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CounterPunch
January
20, 2003
Democratic
Yelling Points:
Seven Questions Dems Have to
Ask
by RICH PROCTER
1) WHY IS THERE (AT LEAST) 60 BILLION
FOR AN IRAQ WAR NOBODY WANTS, 28 BILLION FOR A 'STAR WARS' ANTI-MISSILE
SYSTEM THAT WON'T WORK, AND NOTHING FOR TENS OF MILLIONS OF FAMILIES
WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE?
If you don't have medical insurance,
you have one hope for getting decent care -- having a heart attack
in front of Bill Frist, with a Fox TV cameraman nearby. Otherwise,
the Bushies are very happy to see you and your family expire,
pounding on the door of the ER. Every day brings a new horror
story, like today's headline in the New York Times -- "Bush
policy rolls back ER services for poor on Medicaid." This
is unnecessary, mean-spirited, cruel and wrong. "Compassionate
Conservatism" my ass. Medical care isn't a commodity --
it's a right.
2) WHY THIS OBSESSION WITH KEEPING PEOPLE
FROM KNOWING WHAT'S GOING ON IN THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT?
V.P. Cheney won't let us know who is
whispering in his ear about our energy policy. Let me repeat
that -- OUR energy policy. You know, WE THE PEOPLE. We elected
these clowns (shame on us). They work for us, so why won't the
tell us what they're up to? Ashcroft sent his people a memo actively
encouraging them to reject "Freedom of Information Act"
requests. Why? Isn't that the law? Isn't he supposed to uphold
the law?
3) WHY DENY PEOPLE THEIR DAY IN COURT,
TO BE JUDGED BY A JURY OF THEIR PEERS?
Bush's newest obsession is "tort
reform," another way of saying that he doesn't think "we
the people" are smart enough to make our court systems work.
Those "big jury awards" he's yelling about were decided
by juries made up of American citizens, deciding cases on their
merits. The courts are the one recourse a citizen has when the
Enrons and Exxons and Eli Lillys and (fill in rapacious corporation
here) destroy their lives. Guess what will happen if Bush gets
his way and limits damage settlements? Anyone remember the Ford
Pinto case? The Ford safety engineers wanted to put a ten dollar
baffle between the bumper of the Pinto and the gas tank. Lee
Iococca wanted the car to come in for less than $2000. Company
lawyers (get out your barf bag) figured that if they DIDN'T put
in the baffle, about 200 people a year would get burned to death,
and each of those people would get a couple of hundred thousand
dollars -- so, bottom line, it didn't make sense to put in the
baffle. THEY HAD FIGURED THE COST OF DEATH SETTLEMENTS INTO THEIR
BOOKKEEPING. If Bush limits these award judgements, you think
this WON'T happen again? What's your life worth? Your children?
4) WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT THAT FEWER
AND FEWER PEOPLE HAVE THEIR VOICES HEARD, JUST SO THOSE FEW CAN
MAKE MORE AND MORE MONEY?
The second worst thing Bill Clinton ever
did as President was to change the rules of media ownership.
He opened the way for voracious media giants to swallow up thousands
of tv and radio stations. This means you and I hear a lot fewer
voices and lot fewer opinions and points of view. The airwaves
belong to the people -- this is what the FCC said in 1934. TV
and radio station licenses are supposedly given to broadcasters
who will operate in the public interest. The Reagan Administration
changed this attitude -- they decided that radio and TV stations
were as "value free" as microwave ovens, and were merely
vehicles to make wealthy broadcasters wealthier. They're not.
They are the vehicles by which Americans talk to other Americans,
as we try to find out who we are, what we think, and where we're
going. Why is it so important to Michael Powell and Bush
and all the other alleged "free marketeers" that FEWER
AND FEWER folks make more and more money giving us less and less
content? Which "public" does this serve?
5) WHY ARE THE REPUBLICANS SO DEATHLY
AFRAID OF AN HONEST DIALOGUE WITH THE PEOPLE THEY PRETEND TO
SERVE?
George Bush doesn't like press conferences.
Some "librul" might ask him something impertinent.
His solution? Don't bother with them. God forbid he should have
to talk to someone who might disagree with him, and force him
to explain himself. Of course, he's already said that, as President,
he DOESN'T HAVE to explain himself. He can get away with being
insulated, imperious and high-handed because he'll know he's
speaking in a right-wing echo chamber -- wingnuts telling wingnuts
that wingnuts are right about everything. He's OUR President.
He needs to come out from his hidey-hole and explain himself
(if possible). Same for Clarence Thomas. He's got a new book
he's going to promote, but he's not going to speak in any forum
where he might hear a discouraging word -- just the usual wingnut
media echo chamber. Do we really want a Supreme Court Justice
who is afraid to explain himself to Katie Couric? The mind reels.
6) WHY DO BUSH AND HIS CRONIES WORK SO
HARD AT BEING DIVISIVE, WHEN THE COUNTRY IS BEGGING FOR UNITY?
There's never been an Administration
so eager to pick a fight, play to their "angry white male"
base, and push the loyal opposition's nose in the dirt. Where
to begin? The tax cut is classic "class warfare," a
reverse-Robin Hood effort that takes from the poor and middle
class, makes the well off even more well off, and most importantly,
destroys the ability of government to raise money for them "librul"
social programs. Is it going to produce staggering budget deficits
into the year 2070? Who cares? These guys will all be retired
behind the walls of their gated communities by then. Plenty
of Judges out there -- do we really have to debate how big a
good ol' boy cracker racist Charles Pickering is? And how 'bout
drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Reserve? That oil won't even
start arriving for eight years, which means this is nothing but
another finger in the eye of anyone with a scintilla of environmental
consciousness. Karl Rove and company don't just want to beat
the Dems. They want to humiliate, enrage, mock and destroy them.
The fact that the Dems make up (slightly more than) half the
population doesn't figure into their equation.
7) WHY DON'T BUSH AND COMPANY HAVE THE
GUTS TO PRESENT, DEBATE AND DEFEND THEIR REAL AGENDA?
Let's examine the Bush Agenda honestly.
If he had HONESTLY presented his agenda in 2000, he would have
run on the following: o "PRE-EMPTIVE" WAR IN IRAQ,
with no provocation, and no international support. o TURN HUGE
SURPLUS INTO STAGGERING DEFICIT THROUGH MASSIVE TAX BREAKS FOR
THE WEALTHY o ROLLBACK 20 YEARS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAFEGUARDS o
PRIVATIZE (i.e. destroy) SOCIAL SECURITY, PRIVATIZE (i.e. destroy)
MEDICARE AND MEDICAID o CREATE A AGENCY WITH MIND-BOGGLING ABILITY
TO SNOOP INTO EVERY CORNER OF YOUR LIFE WITH NO OVERSIGHT. o
DESTROY OR PERVERT MISSION OF REGULATORY AGENCIES AT BEHEST OF
BUSINESSES THEY ARE MEANT TO REGULATE o DESTROY ABILITY OF CITIZENS
TO SEEK REDRESS AGAINST CORPORATIONS IN COURT o DESTROY A WOMAN'S
RIGHT TO CHOOSE BY APPOINTING WINGNUT JUDGES (Priscilla Owens,
etc.) WHO WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SUBVERT THE LAW
Think Bush would have gotten elected
on this platform? He ran as a moderate, and has ruled as the
most partisan right-wing zealot in history. The one thing
the Bushies understand is public relations. They know that the
right wing megaphone known as the media will mouth their bland
platitudes about "compassion" and "moderation"
even as they continue their reign of terror. The only hope for
the Democrats is to ask these questions, and keep asking them
until they get an answer.
Yesterday's Features
William Hughes
Rockin'
DC
100,000 Plus for Peace
Wayne Madsen
Deceptions & Illusions
How the Press Downplayed the Protests
Alexander Cockburn
American
Journal
Paranoid? North Korea?
Kevin Gray
Born Again
Can MLK's Legacy Be Reclaimed from Its Abusers?
Edward Said
An Unacceptable
Helplessness
Saul Landau
Mt. Whitney Towers Above Death
Valley
Eric Ruder
Death
Row Shut Down
How Victory Was Won
Anthony Gancarski
Is the Vatican Part of the Axis
of Evil?
Ray Hanania
Likud and Hamas: the Ties that Bind
Walt Brasch
Bush Dances with the Supremes
Carol Norris
Rumsfeld's Paradigm Shift
No Evidence is Evidence
Adam Engel
The Armageddon Jamboree
Anis Shivani
Is It Time to Move to Canada?
Krieger, Smith Carson
Poets' Basement
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