The Bush Administration these days is like a sickly iceberg. The inside
structures are weakened by moral rot, and the outside walls are thinning
because of the heat they're taking. As the Bush iceberg suffers yet
another scandal and embarrassing revelation, every so often another huge
chunk breaks off and crashes into the political sea.
In short, the once-solid Republican iceberg is melting and falling apart.
Consider:
Polls are showing Bush sinking lower and lower in national approval
ratings. CIA insiders are revealing yet more
embarrassing details about Bush&Co.'s pre-war fiddling with the truth.
GOP senators are joining Democrats opposing Bush's attempt to rob them of
their co-equal power in our checks-and-balances system of government. More
evidence is surfacing of how the White House knew immediately what was
going down in
post-Katrina New Orleans, but did nothing and thousands died or barely
escaped. The Abramoff influence-peddling and bribery scandals are getting
closer and closer to the Oval Office. More lies and deceptions are being
revealed here and in England about how Bush and Cheney raced to war with
Iraq; Rove (and
perhaps Cheney) are closer to being fully unmasked by Patrick
Fitzgerald's special-counsel probes. More statistical and other evidence
is coming to light about
electoral
fraud in key states, and on and on.
The question is no longer whether the Bush Administration will implode and
be forced to disappear before 2008, but when. By their unconscionable
actions and thorough-going incompetence, they find themselves perched ever
so perilously on a political cliff; our job is to build enough united
oppositional force to help them over the edge.
A TRUE OPPOSITION PARTY
To accomplish this task, the Democrats, of course, need to gather strength
and remain united against Bush's atrocious policies and misbehaviors -- in
short, behaving as a true Opposition Party should. But it's clear that the
strongest impetus for impeachment or resignation must come from the
Republicans. More and more of them are beginning to see the handwriting on
the wall: Not only is the Bush Administration endangering the United
States with its policies and corruptions, but, perhaps more importantly
for them, their re-election chances are badly damaged by being associated
with these incompetent, reckless, arrogant extremists -- and, this time
out, they may not be confident that they can count on, or get away with,
any fiddling with the vote-tabulations.
Major conservative media, legislative and business leaders -- some of whom
are beginning to make noises along these lines -- may well decide to cut
their losses by urging Bush and Cheney to resign. Or, prior to November,
they may start leaning toward impeachment hearings, along with their
Democratic counterparts.
Sure, what I'm speculating about may not take place, at least not as
quickly as my scenario imagines. There are so many perks associated with
being the majority party in Congress in league with an Administration of
the same party. It wouldn't be easy to give that up. But, by the same
token, wanting to stay in power may provide more incentive for
Congressional Republicans to get the Bush/Cheney albatross from around
their necks.
FLYING ON FUMES
Were it not so tragic, it would be almost pitiable to watch Bush&Co.
flailing these days, trying anything to bring those poll numbers back up.
But, the truth is, their political larder is virtually bare. Whatever
political capital they once had has long been spent; they're running on
credit (and anxiety) now. Or, put another way, they're flying on political
fumes.
And so, they're hauling out the only thing that has worked for them for
the past five years: fear. It's not called that, of course (it goes by the
names of "national security" and "war on terrorism"), but we all know
that's what it is. Their aim is to frighten just enough American citizens
to eke out a "victory" in November -- as they claimed to have done in 2000
and 2004, ignoring the likelihood of electoral fraud. If they can pull
another electoral rabbit out of the hat, they will feel politically secure
for the final two years of Bush's term, and somewhat insulated from the
possibility of being held accountable for their sins of commission and
omission, especially through the impeachment process.
The NSA domestic-spying scandal is one case in point. It seems clear, just
judging from the ferocity of their determination not to let anyone know
the actual dimensions of what they've been up to for four years, that they
are concealing something truly monstrous and dangerous to their continued
rule.
WHAT THEY COULD BE HIDING
Since al-Qaida terrorists long ago figured out they'd better stop using
telephones and emails, that "something" may well have to do with illegally
surveilling and monitoring the communications of countless thousands of
American citizens, many of whom oppose aspects of Bush's program and
policies, perhaps including key Democratic leaders. Such blatantly illegal
behavior doomed Nixon's presidency, and if my suppositions are correct,
could take down Bush's administration as well. (You may remember that the
Supreme Court blasted apart Nixon's assertion that actions taken by the
President ipso facto are always legal.)
Even though the Bush Bunker crew is greatly weakened and harassed, they
still control the organs of authority in this country -- with most of the
corporate-owned mass-media still doing their bidding -- and they seem
willing to do whatever is required to keep themselves in power. Cornered
beasts are at their most dangerous in such trapped circumstances.
To save themselves, they are not averse to pushing the country into a
constitutional crisis -- with their discredited theory that the president,
when acting in his capacity as "commander in chief," can violate whatever
laws he wants, without the Legislative and Judicial branches of government
being permitted to question such authoritarian behavior. And now, in
cahoots with their Mideast ally Israel, the Busheviks are moving to attack
at least one more country, probably air-dropped bombs and missiles aimed
at damaging Iran's fledgling nuclear facilities, thus setting back their
atomic program at least a decade. (Don't forget that in 1981 Israel bombed
Iraq's nascent nuclear program, effectively shutting it down for decades.)
REPEATING MISTAKES WITH IRAN
The scenario that got the U.S. bogged down in Iraq is likely to be
repeated here. Iran, ruled by an isolated, arrogant president, is not now
even close to being an imminent threat; experts agree that it would take
Iran a minimum of three to five years to achieve nuclear-threat
capability. And, even if one were to agree that Iran had to be confronted,
there is plenty of time for diplomacy and threats of sanctions to work
and/or to organize the world community if and when such a threat does get
closer to military reality. But the Bush Administration, despite the fact
that U.S. troops are stretched to the breaking point in Iraq and
Afghanistan, seems determined to act unilaterally anyway, perhaps using
Israel as its proxy. We are the one remaining Superpower, get out of our
way.
And, as in Iraq, Bush&Co. seems unconcerned about the short-term and
long-term consequences of such an attack. For example, the neo-cons in
control of the Administration's foreign and military policy seem to
believe, as they did when planning the war on Iraq, that the local
population will support such a move and maybe even try to overthrow the
ruling mullahs. The more likely prospect is a united front of Iranians
against the attacking "infidels" and "imperialists." Nor have the
Busheviks taken into account Muslim sensibilities around the world, or the
law of unintended consequences after an attack is launched on another
Islamic state. The likely result might be Iran's refusal (perhaps joined
by other Muslim countries as well) to sell oil to the U.S., which could
cause incalculable chaos in America and trigger economic depression in the
West in general.
But the Bush Administration is fixated on Iran. With its hardened military
bases next door in Iraq, and Iran (or any other nation) unable to prevent
a massive onslaught from the air, the Busheviks feel the time is right.
And it just so happens that such an attack -- pure "coincidence," of
course -- will precede a midterm election in the United States. "Don't
change horses in the middle of a war" will be the GOP meme; rally 'round
the flag, boys.
Some posit that so desperate are the Bush forces to regain the support of
the American population that there might be another claimed domestic
"terrorist attack" in the works that the Bush folks will tell us they
nipped in the bud before it happened, much like their unverified claim
that they supposedly broke up a terrorist plot in Los Angeles years ago.
Or conceivably, that they will choose to look the other way again, similar
to their pre-9/11 behavior, and allow such a terrorist incident to happen,
to hype the fear factor.
In short, friends, even or especially in this period when Bush&Co. are
taking blow after blow to the body and head, I'm scared. Both because of
what Karl Rove might have in store for us in the near-term but, in case
his tactics were to work, also at what lies ahead for America in the
long-term. Whatever it is, it ain't going to be pretty.
OUR JOB IN THE OPPOSITION
So what do we do while the White House crew grows increasingly more
self-destructive? Stand aside and let them and their GOP cronies destroy
themselves, and take the economy and political system down with them?
Imitate their smash-mouth politics and cut-throat tactics?
Neither approach would seem to be the answer, though the Democrats
definitely need to hone their street-smarts and learn how to fight back
consistently and aggressively. They could learn a tactical lesson from
Rove: Go after your opponents where they are strongest -- here the
Republicans on "national security." Americans shouldn't even listen to
Cheney, for example, a Vice President who engineered the outing of a
covert CIA agent working on discovering the true nature of Iran's
nuclear-weapons program. Bush&Co. are dire threats to America's national
security.)
Our job, it seems to me, is clear. We need to do everything within our
power to create a reconstituted "Movement" and an effective opposition
party to forcefully (often with creative humor) counter the Bush&Co.
machine, a Movement with a built-in set of moral principles and a clear,
practical policy agenda. Doing so might well draw into the impeachment
movement more moderate Republicans, independents, Libertarians, anti-Big
Brother activists and the like.
While we're building the grassroots opposition and launching our creative
campaign to educate the populace, we must simultaneously aim toward taking
at least one of the Houses of Congress away from the GOP toadies who
provide the legislative shock troops for Bush&Co. That means supporting
courageous progressive candidates in the primaries and, if they don't win,
voting for anyone who is not Republican, even if they don't line up fully
with our progressive agenda.
The aim, the only aim, is to break the lock Bush&Co. have on virtually all
the levers of power in this country. Removing GOP control of the House,
for example, would have the practical effect of giving the Democrats
subpoena power to force the appearance of Administration witnesses under
oath, to obtain documents, to prepare impeachment charges, etc.
Finally, our job is to agitate for and publicize the need for honest,
transparent election processes; we may have to take election officials to
court in state after state. We cannot permit the continued outsourcing of
election vote-tabulation to private corporations who are ideological
bedfellows with Bush&Co., and who, it has been demonstrated time and time
again, easily can (and probably did) manipulate the computer tallies
without anyone being the wiser. No more election fraud, no more dirty
tricks at the polls, no more secret vote-tabulations by HardRight
corporations. America had enough of all that and wants to feel secure that
their votes are counted honesty and correctly.
If we can mobilize the electorate so as to generate huge leads in the
pre-election polls, and if we can restore exit-polling to its rightful
place in the process, ballot-counting manipulation probably can be spotted
easily and thus kept to a minimum. We must activate our energies and
prepare the table for a Republican defeat of huge, super-majority
proportions in November.
But unless we can ensure honest balloting procedures, and non-corrupted
vote-counting, our votes will count for nought; there will be no social
progress and our country will move even further into becoming a
militarized, one-party, neo-fascist state. That's it in a nutshell. And
that's what must motivate our Movement to help return us to an America of
which we all can be proud.
Copyright 2006 by Bernard Weiner
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., has taught government &
international relations at various universities, worked as a writer/editor
with the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently co-edits The Crisis Papers
(www.crisispapers.org). For comment, write
crisispapers@comcast.net .
