Courts Seem Poised To Re-Elect Bush In 2004
If you think America is still a republic where the people freely elect leadership to political office,
you are disillusioned. The Supreme Court's blatant choosing of George W. Bush in 2000 to fill the presidency after the
botched election in Bush Family-controlled Florida changed the nation's image of a fair election process forever.
It should have stirred the hearts of the people to the point of civil insurrection.
It might have, except for 9-11. Suddenly an angry nation found itself cowering in fear, and relying
on its leadership, whether elected or not, to fix whatever was wrong. Because it was an act of terrorism orchestrated by unknown
agents, nobody knew for sure just what it was that needed to be fixed. Since that date, Mr. Bush had grabbed unprecedented
power, not only over this nation, but over the world.
Now, after leading the U. S. Military in an aggressive assault on Afghanistan and Iraq, our president
is getting poised to grab a second term in office with the help of a sold-out media, the money of big business interests,
and the courts.
That's right, the courts are again playing a key role in helping George W. Bush slip easily back
into a second four-year term.
This time it was a three-member panel of appellate court judges that struck down key components
of the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The law, if allowed to stand would limit big contributions of so-called "soft
money" used to finance the campaigns of candidates favored by wealthy big business interests. It would have given other, less
financially healed candidates, a more equitable chance to have their voices heard.
While a final decision is yet to be made by the Supreme Court later this year, nobody is expecting
the high court to overturn a 2-1 ruling that most of the soft money prohibitions in the law are unconstitutional. The judges
ruled that the decision is effective immediately, thus opening the door for a rush of big business contributions to help get
Mr. Bush back in office in 2004.
Bush raised a record $90 million in campaign money when only mid-way through his 2000 campaign against
Democrat Al Gore. Most of the money was spent in advertising. Even though he had only about half the amount of campaign money
to spend, Gore succeeded in winning the popular vote that year.
It took the Florida voting fiasco and an intervention by the Supreme Court to snatch the presidency
away from Gore and give it to Bush.
With power like that on his side, the Bush presidency is looking a lot like a dictatorship.
Armed with a battery of hard-line fundamental Christian thinkers and corporate heads who gave us
the Patriot Act and stripped most of our nation's environmental protection rules against big business, the Bush Administration
is acting more like a bully than a leader. But all this is covered. A well-oiled propaganda machine, aided by a sold-out national
media, is doing a skillful job of concealing the masses from the real mask of Bush.
That two "wars" against little Moslem countries and a big tax cut (mostly for the wealthy) haven't
done much to bring a sick economy into recovery after 9-11 should be signaling a warning that something is wrong in America.
What is wrong is that all of the power now rests with big business, which controls Washington. Strangely
enough, big business is so greedy it either doesn't know how to solve the nation's economic woes or refuses to do what is
needed to pull itself out of the slump it helped create.
The pre-emptive attacks on the Middle East directed a lot of government wealth into the pockets
of a few corporations involved in the production of the nation's war machine. But the assault shocked the rest of the world.
It forced up the price of crude oil, raised the threat of terrorism, and had a profound effect on world trade with the United
States.
The Bush Administration's decision to reject the carefully forged Kyoto Agreement to slow global
warming not only put us out of step with the other industrialized nations, it may have brought on a curse from the Mother
Earth. Since Bush took office the United States has been assaulted by severe and unstable weather, drought, forest fires,
black mold and biting insects carrying a variety of new diseases.
All of this is having its effect on business in America. Farmers are losing crops. Airlines are
going bankrupt. Factories are either on hold or closing their doors. People are not buying cars. Even though home mortgage
rates are lower than I've seen them in my lifetime, few people are buying houses because they don't have jobs or job security.
A major appliance store in my town just closed its doors for lack of business.
Yet the people in my area are still decking their bank-financed cars and homes with American flags,
showing bumper stickers supporting Bush and the U.S. Military, and loudly reciting the pledge of allegiance at every public
gathering. They don't seem to realize that the nation they love is circling the drain.
I have no doubt that when election time rolls around again in 2004, they will obediently cast their
votes for Bush. He will have the financial backing to make it happen.
