Who is to Blame?

Pension plan – Don’t count on it. Social security – Targeted for extinction. Medicare/Medicaid – Nearly bankrupt. Healthcare benefits – Being sacrificed for corporate profits. Continual war and a failing economy – The new reality!

But don’t be despondent, after all the war on terrorism is going well. That is if the loss of over 1,600 American lives for a war based on our own government’s lies doesn’t bother you.

So, how did we get to this point? Who is to blame for deceiving the public about taxes, job outsourcing, environmental policies, the war and the economy? It is far too easy to lay the blame for all or this on the current occupant of the White House, after all it is our fault that he is there. Besides, Preznit Bush is an entirely invented persona and a facade for the true powers in the administration to operate behind. He is the result of equal parts nepotism, marketing, ideology and stupidity. Bush is a Texas cowboy born, raised and educated in the liberal Northeast (to the never ending chagrin of Yale). A member of the CEO class who never ran a successful business (at least not without being bailed out be the likes of Osama bin Laden’s brother). A “war president” who evaded his own military responsibilities. A former drunk and drug abuser who now enforces the harshest policies on the same. And in his own words: "I'm basically a media creation. I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office."

We should also not assign total blame to the religious right. Bush and his cronies would have mismanaged the government with or without them. Bush was not a creation of the Evangelicals, rather Bush wandered into their camp with an empty bottle, a cocaine hangover and an ultimatum from Daddy to find sobriety or be disowned. The Christian Taliban has been riding his bandwagon and whipping him relentlessly to stay their course ever since.

It also would be wrong to blame the media, although their coverage of Bush (the man, the candidate, the ideologue) could serve as a role model for ineptitude. Network and cable news consumers have not done a good job of watch dogging the media in recent years. News suppliers would not feel justified cutting away early from, or not covering at all, major political events if the consuming public had voiced their objections. Taking action instead of mindlessly enduring another low budget/high profit reality show might cause the media to take their responsibility to inform the public seriously.

Then there are the Neocons, those self-righteous anti-intellectual parasites who infest the underbelly of government in appointed positions where they lie dormant awaiting an opportunity to strike at any vulnerability of their host. These cretins the likes of Wolfiwitz, Armitage, Libby, Rumsfeld and others rode the federal gravy train at taxpayer expense while networking with other like minded opportunists with a mutual hate for democracy. But we can not put the blame entirely on them because we have always known of their existence and were guarded against their accumulation of power.

And finally, congress, the executors of checks and balances on executive power. Despite the fact that most current members have debased what should be a noble and honorable office through concessions to powerful special interests at the expense of their constituents, they too can not be blamed entirely for our sorry state of affairs. That’s because it is our right and duty to remove from office, by election or impeachment, any member of congress not governing by our consent and by placing the concerns of special interests over those of the electorate.

Not one of those mentioned is completely to blame for the erosion of democracy, but each has contributed generously to its demise. What remains a mystery is why they all seem to be at their most active just now.

Could it be that with the election of George Bush the extreme right feels the time is ripe for them to finally enjoy the results of their 25 year venture to drag the nation to the political right? After many years of hearing conservatives employ the word “liberal” as if they were expectorating, years of their describing the political spectrum as beginning in the center and becoming increasing radical the further to the left it goes, years of their complaining about the media’s liberal bias evidenced by their unfair attacks on all things conservative (when merely facts were being reported), and years of their persistent adherence to talking points in a show of party unity, has the time now come for the Neoconservative drivers of this agenda to step forward and claim their perceived place of leadership over the Republican party and the nation?

One final ingredient would help to solidify the Neocons grip on the political process and allow them to complete the nation’s transition to Fascism. That is the incorporation of Mega-businesses into the government, as Mussolini did in pre-World War II Italy. Gee, I wonder if they can pull it off?