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Ten Reasons for Liberals (and Moderates) Not to Fear Bush's Second Term

There was really only one reason for a liberal to vote for Bush. And that reason was that a second term would be just enough rope for Bush to hang himself. Your conservative friends poke fun at you, your accomodationist liberal friends talk about how they can appeal to someone who lives in a red state, and your defeatist progressive pals are prepping for their move to Canada. Before you start worrying about having to wear a blue star on your lapel, here are ten comforting thoughts about a second Bush term. Ten reasons to remind yourself that no matter what Bush says he’s going to do, know in your soft heart that his bluff is about to be called.

Foreign Policy: Forget Iraq for a second. Tony Blair faces a killer reelection campaign in May. North Korea's nuclear program continues unabated, and Iran cannot effectively be deterred with our energies focused on Iraq. Add to that a tenuous leadership situation in Saudi Arabia, Arafat on his death bed, Pakistan President Musharraf being chased by assassins, China-Taiwan tensions, and mixed signals from Russia, and Bush’s unilateral strategy will have its day of reckoning shortly.

Social Security: With corporate scandals still causing tremors in courtrooms across America, guys like Grover Norquist say with a straight face that a person’s hard earned money is safer in the stock market than Social Security? Um, sure Grover, you keep thinking that while the Calfornia state employee pension fund, CalPers, is still suing Enron for misleading it as a major stockholder. Progressives and liberals alike should not be afraid, privatizing SSI will be so costly, that it may bring down the house of cards altogether. The reason is because today’s workers pay for today’s beneficiaries, which means that if younger workers stop contributing, it would fail sooner than when that generation retires. The impending collapse of Social Security is likely to have huge repercussions on the economy to say the least.

Education: Yeah that’s right, No Child Left Behind is a success. You heard me, look at all those schools we have punished with less funding for failing students. That is what I call accountability. Too bad the real plan is to crush the public service union by undermining schools, closing them, and offering vouchers to the disenfranchised. So now someone who earns $24,000 a year will earn even less to help ensure your child doesn’t fall behind. Right…

Immigration: The rural vote was often key to Bush’s success with special “Farm Team” signs hoisted around various events. Boy, does the President ever know how to return a favor. His guest worker program ensures that the “Farm Team” will get buried by waves and waves of Latin American workers who will undercut their wages. What’s worse, the guest worker program means no one’s job is safe eventually, once it proves successful in the Heartland.

Taxes: Simplify the tax code often means making it more regressive. The more you have, the more you can cheat. If a national sales tax is passed, it eliminates the IRS and all of its lazy employees. Plus it pushes the tax burden squarely on those struggling to get by, often who voted Republican. There is a God after all.

Health Care: More choices, better care. George Bush should get credit for creating single payer health care in America…it’s just called Kaiser. The government may not administer the program per se, but the future isn’t some clunky HMO. Instead it’s the physicians' Auschwitz known as “big medicine”. The prescription drug benefit is dead-on-arrival…as its funding source has yet to be appropriated. And if one is found, expect the drug companies to raise prices on otherwise prosaic drugs and supplies like insulin. Add to the fact that California stands to benefit from being the stem cell research oasis nationally and that pie on Bush’s face is going taste awful good in four years.

Abortion: Republicans love to talk about abortion when it fires up the base, but never do anything toward it. No matter how conservative the Supreme Court gets, they cannot prevent individual states from ruling on the practice and keeping it legal. No one likes unwanted pregnancy, but banning all abortion would just create an underclass of unwed mothers who need more welfare. See how this works? This shame felt by these unwed mothers will shame the next generation of women into returning to a life barefoot, pregnant on the kitchen floor married to her dud husband because there is no longer Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

Energy: Bush’s terminally short memory left out on his Ohio campaign stops any talk about the big blackout of ’03 which started south of Cleveland. Oh wait, perhaps it’s because he has done NOTHING about it. He wants to improve domestic energy production if it involves drilling a hole somewhere. In Alaska, local support for ANWR is big, but in Florida support for Area 151 is not. Incentives for public transportation, hybrid cars, and even a hydrogen based engine are all missing. Where's my Jimmy Carter-approved solar panes and sweater?

Gay Marriage: If you never thought you would live to see the day conservatives were against marriage, look alive! But see, the conservative vision of marriage is one where a white family, in accordance with Biblical teaching, raises white children so that Catholics, Jews, blacks, and other undesirables do not “out-breed” your kind. The thinking is, if married gays can marry, they can adopt and indoctrinate their children to be gay, thus reducing the supply of desirable white children in America who can be saved. Who adopts the Catholic, Jewish, black, and other minorities? Their own kind, of course.

Terrorism: George W. Bush has done little if anything to make America safer. During his time as President he has eviscerated the government from top to bottom. There will be another attack, and it will affect you, even if tangentially. How the Bush Administration rationalizes that, and his inability to capture bin Laden, ought to be a curious sight indeed.

posted by Thomas at 4:26 PM 0 comments