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Blogfest 2005 - Mar 26, 2005 - Printable Version
- A Fall From Grace - How Bush is Alienating Mainstream America
by Mark Faulk
When George W. Bush was “re-elected” almost five months ago, I remember thinking about the similarities to the re-election of Richard M. Nixon so many years ago. It occurred to me, in a particularly optimistic moment, that Bush could easily do exactly what Nixon proceeded to do in his second term, and that, like Nixon, Bush might just get buried by his own narrow ideology, and be exposed as a fraud by his own political agenda. I tucked the thought away like a sort of emotional security blanket, something that could help me to cope with the avalanche of far right propagandizing that was certain to accompany a second Bush term. Like a car wreck that seems to happen in slow motion, I could see it coming a mile away, but I felt helpless to stop it. Our only hope was that, given enough rope, Bush and his extremist cronies would self-destruct of their own accord, and that the political pendulum, already so far to the right that its in danger of making a 180, would at long last begin its descent back towards the middle. In my mind, I had already laid out the possible scenarios that would precipitate such a fall from grace. The most likely catalyst was of course the war in Iraq and it’s accompanying excess baggage – the threat of a draft, the spiraling costs both in dollars and lives, the Halliburton factor, and the distinct possibility of escalation into other countries in the Mideast. Other possibilities included Bush’s misguided quest to privatize social security, the escalating national debt, his assault on environmental standards, the voter fraud scandal (already dead), and the stock market scandal (still in it’s infancy). Throw in the faltering economy, education, medical costs, homeland security, and immigration issues, and it seemed that at some stage, the American public would, bit by bit and day by day, tire of Bush’s utter disregard for Mainstream America.
Then, this past week, the cracks that had been forming in the foundation of the Bush ideology began to grow, and the unrest in the country finally began to become more vocal. Was it because of Iraq? Social security? The Mideast? The out-of-control spending deficit? Although those issues, along with the ones I mentioned earlier and a couple of other new ones, all contributed to the groundswell of discontent that is spreading across the country, it was a woman who hasn’t spoken a single word in over fifteen years who seemed to trigger the biggest backlash against the Bush administration and in turn, against the Republican controlled Congress as well. The media has seized upon the Terri Schiavo case as the issue of the week, debating ad nauseum the merits of continuing to keep her alive after fifteen years in a near vegetative state, as her family wants, or to remove her feeding tube and allow her to finally die, as her husband has asked the courts to do. And while those on both sides of the political arena and the media have argued their points until they become almost pointless, only two things have become clear.
Number one, the courts are united in their decision on this case, and all the political pressure and posturing in the world isn’t going to change their minds. Congress and President Bush stepped in after appeals at the state level were axhausted, and in an unprecedented usurping of the state courts’ power, voted and signed into law a bill that moved the case to federal court, where the judges ruled exactly as the state judges had, in favor of removing the feeding tube that has sustained Schiavo for the past decade and a half.
And number two, and perhaps even more important in the greater scheme of things, the court of public opinion agrees with the courts’ decision, AND believes that Congress overstepped their authority by hijacking the case from the state courts. A CBS poll released this week said that an overwhelming 82% of Americans believe that President Bush and Congress went too far when they stepped in on the Schiavo case. Eighty-two percent! When was the last time that 82% of Americans agreed on anything, much less something as morally sensitive as a decision affecting the life or death of a fellow human being. And while President Bush vowed to “err on the side of life” in his decision (read "Welcome to the 'Culture of Life'" at www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/Commentary/1031.html to see how ironic and contradictory that statement is), Americans clearly decided that compassion was the overriding factor involved here, not life at any cost. They decided that this is about quality of life, and about the individuals’ and the families’ right to decide their own fates, and the states’ rights to settle disputes when and if they should arise.
How does this affect the Bush Administration and their political and moral agenda for America and the world? If they learn from their mistakes, it won’t negatively affect them at all. If they realize that Americans, either Republican or Democrat, won’t blindly follow ANY leader, and pay attention to what Americans really want, then they will continue to enjoy the support of conservative voters. Up to now, they have pretty much had their way when it comes to support from Republicans, but another poll released this week should serve as a strong warning to them. In a Gallup poll released on Wednesday, Bush’s approval rating dropped an incredible 7% in one week, and the largest drop was among white male churchgoers, the very same group responsible for getting him elected him in the first place. Ignore those warning signs, and President Bush will find it hard to garner support for any of his ambitious conservative agenda, and the pendulum will finally creak to a halt and move once again towards the beliefs of the majority. And once that happens, the Republicans will discover that it is them, and not the Democrats, who are out of touch with Mainstream America. And that, my fellow compassionate Americans, is the Faulking Truth.
(Editor's note: This is an entry from The Faulking Truth blog, ingeniously entitled "Blogfest 2005". If you'd like to waste more of your valuable time blogging, go to www.faulkingtruth.com/blog/ )
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