Even if John Kerry is only willing to take us back to where Bill Clinton left us, the following is a small representation of the difference between Kerry and Bush:
This is what Bush got from Clinton:
1. The longest economic expansion in our history.
2. Creation of more than 22 million new jobs.
3. Achieving the lowest unemployment in 30 years.
4. Real wages rising at ALL income levels.
5. The highest home ownership in history.
6. Unemployment down to 3.9 percent.
7. Hispanic unemployment at 5 percent, the lowest level on record.
8. African-American unemployment cut in half to its lowest level ever recorded.
9. The lowest welfare rolls in 32 years.
10. The lowest crime rates in 26 years.
11. Teen pregnancy and drug abuse down.
12. Student test scores up.
13. Fewer people without health insurance for the first time in a dozen years.
14. The size of the federal government reduced by over 340,000 workers.
15. The budget balanced, surpluses projected.
16. The (thank you Reagan) federal debt had begun to be reduced.
Bush REVERSED each and every one of those trends in less than his first year squatting in Al Gore's house.
It's myopic to view the Democratic Party in one color only as "Bush-lite" when the starting point for that argument must include a whitewashing of the Bush administration outrages from its very first year.
Democratic (not Republican) values have brought this nation the 40-hour work week, the G.I. Bill, civil rights, Social Security, Medicare, cleaner rivers, lower poverty rates and the first federal budget surplus in a generation (now gone), among many other benefits. Most Americans, I dare say, find these gains rather useful in their day-to-day lives.
This is a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Bush cashed in on war and fear. Nothing else.
Bush used faux-patriotism as a diversionary tactic to fuel more Treasury-looting by Bush's rich cronies and benefactors, and the creation of a permanent lower class to support the nouveau-riche aristocracy, looking forward to having lower caste servants waiting on them hand-and-foot.
In Bush's first year (BEFORE the B.S. about how "9/11 changed the world") these are just SOME of the indignities and outrages he heaped upon our nation and the world:
* Appointed John Negroponte - an un-indicted high level Iran Contra figure - to the post of United Nations ambassador.
* Appointed Otto Reich - an un-indicted high-level Iran Contra figure-to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.
* Nominated Ted Olson - who has repeatedly lied about his involvement with the Scaiffe-funded "Arkansas Project" to bring down Bill Clinton - for Solicitor General.
* Appointed a Vice President quoted as saying "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants." Vice President Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press."
* Appointed Diana "There is no gender gap in pay" Roth to the Council of Economic Advisers. Boston Globe, March 28, 2001
* Appointed Kay Cole James - an opponent of affirmative action-to direct the Office of Personnel Management.
* Nominated Terrance Boyle - foe of civil rights - to a federal judgeship.
* Nominated David Lauriski - ex-mining company executive-to post of Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health.
* Appointed recycling foe Lynn Scarlett as Undersecretary of the Interior.
* Appointed John Bolton - who opposes non-proliferation treaties and the U.N. -to Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
* Nominated Linda Fisher - an executive with Monsanto-for the number two job at the Environmental Protection Agency.
* Nominated Michael McConnell - leading critic of the separation of church and state - to a federal judgeship.
* Nominated Terrence Boyle - ardent opponent of civil rights - to a federal judgeship.
* Nominated Harvey Pitts - lawyer for teen sex video distributor-to head SEC.
* Nominated John Walters - strong opponent of prison drug treatment programs - for Drug Czar. Washington Post, May 16, 2001.
* Nominated J. Steven Giles - an oil and coal lobbyist - for Deputy Secretary of the Interior.
* Nominated Bennett Raley - who advocates repealing the Endangered Species Act - for Assistant Secretary for Water and Science.
* Nominated Jeffrey Sutton-attorney responsible for the recent case weakening the Americans with Disabilities Act-to federal appeals court judgeship.
* Forced out Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck and appointed a timber industry lobbyist
* Decided to no longer seek guidance from The American Bar Association in recommendations for the federal judiciary appointments.
* Rammed through a $2 trillion tax cut, of which 43% went to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.
* Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills.
* Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic drinking water.
* Pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty global warming agreement.
* Repealed workplace ergonomic rules designed to improve worker health and safety.
* Banned federal aid to international family planning programs that offer abortion counseling with other independent funds.
* Closed White House Office for Women's Health Initiatives and Outreach.
* Gutted White House AIDS Office.
* Took steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
* Canceled 2004 deadline for automakers to develop prototype high mileage cars.
* Rescinded rule that mandated increased energy-saving efficiency regulations for central air conditioners and heat pumps.
* Abandoned a campaign pledge to invest $100 million for rain forest conservation.
* Abandoned campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2), the waste gas that contributes to global warming.
* Made sure convicted misdemeanor drug users cannot get financial aid for college, though convicted murderers can.
* Proposed reversing regulation protecting 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building. (This one's just come up again)
* Eased the permit process - including environmental considerations - for refinery, nuclear and hydroelectric dam construction. Washington Post, May 18,2001.
* Started pushing for development of small nuclear weapons to attack deeply buried targets-weapons, which will violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
* Proposed to give government the authority to take private property through eminent domain for power lines.
* Proposed that $1.2 billion in funding for alternative renewable energy come from selling oil and gas lease tracts in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve.
* Renegotiated a free trade agreement with Jordan to eliminate safeguards for the environment and workers' rights.
* Suspended rules that would have strengthened the government's ability to deny contracts to companies that violated workplace safety, environmental and other federal laws.
* Rescinded a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential consequences resulting from chemical plant accidents.
* Suspended rules that would require hardrock miners to clean up sites on Western public lands.
* OK'd Interior Department appointee Gale Norton to send out letters to state officials soliciting suggestions for opening up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and foresting.
* Proposed to re-draw boundaries of nation's monuments, which would technically allow oil and gas drilling "outside" of national monuments.
* O.K.'d Interior Secretary Gale Norton to go forth with a controversial plan to auction oil and gas development tracts off the coast eastern of Florida.
* Allowed Interior Secretary Gale Norton to shelve citizen-led grizzly bear re-introduction plan scheduled for Idaho and Montana wilderness.
* Announced intention to open up Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest to oil and drilling.
* Proposed to eliminate new marine protections for the Channel Islands and the coral reefs of northwest Hawaii. San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 2001
* Proposed to eliminate a federal program designed to help communities (and successfully used in Seattle) prepare for natural disasters.
* Eliminated funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program, which encourages farmers to maintain wetlands habitat on their property.
* Proposed to curtail the ability of groups to sue in order to get an animal placed on the Endangered Species List.
* Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
* Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons.
* Helped kill a law designed to make it tougher for teenagers to get credit cards.
* Sought the dismissal of class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. against Japan by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves during WWII.
* Made plans to serve genetically engineered foods at all official government functions.
* Cut $15.7 million earmarked for states to investigate cases of child abuse and neglect.
* Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million.
* Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training.
* Cut by 50% funding for research into renewable energy sources.
* Cut $60 million from a Boy's and Girl's Clubs of America program for public housing.
* Cut funding by 28% for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks.
* Cut program to provide childcare to low-income families as they move from welfare to work.
* Cut $200 million of work force training for dislocated workers.
* Cut $700 million in capital funds for repairs in public housing.
* Cut a program that provided prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees (though it still pays for Viagra).
* Earmarked $4 million in new federal grant money for HIV and drug abuse prevention programs to go only to religious groups and not secular equivalents.
* Cut Environmental Protection Agency budget by $500 million.
* Cut the Community Oriented Policing Services program.
* Reduced by 86% the Community Access Program for public hospitals, clinics and providers of care for people without insurance.
* Reduced by 40% the Low Income Home Assistance Program for low-income individuals who need assistance paying energy bills.
* Held up (and continues to hold up) federal funding for stem cell research projects.
* Refused to fund continued cleanup of uranium-slag heap in Utah.
* Refused to fund continued litigation of the government's tobacco company lawsuit.
* Proposed elimination of the "Reading is Fundamental" program that gives free books to poor children.
* Eliminated funding for the "We the People" education program, which taught schoolchildren about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and citizenship.
Amazingly, with all these cuts in "social" programs, Bush has still managed to send a DEFICIT budget to Congress with dramatic increases in defense spending, despite the fact that the Pentagon had just reported that it COULDN'T FIND $2.3 trillion it already had! Bush is also increasing the size of government overall, as mentioned above, REVERSING a trend of slimming government's size under Clinton.
AND THAT WAS JUST THE FIRST YEAR!
And let's not forget Enron.
Apart from the obvious fact that Ken Lay got to put the kabosh on price caps in California, got to fire and hire the FERC chair, and got to personally write the so-called energy policy, Enron is about the failure of the corporate permissive culture, really begun under Reagan. That's a mind-boggling level of Republican corruption.
Here's what the Washington Post had to say about it at the time:
"Enron is a values scandal, and specifically a conservative values scandal. Far from being an accident, the Enron affair is the inevitable culmination of 20 years of agitation against government regulations, employee protections and other progressive policies that might have prevented, or at least softened, the blow. Ever since Ronald Reagan took office, conservatives have treated nearly all such regulations as manacles on corporate behavior, rather than as safeguards against corporate misbehavior. While it had help from some Democrats, the GOP in particular conflated its conservative philosophy of government with a conservative moral code, while creating an environment of corporate permissiveness in which an Enron was bound to happen."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11805-2002Feb1.htmlThis nation, and the world, was better off before George Bush overthrew the government of the United States of America. People then, who toy with the emotions of others in order to erode in the minds of voters the dramatic, irrefutable, complete, and startling difference between Democrats and Republicans, and denigrate the overwhelming superiority of Democrats over Republicans on making a difference for people, for the environment, and for the future, are fooling themselves and trying to convince other people to cover their eyes and ears with them.
The Bush administration is all about, and only about, delivering governmental largesse to its largest political contributors and within one socioeconomic class, while diverting the nation's attention by fanning the flames of terror visited upon this country in September of 2001.
Bush's philosophy is to continue "releasing" the so-called manacles on corporate behavior, despite the continuing proof (Savings & Loan, now Enron) that by doing so, government only releases the Robber Baron nature of corporations on the public, and that the "market" is unable to adequately police corporate behavior absent sufficient regulatory oversight.
We were better off under Clinton, and a first step toward the new "utopia" is to elect a candidate who can start us walking in that direction. Intentionally blurring the differences in order to confuse voters doesn't get us anything, least of all "progress." Was Clinton perfect? Far from it. But with a Republican Congress he did a pretty good job while being hounded by the bastard right.
Choosing a fate for our world and our nation that involves wresting our government away from the Robber Barons who illegally conspired to co-opt the power of this country for their own pecuniary gain isn't "putting a new face on our corporate masters" - it's consciously, and intelligently, and willingly, taking the first step down a road that MUST involve as a minimum bringing back the peace and prosperity of the Clinton administration, and from there must involve the continuation of bringing the Democratic Party back to its roots of liberal progressive populism.
As Dennis Kucinich has argued far more eloquently than I am able to do, the discussion on how to address the illegal Iraq invasion, the USAPATRIOT Act, the WTO and NAFTA, Universal Single-Payer Health Care, a minimum wage that means something, and cutting military spending, belong INSIDE the Democratic Party and not outside of it.
Electing Kerry is a first step in the direction toward addressing those problems, but not the only step. We can't elect Kerry and then go to sleep after the election. We have to show that there is a constituency for those issues and then push Kerry to do someting about them.
But to tell you the truth, arguing about whether it's right or wrong to vote for Kerry because he's not perfect on SOME issues - is like arguing about the color of the new carpeting we'd like while the house is burning down.
Dan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota
P.S. Thanks for the kind words
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