Wednesday, November 03, 2004
A mandate for what?
The
most astonishing aspect of the 2004 election was not the voter turnout,
the troubles at voting stations, nor the bitterly divided electorate.
The most astonishing aspect was the roughly 3.5 million vote margin
of victory for Bush in the popular vote. Barring any major changes
in numbers after the remaining provisional and absentee ballots
are counted in
Did the majority of American voters on November 2 go to the polls
to openly and willingly support...
To support an illegal war against- Torture and Human Rights
To support an administration morally and politically responsible for serious violations of the Geneva Convention during its occupation of - International Treaties and Organizations
To support further withdrawals from international treaties and organizations, and a unilateralist approach to world affairs. To support obstruction of the International Criminal Court. To support opposition to the Treaty to Ban Land Mines, the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases… To support the abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and a promised yet-to-be-realized abrogation of the Treaty for Peaceful Uses of Space… To support obstruction to a functional United Nations. To favor strong-armed tactics for coercing the international body to bend to the will of US might or make it irrelevant…to support the spying on UN Security Council delegates in New York in an attempt to gain a vote for war against Iraq in 2003. - Civil Liberties
To support the egregious dismantlement of civil liberties allowed under the PATRIOT Act, and welcome their continued dismantlement under new laws stemming from the infamous PATRIOT Act II “wish list” drawn up by the administration. - Military Empire
To support the continued isolation of the - Budget Deficit
To support the racking up of the largest budget deficit in history. To support a continued runaway military budget that makes such deficits and the bleeding of domestic programs inevitable. To support a 'warfare state' and the dismantlement of basic programs to ensure a vibrant, healthy and secure society through a policy of Military Keynesianism. - Wealth Inequality
To support the redistribution of wealth to the top 1% of society and the continued erosion of wages for the rest. To support an egregious increase in salaries of corporate executives while the minimum wage stagnates. To support profits for drug companies while Americans go without health insurance or access to affordable care and medicine. - Environment
To support the continued favoring of industry over basic protections of our natural heritage. To support short term profits for corporate supporters over clean air and clean water. To support opposition to funding the clean up of environmental disaster sites. To support a continued reliance on fossil fuels and foreign oil, and the wars that drive that habit. To support opposition to significant research monies for alternative energy sources. To support opposition to preserving old growth forests, endangered species and public lands. - Social Security
To support the privatization of social security. To support the continued draining of funds for increasing number of retirees in favor of irresponsible fiscal policy. - Health Insurance
To support opposition to ensuring all Americans are covered. To support drug company profits over affordable medicine. To support a system that has some of the best quality of care, but some of the worst access to that care in the western world if you aren’t in the right income bracket, didn’t grow up in the right neighborhood or weren’t born with the right color of skin. - Terror and Fear
To support a government that manufactures fear, spreads fear and rules by fear…all in the name of protecting the country from “terror.” To support an administration whose policy increases recruits for extremist organizations like al Qaeda. To support an administration that has done little to actually track down and bring those responsible for 9/11 to justice, while instead using the tragedy as an excuse to implement its policy of global empire. - Church and State
To support the erosion of our secular union, the age old separation of church and state that - Intolerance
To support the state support of intolerance through constitutional amendments... - Supreme Court
To give Bush the opportunity to appoint several new justices to the Supreme Court to continue the erosion of individual liberties in favor of a state based on one group's religious doctrine...
Did
the majority of American voters on November 2 go to the polls to
openly and willingly support these policies?
I’d like to think that the majority of voters who gave Bush
another four years in control of the world didn’t really think
twice about a majority of the policies named above. I’m more
inclined to chalk it up to a fundamental lack of knowledge by Bush
supporters of administration policy, as indicated in polls; the
isolation of Americans who are walled-in and disconnected from the
world; Americans’ lack of understanding of the effects of their
country’s power in the global community; an increasingly consolidated
media that stifles true discussion of issues necessary for citizens
to participate in the democratic process…and the mastery of
the propaganda of fear that Karl Rove and the Bush team have implemented
so well, and convincingly plastered across the television in misleading
and emotional thirty-second spots.
Even
if those are the reasons, ignorance is bondage. The sad fact remains
that while
- Adam