The View from the Meadow

Observations of the Passing Scene

Political and Social Commentary by Dave Satre

A New Direction
Time for a Left Turn, America

If the right wing conservatives stand for lies, greed, corruption and a failed war in Iraq, it's time for this country to take a left turn and an entirely new direction. The people voted on Nov. 7th to restore honesty, integrity and ethical behavior in America. Hopefully, this is the end of the non-thinking, faith-based, neo-conservative era and the beginning of the demise of the Bush White House.

The American public, once again, has demonstrated that common sense rules in the hinterlands and the voters are not falling for The Regime’s propaganda anymore. The citizens are fed up with the lying, the incompetence, the deliberate deceptions, the cronyism and the squandering of government money. Most of all, they recognize the fact that Bush lied when he took this country to war in Iraq and it’s entirely his fault that we’re still stuck there today.

It is important to remember that the original stated objective for the war in Iraq was the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussain. The slogan for the campaign to garner support for this misguided effort was Shock and Awe! We were promised the “war” would be over in a matter of days and our troops would be out of Iraq within weeks. This was just plain stupidity on the part of Rumsfeld and the rest of The Regime. These people didn’t know what they were doing, and they still don’t.

The goal was not to bring Democracy to Iraq. This idea came later when Bush, who never in his life has had the integrity to admit a mistake, finally realized what a mess he had caused and did what he always does: he made an excuse to justify his mistaken actions instead of admitting his failures. There were no nuclear weapons, the Iraqi military was powerless and Saddam was not a real threat to America.

The Bush Administration had an agenda and Iraq was at the top of the list. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were unrelated, but they used them as an excuse to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam. The agenda is more about oil, empire building and tapping government funds for their cronies – in this case, Halliburton and Bechtel. Oil is an important issue, but the Bush family is in the business and The Regime is more about cronyism and channeling taxpayer money into the pockets of their friends and families than it is about relieving America’s dependency on foreign oil.

Most importantly, there were No Terrorists in Iraq! Al Qaida was in Afghanistan. The war actually attracted terrorism to Iraq. It was obvious to thinking people from the very beginning that this effort would degenerate into a civil war, but the fact totally escaped the Regime. Now, we have 152,000 troops in the country, which is completely inadequate for the situation, and they have suffered more American casualties than the official death count for 9/11.

We’re stuck in the muck of Iraq and it’s all Bush’s fault. If we unilaterally pull out of Iraq the country will deteriorate into complete chaos. We can’t commit more troops because America does not have the manpower and we’re spread thinly all around the globe. The country, and its borders, are vulnerable on all fronts.

The bright side is, Americans, including the right-wing conservatives, have woken up and now see Bush as the phony that he is. This election was a referendum on Bush -- if this were a presidential election he would have been thrown out of office. Americans are fed up with his attitude, his incompetence, his mistakes, his destruction of the country’s foreign relations and alienation of most of our traditional allies, his destructive actions against environmental legislation and his propensity toward needless wars.

The Iraq issue was hammered home by American voters and this finally ended Rumsfeld’s reign in the D.O.D. We can only hope it also ended Karl Rove’s run and the vicious dirty tricks and name-calling negative attacks that are his trademark. Politicians embracing this approach are the worst role models for this nation’s youth and if they haven’t anything positive to say about themselves they shouldn’t be elected to any public office.

The task of fixing the problems caused by the Bush Administration now falls on the Democrats. This is not going to be easy. The Democrats are just as dysfunctional as the Republicans and are just as sorely in need of leadership. There are few real leaders in this country, at least among the politicians. The people with that sort of potential are more attracted to the business arena. The Democrats are stuck with the likes of John Kerry, Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. Well, at least they had the good sense to sever ties with Lieberman. But, who is going to rise from the multitudes and take control of this effort?

Even Bush, who has never listened to anybody when it comes to his pushbutton issues, is now talking about working together and finding common ground. The solution is, and always has been, for people to come together to discuss the issues and find solutions that are somewhere in the middle, not the extremes.

The hard-right conservatives have hammered an agenda that is largely based on moral issues that should be the responsibility of churches and families, not the government. It is imperative that intelligent discussions replace the political haranguing that has been the hallmark of the right-wing movement and the focus placed on the good of the country and all of its citizens.

The Republican Party no longer represents the majority of the people. It has become the party of entrenched interests and greed for power. They have ignored the real issues of Americans, which include oil prices, healthcare costs, Social Security, the schools, the environment and the country’s infrastructure.

This election has returned the system of Checks and Balances upon which our system of government is based. Bush no longer has a rubber stamp Congress and this will, hopefully, stop The Regime from implementing the rest of their agenda in the final two years of the Bush era. Now, it’s The Regime and the Supreme Court against Congress. Hopefully, the members of the Court will wake up, too, because they should now realize that their legacies will be tied to Bush. And that is not a good thing.

Most importantly, Bush is now a true lame duck -- not just a lame president. Happy days are here again!

Dave Satre
November 8th 2006