America’s Future?

Last month,

the High Court allowed Republican-drawn Texas congressional districts
to stand, clearing the way for other states to carve similar
incumbent-safe boundaries.

Last month, the High Court allowed Republican-drawn Texas congressional districts to stand, clearing the way for other states to carve similar incumbent-safe boundaries. We also recently learned that the President has used signing statements to undermine congress at least 750 times, which means congress can vote the “right thing” to appease the public, knowing that the President will proceed with Republican goals regardless of their votes.

So, even though the Republicans control the Presidency, both houses, and the High Court, it appears they want more power to change things. You’d think they’ve gone far enough, wouldn’t you? The Reagan Revolution was 25 years ago. Back then, Republican activists cleaned out the bloated Washington bureaucracy. Social welfare programs were slashed, budgets trimmed, agencies eliminated. Then when the Republicans took over congress in 1994, they toppled the Washington elite, and shook up Beltway culture with the notion that good government is small government. More federal agencies were curtailed or eliminated, more budgets slashed. And the Republicans truly changed the nation. Today, Republicans are the Beltway culture. The outsiders became the insiders.

They're in charge, but not complacent. President Reagan used to say, “We still have more work to do,” and his heirs have taken that to heart. Don’t expect Republican party leaders to rest on their laurels anytime soon.

OK, then. What do they want that they don’t yet have? Is the goal, as Grover Norquist suggested, “government small enough that I can strangle it in a bathtub.”? Not really, because since the Reagan revolution began, social agencies have been slashed, but government has grown immensely. Over the summer, we learned that the U.S. still pays farmers billions not to farm and you can’t blame the liberals for that one. Farm states are Republican. So then, for 25 years, the Republicans have controlled congress, the Presidency or both, and government continues to grow. Clearly, “small government” has gone the way of gas for a dollar.

Well . . .what are they really after?

Let’s start with looking at the Bush legacy, the man whom all Republicans fought so very hard to re-elect in 2004. They returned him to the helm in the midst of extreme unpopularity, and every Republican had to work overtime to give Bush his second term. So . . . what will he be known for? What has he spent his political chips on, called in all his favors for? Social Security reform? Nah. That was a blip. And clearly, No Child Left Behind has been left behind.

The answer is waging war against, and pursuing diplomatic initiatives against Middle Eastern nations. That, and incarcerating and demanding the right to torture people of Middle Eastern origin. Seriously, now. When he huddles with Condi and Dick and “Rummy,” what floats their boats? “OK, boys and girls. How can we make government more efficient and trim?" Hah. Think again. The big project is fighting Muslims at home and abroad. Americans may prefer to call it “fighting terror,” but the rest of the world understands our actions. The United States is waging total war against Islam.

At times, the cause has looked less than righteous. For example, torture at Abu Ghraib, worldwide outcry against Guantanamo, an alleged massacre in Haditha, Iraq, and May’s reports that U.S. soldiers raped an Iraqi woman and murdered her family. So we all accept, of course, that a response is around the corner. If it were Americans locked away without trial in some faraway land, if newspapers all over the world displayed photos of Americans laying naked while dogs attacked, if some army had been accused of raping an American woman and killing her family, we’d have busted out the nukes long ago.

So we wait, knowing that sooner or later, we’ll get a response in kind. No other civilized country locks up foreigners with such abandon, and we do it only to Moslems. Some smart alek will suggest that by allowing Guantanamo, Bush asking for it. That’s not quite true. He’s begging for it. If a few men in those infamous sleeper cells actually take the bait that Bush has laid for them, heeds his taunt to bring the war to our doorstep, then the Republicans will have their Reichstag Fire. The Lockdown can begin. Don’t get me wrong. The Republicans won’t seize power. We’ll beg them to take it. Here are the keys to the kingdom. Just make us safe. After all, in spite of mountains of documents connecting Republican leadership to the Saudi families that financed 9/11, in spite of the Republican Congress slashing budgets for the very agencies that can protect us from terror, most Americans still believe they are “safer” under Republicans. They believe Democrats are “weak on terrorism.”

But to truly understand the Republican blueprint for the future, we have to look at Israel, plucky little Israel, stoic in the face of permanent war, a brave people who understand that free speech has its limits, that freedom itself has limits. When you have a war at home, when people die weekly in terrorist attacks, there are certain things you can’t question, a type of ugliness you have to live with. There’s democracy in Israel, but only to a point. You can’t just go around saying any old thing. As they say, it’s war.

Of course, if you invest right, war has an upside. Click here to read all about the companies who will grow very, very rich if the Republican leadership’s goal is achieved. Not surprisingly, they are all top Republican Party donors. That’s right. All.

So. . . war on our doorstep. That’s what’s on the menu. The need for a permanent security apparatus, prevailing and unquestioned. If one or two unemployed oil workers in some Middle Eastern desert decides that the men locked away in Guantanamo are spiritual brothers, and find their way onto a crowded American bus wearing explosives, you’ll never again read a letter like this without look over your shoulder first.

The brilliance of the Republican war-baiting scheme is that, on that day that we all pick up the paper and read of 9/11 number two, no one will say, “We probably had this coming.” To do so will be considered treasonous, a dishonor to those who have died. No one will blame the Republicans, except in very private conversation. And after a while, we won’t even blame “the Arabs.” The fear and uncertainty, the explosions and weekly catastrophes will simply become part of life. Humans learn to adapt (plucky little Israel again). We will still laugh, go to parties, ride subways, planes and buses, and learn to adjust to the uncertainties of our new life. We’ll feel patriotic when we suffer. It will bring us together as a nation, and instead of watching American Idol, we’ll go to memorials with tears in our eyes and feel proud. And quietly, we’ll all look back on today as a type of Utopia, a dreamland in which entering a crowded café didn’t carry a potential death sentence. We won’t recall the significance of 2006, in which the President still had to petition congress for the right to lock up Moslems, a moment where we have one final chance to stand up and shout, “What in God’s name does that man think he’s doing?”

But this year, we have a better opportunity, not to reign in the President. It’s too late for that, but to vote out the Party that handed him a throne and gave him the pen of an Emperor. Poor old Senator Arlen Spector, publicly wringing his hands about Bush’s use of signing statements, about the Monster the Republicans have created. But they knew what Bush was like. They knew who they were giving power to. They knew very well.

Oh, by the way, there’s something else we could learn from Israel. A clever little torture technique called the titul, in which the victim’s body is shaken relentlessly, until they feel their brains rattle around in their head. That, and rubber mallets (no bruises, easy deniability). Yes, that’s what the world thinks of America now. A nation that tortures, and if you don’t like it, then this fall, send the Republicans home.