Coffman

EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
THROW THE BASTARDS OUT
by Gary L. Coffman

A European newspaper headline asked how Americans could be so dumb as to re-elect George W. Bush as President. Americans may well be asking themselves that same question following the catastrophe that has transpired in the Mississippi Delta region. It is a disaster not just because of violent natural events, but because of the ineptitude of a “wait see” administration and its short-sighted policies that put financial gain above public interest.

Environmentalists have been warning the government for years about the dangers of global warming, protecting wetlands, unrealistic disposal of nuclear waste, ignoring programs for renewable energy, and reckless harvesting of our national resources; and this administration has chosen to dismiss them as “tree huggers,’ “fuzzy science,” and threats to the economy. The obsession with the threat of terrorism has taken precedence over reason.

I must ask, as many Americans must be asking themselves right now, what threat of terrorism could be more devastating than the destruction that has occurred in the South as a result of bull-headed ignorance by our alleged leaders who had advance warning of the probable disaster: Time enough to buy shoes in New York’s swank department stores, time enough to continue one’s five week vacation, time enough to line up Halliburton for another fat contract to clean up military installations in the delta?
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Now the President has announced he will supervise the investigation of what went wrong. If ever there was a case of the fox guarding the hen house, this is it.
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Mr. Bush was right when he said relief assistance results were “not satisfactory.” Well, that is not all that is not satisfactory. New Orleans was one of the most critically important cities in the nation, culturally, economically, and militarily, and it has ceased to exist. It will not be rebuilt in a day, a month, or a year, and its life and the people who sustained it are non-existent. Harry Truman had the integrity to announce, “The buck stops here.” Even after this administration has selected its scapegoats, the buck will still stop at the Oval Office, even if the knock on the door goes unanswered.

Budget cuts on important programs that would have helped minimize the damage and loss of life and property are clearly implicated in the Louisiana and Mississippi catastrophes. Funds that would have strengthened the levee system were slashed drastically to divert funds to the Iraqi war, a war that should never have been initiated in the first place, except some in high positions were determined to rely on their fantasies and not the facts, in the face of world opinion. The failure to spend two billion dollars on the delta river system will now cost 100 billion dollars. The National Guard, I believe the key word is “National,” was pillaged to shore up a vastly underestimated military force in Iraq, and consequently, the states hardest hit had reduced numbers of guardsmen to do their expected duty. This raises the specter of grounds for a military draft to allow guardsmen to return home, and new prospects of American youth being sent involuntarily to clean up the mess of an administration whose only policy seems centered on financial advantage and personal comfort. No wonder the Arabs resist American influence. Perhaps they understand us better than we do ourselves.

America has been flying blind on a hope and a prayer the last several years. It’s time America had a plan. It should be obvious by now that this Administration has never had a plan except to fatten the fat by fleecing the flock. What does it matter that the Census Bureau revealed that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Americans below the poverty level under this administration in spite of an “improving economy”; what does it matter that American men and women are dead because of a willful delusion of weapons of mass destruction; what does it matter that a balanced Supreme Court designed to protect the Constitution and the Nation is under threat from Right Wing religious fanatics who represent in the flesh what our Founding Fathers warned us against because they understood the divisiveness of faith in politics; what does it matter that this administration orchestrated the biggest giveaway of tax dollars to the richest one per cent of this nation that could have been used to finance the recovery of this century’s greatest disaster?

Ask the people of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, and other cities, towns, and villages who are without homes, jobs, and a future; ask the mothers and fathers who have lost a child in Iraq and Afghanistan and don’t swallow the administration line that they died in the defense of freedom; ask the elderly who are threatened by the modernization of social security so that the rich don’t have to foot the bill; most importantly, ask yourself, “What does it matter?” – And answer truthfully.
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The religious Right is powerful only to the degree Democrats refuse to expose its hypocrisy and greed. The Republicans remain in office only so long as the religious Right intimidates them.
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Now the President has announced he will supervise the investigation of what went wrong. If ever there was a case of the fox guarding the hen house, this is it. Every person selected by Bush to head the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and FEMA has bungled the job at tremendous human and economic cost, and these are the very men the President praised in glowing terms as well qualified for the job. If ever there was a need for independent investigation it is now. With such a deplorable record of poor judgment, any nominee of George W. Bush should raise our suspicions: Is it quality, or is it pay back? To allow Bush to lead the investigation unchallenged can only invite charges of a cover-up. It’s time Americans opened their eyes, ears, and minds. We do not have to fly blind on a hope and prayer. It is time the “loyal opposition” recognizes that the moment for vigorous action has come.

Democrats need to get off their defensive asses and show some testicular integrity and PMS rage. The hour is past for making polite statements of rebuke from the comfort of their physical political office or weekly five minute radio addresses to the Nation. Get out there; scour the cities of this nation and meet its citizens face to face; show them, not just tell them, how they have been duped. Americans need to know there is an alternative to the present smugness of Republican leadership that caters to the rich and politically generous.

But there will be no alternative unless Democratic leadership stops cozying up to this administration and devises a genuine plan that realistically deals with the needs and aspirations of Americans that the majority of Americans will recognize as valid. Bland generalities will not cut it anymore, nor will mediocre candidates. Stop cowering in the closet. The religious Right is powerful only to the degree Democrats refuse to expose its hypocrisy and greed. The Republicans remain in office only so long as the religious Right intimidates them. Liberals saved this country in the past; it is time to save it again and those feared Congressional elections are the place to start. Failure to do so may mean the extinction of American Democracy in its own cradle.

History will have to judge whether any administration has ever so betrayed the interests of the American people. When past politicians advised us to “throw the rascals out,” the choice of noun may have been too polite. Maybe it’s time to throw the bastards out! We should carefully consider what Theodore Roosevelt had to say on October 25, 1905: “This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country.”

Gary L. Coffman is a writer, poet, and retired English teacher.

GARY L. COFFMAN ARCHIVE:
SURPRISE, SURPRISE: Roberts Rules of Order Revealed
Throw The Bastards Out!
Mein Chumpf: A presidential prayer diary
And the Nominees Are. . .
Karl Who?
Ray Bradbury Saw it All Coming

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