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Payback
for Bush
It's time to right a wrong this Election Day
By J.B. Borders "The proper response is not to
retreat," President George W. Bush said when he appeared at
the United Nations in mid-September to reaffirm his positions on
United States foreign policy. "The proper response is to
prevail."
I agree with him. Not about Iran, of course, or Palestine or
Venezuela or the Sudan. Nor about the economy, health care or
affirmative action.
But in general, when it comes to handling life's adversities I
usually believe it is better to stand and fight than it is to
quit and run - tué pa couré, the Mardi Gras Indians
say.
The proper response is to prevail, the president told the
world's leaders and its leading diplomats. He had that trademark
smirky half-smile on his face and that steely – or
glassed-over –
glint in his eye when he said it, too. Prevail, girlie men and
boyish women, that's what I said and I double dare you to stand
in my way. (He didn't actually say the last part but I could
tell that's precisely what he was thinking. Trust me. These
programmed tough guys are so predictable.)
Nevertheless, come Election Day, I intend to follow the
president's advice and join ranks with millions of my fellow
Americans who will vote to prevail over George W. Bush and his
disastrous policies. Again.
In 2000, I was with the majority. I didn't bother to vote. That
was a huge mistake. I won't make it this time around.
Even though I and most eligible voters sat out the election and
Bush lost the popular vote, his crew still managed to steal the
presidency by making a pointed attack on black voters in
Florida. So the way I figure it, we owe him one. Big time.
The payback won't come easily, however. These killers are
hard-core. They're out to razzoo the whole world. Nothing less
will satisfy them. They're not likely to let one presidential
election get in their way. They intend to prevail by any means
necessary, at whatever cost. They cannot be taken lightly,
especially by black folks.
The NAACP, People for the American Way and several other groups
have documented a number of nefarious tactics right-wingers have
been deploying to suppress the African-American vote. In 2000,
black voters in Florida were 10 times more likely than non-black
voters to have their ballots rejected and were often prevented
from voting because their names were erroneously purged from
registration lists, according to the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights. In more recent elections in Maryland and Georgia,
African-American voters were reportedly sent fliers saying
anyone who hadn't paid utility bills or had outstanding parking
tickets or were behind on their rent would be arrested at
polling stations.
So whether the current administration has to buy off another
Supreme Court Justice or to simply manipulate the Democratic
Party into nominating the most wooden candidates possible or to
hire corporate-style goons to scare black folks away from the
voting booths or to keep convincing the majority of Americans
that their vote is not terribly important because there's not
that much difference between the candidates or that it's just
plain stupid to change presidents in the middle of a war –
whatever it takes to win, they're already working on it. With a
vengeance. Remember, they've been plotting this takeover since
Bush the elder was kicked out of the White House in 1992 after
one term in office.
In 1997, when Bill Clinton was president, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush,
Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and a number of other people who
are now associated with the Bush administration formed an
organization called The Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
New Century, Old Rip-Off
The PNAC's objective, Cheney, Bush and their pals wrote, was
"to make the case and rally support for American global
leadership." Though the United States was in the midst of
the greatest peace-time economic run in its history and the
economy was beginning to generate huge surpluses for the federal
treasury, the PNAC crew carped that "Cuts in foreign
affairs and defense spending, inattention to the tools of
statecraft, and inconstant leadership are making it increasingly
difficult to sustain American influence around the world."
Cheney was CEO of Halliburton then. And what the defense
industry hated about the Clinton administration was that the
federal surplus –
the so-called "peace dividend" that occurred after the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War –
was built at their expense.
In a 2000 PNAC report called Rebuilding America's Defenses,
the PNAC claimed "the creation of today's federal budget
surplus, the product of increased tax revenues and reduced
defense spending, has created a severe 'defense deficit'
totaling tens of billions of dollars annually."
So what happened when Cheney took office? Halliburton, the Texas
oilers, and the rest of the defense industry started getting
paid. Plenty.
The last report I read pegged the value of Halliburton's no-bid
contract with the U.S. government at $11 billion since the move
against Iraq began in early 2003. And the record federal surplus
has now become a record federal deficit of more than $400
billion, thanks to the War on Terrorism and Weapons of Mass
Destruction.
Worse, the price of oil keeps skyrocketing and job growth has
come to such a virtual standstill that middle-aged white men are
now risking their lives daily in Iraq because they're so
desperate for good-paying jobs they're willing to voluntarily
put themselves in a war zone and almost certain death for the
chance to make $1,000 a day. Those are the same risks and
rewards black youngsters face in American inner cities when they
turn to selling illegal drugs.
Ruling the World by Force
I just read somewhere that the significance of any history is
lost when it is populated only by cardboard demons and heroes. I
agree. Heroes are seldom all good and villains are seldom all
bad. In fact, the most compelling villains are often those who
have thoroughly deluded themselves into believing their most
heinous actions are good and noble. That was certainly the case
with Hitler and it is likely the case with Cheney and Bush.
Cheney and Bush, nevertheless, are the two-dimensional (height
and width, not depth) servants more of Capitalism than of Racial
Supremacy or even of Christianity, despite their claims to the
contrary about their commitment to the teachings of Christ. And
Capitalism, someone once observed, "has no conscience. It
cannot be talked out of its machinations." It has to be
hammered into submission and service to the common good.
In Rebuilding America's Defenses, the PNAC argued that
America needed to start increasing its defense spending sooner
rather than later because "In the coming decades, the
network of social entitlement programs, particularly Social
Security, will generate a further squeeze on other federal
spending programs. If defense budgets remain at projected
levels, America's global military preeminence will be impossible
to maintain, as will the world order that is secured by that
preeminence." In other words, the military industrial
complex had better get everything it can before the retirees
start gobbling up the tax revenue and the Chinese begin
challenging America for Middle Eastern oil.
When the PNAC was created, it said it intended to accomplish
four things. The first of those objectives was "to increase
defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global
responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the
future." They've done that.
Secondly, they decided, "We need to strengthen our ties to
democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our
interests and values." They've done more of the latter and
less of the former, but that was probably what they intended to
begin with.
Thirdly, they concluded, "We need to promote the cause of
political and economic freedom abroad." That's pretty
standard American propaganda and a must for any platform.
Finally, they declared, "We need to accept responsibility
for America's unique role in preserving and extending an
international order friendly to our security, our prosperity,
and our principles."
The net result of these actions, according to the PNAC, would be
what it calls the Pax Americana, the American Peace.
The road to hell, our elders used to say, is often paved with
good intentions. Instead of peace and prosperity, America has
become untruthful, malevolent, greedy and murderous under the
Bush administration.
"When a country ceases to be good, it ceases to be
great," some eloquent individual recently pointed out. In
the eyes of the world, America has long passed the point of
simply ceasing to be good. It is now downright evil.
Cheney and Bush's demonic behavior must be stopped. They don't
deserve another chance to get thousands more people killed just
so they and their friends can horde additional power and wealth.
For the good of the country, they have to go. The first step is
to vote them out. Now.
I definitely intend to do my part. It's my patriotic duty. It's
the proper response. posted 10/17/04
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J.B. Borders is a social commentator
and cultural critic. He is also president of J.B. Borders &
Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in
strategic planning, fund development, and program implementation
and evaluation for nonprofit organizations. Borders was the
founding editor of the New Orleans Tribune and an erstwhile
editor of The Black Collegian Magazine. He has also served as
managing director of the National Black Arts Festival and
executive director of the Louisiana Division of the Arts.
Borders earned a bachelor's and a master's degree at Brown
University, where he co-founded Rites & Reason Theatre in
1969.
James B. Borders IV /
J.B. Borders & Associates /
3655 Piedmont Drive /
New Orleans, LA 70122-4775 /
504 945-7015, voice & fax
504 442-1645, mobile / jamesbborders4@cs.com
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