Bush and the America he created

[stevenleser]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_steven_l_060502_bush_and_the_america.htm

Bush and the America he created
Life in a Moronoreality during the Moronothon
by Steven Leser


http://www.opednews.com


Steven Leser

Imagine, for a moment, that you could transport yourself back to March of 2000. You land around the block from your home at a point in time just before the 2000 election campaign really begins to heat up. Imagine that you are going to walk around the block and talk to the version of yourself for whom that point in time is their current reality. Take a moment to remember and reflect on what you, the US and the world were like back then, what you believed, what you thought, what your reality was. Then imagine that you would try to explain what was going to happen during the future six years.

Imagine that you would have to explain that as a new President was sworn in, the country would swoon into a forty plus month depression and the new President would not do anything to relieve it. Imagine that you would have to explain to ‘the you of the past’ that the US would be attacked in the near future, 2400 civilians would die, and the US would respond militarily. Instead of concentrating on retaliating against those who attacked us and the people who harbored them, the new President would expend most of our available forces in the attack on a different country on justifications that turned out to be false. Imagine that you would have to explain that the new President would ask for and pass laws allowing unprecedented invasions of our privacy by the government and secret courts to provide secret warrants and wiretapping of citizens. Imagine having to explain to yourself that despite having passed those laws, the President would exceed even those boundaries and order the NSA to wiretap citizens without even going through the secret courts.

Imagine having to explain all of these things and more to the you of six years ago. When I think of trying to do this, I cannot imagine that the me of March 2000 believing it. “How would that be possible?” I can imagine the me of the past saying to the me of 2006, “How could the President do all of that without the congress stopping him, without the press reporting on it and hounding him and without the people at the very least voting him out of office in 2004 if not demanding his resignation and/or impeachment? What kind of screwed up, moronic version of reality are you proposing exists six years from now?”

Yes, we live in what I call a Moronoreality during a Moronothon of a Presidency conceived by; yes, I am sure you can guess, a moron of a President and administration. Science fiction programs like the various incarnations of Star Trek and Stargate and countless other shows and books including the Back to the Future series of movies propose situations where someone goes back in time, changes a few key things and it creates a horrible future reality. I feel like this has happened to us, as if some kid went back in a Delorean and made Biff President, it screwed everything up, and we are all just waiting for some mad scientist to get the kid 1.21 gigawatts to go back and fix everything. However, it is not going to be fixed or changed this is our lives and this is our reality. Most of what we are going through is absolutely the fault of this administration. That is the truthiness of the situation as Stephen Colbert puts it, that which the Bush administration desperately wants to keep us all from thinking about (and that is why Bush and the Republicans are so angry with Colbert). We did not have to be where we are. A better President and administration could and SHOULD have made MUCH better choices. The congress, no matter the party of its members, should have stood up and prevented this President from making such terrible choice and the press, which is supposed to be the watchdog of America was muzzled or complicit at every turn.

America needs a major change of direction. We need to get rid of this President soon, preferably via a rapid impeachment or resignation. We need to change the congress and elect Democratic majorities in both houses. We need to reject the temptation to elect popular Republican figures to the Presidency in 2008, yes, I am talking about McCain and Giuliani. They are both going to try and tell us how different they are from Bush, but neither of them has spoken up one iota during this terrible administration to propose anything different. Do not trust either of them to end this Moronoreality in which we find ourselves. When they utter sweet promises, just remember ‘Compassionate Conservatism’. We need to return America to that great place we were back in early 2000 before the barbarian morons sacked the White House, Presidency and our Democracy. We cannot trust anyone from the party of the sitting moron to do that.



Steven Leser is a freelance journalist specializing in Politics, Science & Health, and Entertainment topics. He has held positions within the Democratic Party including District Chair and Public Relations Chair within county organizations. His coverage of the Ohio Presidential Recount in 2004 was distinguished by interviews with Carlo Loparo, spokesperson for the Ohio Secretary of State, along with Supervisors of Elections of several Ohio counties. Similar efforts on other topics to get first hand information from sources separate Mr. Leser from many of his contemporaries. Mr Leser was the journalist who broke the story of the Bush Impeachment Resolution being drafted in the Illinois General Assembly. The story was printed right here on OpEdNews.com

[MadMaddie]

1. Imagine in 2000 that a city in the US would literally drown in

front of our eyes....and the President was eating cake! And Condi was buyint $1000.00 shoes....

[bdamomma]

5. we have gotten to a very dark place

and we are the only ones to find the light.

[stevenleser]

9. And I simply cannot understand that...

...it has taken so long for most sheeple to wake up and see what is happening!?!?! I know we call them sheeple for a reason but come on now. We really need to do better at educating our populace particularly in how to recognize a wanna-be-dictator in progress and also give them some sort of assertiveness training. Many of us have been literally screaming at the top of our lungs for over five years. How much does it take???

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I've argued with my sister since March '03 that the neocons want an

endless war and complete control of the Middle East. She keeps saying the American people won't allow Bush to start another war with Iran/Syria/whoever. And I keep asking her how they're going to stop them. She's still in that six years ago stage.

[Javamancer]

3. frightening how accurate the Onion's satire proved to be

At the time, I thought it was hilariously over-the-top, but now I look back on it and am amazed at how prescient it was.

Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Finally Over

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

Bush swore to do "everything in power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

snip

On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.

[stevenleser]

8. That is amazing!

And probably completely by mistake because it seems to me that the Onion intentionally tries to say things that are completely beyond reality, now or in the future. This means that what they wrote about Bush they considered to be so wacked out that it could NEVER come to pass.

Put succinctly, Bush exceeded what could ever have been conceived as America's worst nightmare.

[joemurphy]

4. We DO need a change in direction

We need a change of mood and tone. Personally, I think a lot of people are tired of what I call a "Republican Culture" -- a general ambience whose stock in trade is the inflation of fear to grandiose proportions and its utilization to stir up cynical and opportunistic divisions both here at home and abroad. I would like to see a different political mentality take hold -- one that is pragmatic and not doctrinaire, culturally embracing rather than divisive, and scientific in its orientation rather than theocratic.

I think most Americans know what our problems are -- unresponsive government, declining wages, crumbling schools and infrastructure, a declining manufacturing base, silly and expensive foreign adventures, global warming, an impractical overdependence on oil and coal as energy sources, questions about Social Security and the feasibility of retirement, and a real problem with funding and delivering quality health care. The reason for the malaise that we're in now is that nothing is really being done to actually address or eliminate any of these problems. A big reason for that is the Republicans we've had in office and the ideological underpinnings of the Culture they bring with them.

We need leadership -- confident, optimistic, and embrasive leadership -- that can marshall our spirits, give us new direction, and instill in us the will to address the real problems that confront us as a people and as a nation. None of this is present now in the current Republican Culture. I'm ready for a sea change.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Imagine in March of 2000,

that the candidate; our fourth estate,(aka MSM) was intent on trashing, labeling him a liar at worst and a serial exaggerator at best was actually a man of high integrity and vision and that this same man empowered more people than anyone else in history when he championed the internet, only to be slandered by the so called "people's watchdog" (aka American Journalism as his reward.

Meanwhile imagine, the "compassionate conservative" candidate that was to bring "integrity and honor" back to the White House championed by the same MSM, was actually a sniveling coward to afraid to let the intent of the people be known in an honest, fair and just election. Too lazy to do his job and read his Presidential Daily Briefing warning of an imminent attack on America or too shallow to care. Imagine that same MSM would cheer lead us to a war based on lies by the same "man" they empowered to office in the first place by brain washing the American People.

And finally imagine the same corporate supremacy people that did all this, now want to kill the only thing threatening their future attempts at brain washing the American People; a neutral internet.

[enid602]

7. . . .'just remember ‘Compassionate Conservatism’.

Sounds more like an oxymoreality.

[tired of the right]

10. No, it really make no sense.

That a man like this can come along and if not lie himself, have lies told on his behalf and not have to answer for it is amazing. But he has a partisan congress watching his back. He has a corporate media that never questions anything he does. And he apparently has a large constituency of church goers who vote for him to further their apocalyptic visions. It is all rather absurd. One other thing he has had and that is the services of one of the best liars of all time running his show for him. That would be Karl Rove. I am definitely hoping Fitzpatrick puts him behind bars.

[Q3JR4]

11. The problem was that even then

I would have been cynical enough to believe myself.

[tired of the right]

12. Yeah

Me too! I have never trusted this man.