he still achieved nothing (now that’s even assuming that it’s all candy and roses from here on out) but death, destruction and a whole lot of rich bank accounts grown even richer. It was a time of unprecedented corporate asskissing, with bills to help the credit card companies (we all know how they’re struggling), tax handouts to the rich and law after law making it harder for corporations to get sued.
The Republican Congress sunk to new depths with scandal, after scandal deafening the American people’s voice of patriotism. From out right bribes in the millions of dollars (Duke Cunningham even got a yacht with his name on it) to anti-homosexual advocates caught soliciting sex with underage boys, it was a period of corruption that rivaled the crooked Congresses of the Gilded Age. These crooked men spoke of welfare to the poor as a great evil while turning around and handing out the fattest corporate welfare subsidies in history.
Bush’s fear kept the American people distracted while he and Cheney planned the death of the American Republic. U.S. military bases shot up in over 100 foreign countries while executive power became more important than the Congress, despite what the Constitution said. Hell Cheney didn’t even want to go to Congress for their blessing on the war. Lucky for them, the greedy politicians capitulated like no other. They were afraid, afraid of an American people eating fear-filled morsels from the palm of the President. Bush would deliver his mind numbingly un-intelligent speech, carved up by his marketing school speech writers and simple minded church folk would stampede to the wolf’s flock, simply because he said the word “Jesusâ€, like something out of Revelation itself.
This fear was the only thing that saved Bush from impeachment, however it will not save him from history.
In the wake of 9-11, we were distraught, confused, afraid and angry. We needed a leader who would assure us, calm us down, bring us hope and lastly and most importantly, lead the nation to the cause of the greater good. We needed someone to tell us that there is nothing to fear but fear itself.
Instead we were told there is nothing to fear but everyone and everything, especially the Terrorists, the environmentalists, the gays, Saddam and the Axis of Evil, the illegal immigrants and anyone in general who was not with us, making them against us. Most of all, we feared each other. Not just who was a terrorist but who was the most patriotic, or not patriotic enough. I remember once being worried that I said the name of Osama on the telephone (and so was the other party who heard it). People in places like Iowa were afraid of chemical and biological attacks from Iraq. Flags adorned every household like some kind of fascist fantasy and prominent people were attacked for simply speaking their mind. The Right-wing nuts came out in force with “honk if you love freedom†parades which were all over the news like some human interest story, while our 100,000 strong anti-war protests, held long before the Iraq invasion began I might add, received almost no attention whatsoever.
While we were told to buy duct tape and fear anthrax, Bush had other interests at heart. We had faith that our leaders would do the right thing through such tough times. Instead the Republicans ceased the moment of bi-partisanship to push a bill that gave retroactive tax cuts to large corporations like GM, just as were beginning a war! They were robbing the treasury in the name of the United States for their rich multi-national buddies like Enron. We had hope that they would catch Osama, although they couldn’t even catch the guy who sent anthrax to prominent Democratic Senators. Hmmm, very interesting.
The whole time was a big disaster. 6 and a half years of watching my nation go right down the drain. We spoke our minds, did what we could, protested, took to the streets and sent letters and emails to half the state of California to no avail. The Right-Wingers still didn’t quite get what was going on yet. They thought it was all a game or something, that we were doing it simply because we didn’t like them. Now, as the U.S. dollar, economy, jobs, role as world leader among a great deal many other issues we took for granted are all suffering from 7 years of Bush rule, many of them are finally getting it. What’s even better, the people in the middle finally see the difference. What’s even better than that, is that we’ve finally regained our voice and our vision.
With all three Presidential candidates looking about a thousand times better than Curious George WW3 Bush, progress may actually be upon is.