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I submitted this to DU, feel free to tear into it, I want to be able to argue a good case against Bush in the face of disagreement.
A recurring theme in popular media portrays irrational, out of control, hateful liberals zealously attacking George W. Bush, creating a partisan atmosphere unlike any other previously experienced in America. In this caricature there is the hint of something almost noble about the president, his struggle to accomplish admirable, or at least understandable goals, despite sniping and treachery from within. Invariably, an ingenuous appeal is made for liberals to set aside their partisan tendencies and re-enter the realm of rational debate. My answer to this is a resounding “NO!”
To understand the conviction that lies behind this answer, it would help to understand precisely why liberals regard “Dubya” with nothing less than loathing. It isn’t the fact that the president is a stumbling, bumbling, illiterate buffoon, although his mental shortcomings undoubtedly give many a liberal cause to sigh in dismay. It isn’t even the sheer hypocrisy of the man, although many would admit to experiencing a wave of disgust at the sight of an AWOL National Guardsman posing in the gear of a fighter pilot. No, foibles and failings such as these would be the sort of thing liberals would grit their teeth over and attempt to endure with grace. So why exactly has this president been such a polarizing influence in America, why is so much venom and outright hatred targeted towards the man. I have a theory. These outraged liberals, and I count myself among them, are true blue patriots with an impassioned love of America. The visceral response they display to this president is the justified outrage due a man who has led an unremitting, viscious attack on America. This is not hyperbole, this is verifiable fact: the president has attacked America, its people, its institutions, the very land itself.
Would it be exaggeration to claim the president has attacked and injured the people of America? Consider: according to the Coalition on Human Needs, under the presidency of George W. Bush “the number of Americans who live in poverty has risen for the second year in a row to 34.6 million, an increase of nearly 3 million people since 2000…..with 16.7 percent of all children living in poverty.” In the midst of leading wars on Afganistan and Iraq, the president has supported initiatives to cut funding for veteran’s health care and benefits by 25 billion dollars, thereby preventing many veterans from receiving disability pensions. Setting aside feelings regarding the war in Iraq for the moment, this is a travesty and unforgivable disservice to the fighting men and women of this country. Personal bankruptcy filings have doubled since the Clinton years, with 1,661,996 personal bankruptcies declared, breaking all previous records. Simultaneously, during the months of April, May and June 2003 approximately 640, 000 homeowners are reported as being in the foreclosure process, the highest level seen in 30 years. Education, the great social equalizer, has suffered tremendously under the Bush administration. Not only is the universally acclaimed Head Start program facing deconstruction, but funding for child care for student parents has been cut, LEAP grants have been eliminated, and funding for College Work Study programs has been frozen while the cost of college tuition has risen by 9.6%. This president has signed into law a ban on “partial birth abortions,” an admittedly grotesque procedure, but one which is invariably applied in cases where birth virtually guarantees the death of the mother. And, liberals too experience concern and even fear with regard to terrorist attacks in America. We don’t want to see another terrorist attack on American soil, or anywhere else for that matter. But this president has chosen to regard being attacked by terrorists as “hitting the Trifecta,” and has chosen to divert American military power, finances, intelligence resources and political thought towards a Middle Eastern nation which possessed no weapons of mass destruction, had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on America, and posed no imminent threat to us or our allies. Yes, President Bush has attacked and injured the people of America, he has made us less safe in the face of terrorism, he has driven hardworking Americans into poverty, he has cast aside our nation’s veterans and deemed them of no more use to his plans, he has denied our children access to education, the one avenue open to many Americans to create a better life and fulfill a dream where they guarantee their children’s lives will be better than their own.
Has the president attacked our nation’s institutions? Consider: the White House outed Valerie Plame, a loyal American who placed her very life in danger as a member of US intelligence services, and outed her solely to discredit her husband, a man who had the gall to question the validity of intelligence reports being presented to America and the world at large. A Congressional committee on the events of 9/11 has demanded access to files concerning what the White House knew regarding 9/11 only to have its right to access denied, to be followed by an agreement to provide the documents if they could be edited for content by the White House. The White House has refused to provide documents regarding Dick Cheney’s Energy Commission to responsible authorities. The president has whimsically declared he would get his message out through local media outlets, saying that major media outlets were presenting a biased, unfair, negative presentation of events in Iraq. Meanwhile, Helen Thomas still sits in the back of the room for asking the unpleasant questions. He has signed into law the Patriot Act, an act which was supposed to assist in the identification of terrorists but is now being used to prosecute topless bars in Nevada. He has imprisoned individuals and denied them right to either legal counsel or judicial process. And, if you get down to it, the current president was placed in office by a Supreme Court in an action that calls into question the very validity of our judicial system. President Bush has undermined the authority of the United States Congress and the Supreme Court, he has reduced the American media to a voice of the state, not unlike the kangaroo courts of Stalin’s time, he has morphed the office of the Attorney General into an agent of fascism, and he has pursued policies which deny the basic, fundamental rights of human beings declared in our Constitution. The president has attacked our institutions, and he has weakened our nation thereby.
Has the president attacked the very land of America itself? Consider: the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. It’s simple, really. The Bush administration wants to tap 3.6 million hectares of the ANWR for oil. It has attempted to hide portions of a report from the EPA about global warming. It has overturned limits put in place by the Clinton administration placing constraints on the amount of land mining sites could use to dispose of waste. Bush actively encourages legislation which would permit logging on federal lands. It has covered up reports about the damage expected in New Yorker’s lungs as a consequence of the destruction of the World Trade Center. Bush is no friend to the environment, he is not its advocate. The president has attacked our very land itself.
Yes, the president has attacked our people, our institutions, the very land of America itself. No, I will NOT “tone down my rhetoric.” The presidency of George W. Bush presents, in my mind, the greatest threat our nation has faced since its founding. He seeks to destroy the very ideals which form the basis of America. If that makes me a “Bush-hater,” so be it. In answer to that I would say it is not so much that I hate Bush, it is more that I love America and the great ideals upon which it was founded.
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