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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (10002)	12/4/2002 10:38:24 PM
From: portage	Respond to of 89467

Or, GWB, phony conservative. As in, take your pick, a "satire is not dead" moment. sfgate.com New hope for the excluded middle JON CARROLL Wednesday, December 4, 2002 I BELIEVE THAT it is both necessary and possible to defeat George W. Bush when he runs for president again in 2004. I believe that a majority already exists in this country that could make that happen. I believe that a campaign run on issues rather than on personalities could prevail. Libertarians and environmentalists (including but not limited to members of the Green Party) have been against Bush right along, as have a large percentage of Democrats. And now, reluctantly but surely, true conservatives are beginning to find the current administration intolerable. Conservatives have always supported small government and maximum individual freedom. The Bush administration stands for big, intrusive government. The new Homeland Security Act creates something very close to a police state. The Big Brother nightmare feared by the Orwell-loving conservatives is coming true -- in a Republican administration. Is it any wonder that former bogeyman the ACLU is experiencing a rise a membership? Civil liberties are not just for pornographers and flag burners anymore. Many true conservatives are also militant rationalists. They believe themselves immune from the fuzzy thinking that, say, created the welfare state. "There's no such thing as a free lunch" is their mantra. And yet this administration is dedicated to free lunches for the wealthy. This administration somehow believes that it is possible to both go to war and to lower taxes according to a formula that helps the richest 1 percent. The rationalists have added up the numbers, or tried to. They know it's all hand waving and lies. Oh, it was fun to see the liberals take it on the chin. It was amusing to see various progressive pieties dismissed or ignored. I get that. But the party is over, and maybe the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. Maybe the corporate Republicanism of the Bush administration, maybe its addiction to secrecy in an open society, maybe its contempt for the judicial process are too high a price to pay for seeing Tom Daschle lose his grip on the Senate. THERE IS ANOTHER matter, one that is only whispered about in most circles. Maybe, for all the rhetoric, the war on terrorism is not being handled well. Maybe this obsession with Iraq is hurting our ability to concentrate on the only enemy that has actually attacked us within our borders. We already know that there are serious problems in the intelligence agencies. Bush did not want to confront those problems, but the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy forced his hand. (Be careful whom you elevate to sainthood; they may have their own opinions.) So he created a commission and appointed Henry Kissinger to head it. At some point, only an energy-company executive could continue to admire the arrogance of the Bush administration. Henry Kissinger should be standing in the dock at The Hague answering for his crimes, but war criminals come only from the ranks of the defeated, so he's back in a position of power, where his ability to flatter his bosses and lie to protect the powerful will come in handy. Reform is unlikely. This was on the heels of known liar John Poindexter being appointed to oversee the agency that collects data on American citizens. It was one of those "satire is not dead" moments -- but the threat to privacy is real, and the possibility that Poindexter could use the files the way J. Edgar Hoover used the FBI files is real. The government is back in the blackmail business. Everyone happy? A LOT OF these problems are glossed over by appeals to patriotism, which is, as we know, the last refuge of scoundrels. These appeals have terrified the Democrats and drained their courage. As long as supporting the Bush administration is the same as supporting democracy, we're all in trouble. But that can change. More Thursday.