A House Divided…

A. Scott Piraino

Exit polls show that “moral values“ won the election for Bush. The Republicans succeeded in distracting us from real, pressing issues, and making November 2nd a referendum on the new “culture war“. Basically, the American people re-elected George W. Bush because he is a conservative.

But he‘s certainly not a fiscal conservative, his administration has ran record trade and budget deficits. Nor is he politically conservative, enforcing a literal interpretation of the Constitution, (the Patriot Act is proof of that). No, George Bush has cast himself as a moral conservative, standing against liberals who seek to change our culture and way of life.

“Liberal“ literally means generous, or giving. Democrats believed that redistribution of wealth was right and necessary, and raised taxes, (predominantly on the wealthy), to pay for these social programs. They supported the Unions that forced capitalists to equitably share profits with workers.

Franklin D. Roosevelt created Social Security, and Lyndon B. Johnson gave us Medicare, Welfare, and the Civil Rights Amendment. Unfortunately, the days when Democrats thought big, and proposed legislation that benefited the working class are gone. The American people may still be liberal at heart, but they do not subscribe to the fringe issues that are passed off as Democratic values today.

This new liberalism goes by many names; multiculturalism, diversity, but it is most aptly described as being “politically-correct“. This movement is not one single issue, rather it is a way of thinking that seeks to force a left-wing ideology onto the majority. Anyone who disagrees with this ideology or dares to speak out can simply be branded as right-wing, extremist, or a bigot.

Our police officers are accused of racism when they “profile“ groups of blacks. Even though everyone knows black males commit the majority of violent crimes in this country, and the statistics prove it. This fact just isn’t discussed, because it’s not politically correct.

Most Americans oppose illegal immigration, and they resent immigrants for committing crimes, drawing welfare, using public funds for education and health care, and competing with citizens for jobs. But again, no one speaks out against illegal immigration because Republicans want cheap labor, and Democrats want votes. There are an estimated eight to twelve million people living in the United States illegally, yet the issue is simply not up for public debate.

In the recent election, the moral issue that was used to split the electorate was gay marriage. Middle America does not approve of gay marriage, but they are more offended by the gay community‘s whining about being oppressed when they don‘t get it. Again, anyone who criticizes the gay community’s endless lawsuits and courtroom theater is simply politically incorrect.

Right wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O‘Reilly, and Ann Coulter have made careers out of lambasting the excesses of the American left. These new pundits are not content to rail about old school conservative issues like gun control or abortion. In their view every perceived problem; from big government, rampant crime, ivory tower professors, civil-rights extremists, violence on television, and even our self-centered, hip hop culture is caused by…liberals, (who are of course Democrats).

These right wing pundits are very popular on television, radio, and the internet simply because many people share their views. The fact is, the majority of Americans distain these false liberals and their left-wing causes. And they disagreed with this politically correct agenda strongly enough to re-elect George Bush on November 2nd.

Unfortunately, Middle America has made a terrible mistake, because George Bush is not a conservative, he is a thief and a liar.

Now the President is free to carry out his real agenda,and with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, he just might pull it off. Already the Bush administration is proposing the privatization of Social security, more energy de-regulation, the rollback of conservation laws, and of course more tax cuts. Whether you call it the social safety net or the welfare state, the Republicans are preparing to dismantle it.

The next Bush administration is not going to prevent gay marriage, curb illegal immigration, censor the decadent media, or rationalize racial profiling. But they are going to destroy the core Democratic ideal of redistribution of wealth for the benefit of the majority. Seriously, with our budget deficits and these crooks in office, cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and other basic subsidies to middle class Americans are on the table.

The real irony, the real tragedy of this election is that Middle America, represented by the “Red States“ that voted for George bush, has suffered the worst from Republican politics. Their blue collar jobs have been shipped overseas, (Ohio is in the middle of the rust belt after all), and agri-business has destroyed the small farmers. Since they are poorer, they are more dependent on the very Federal subsidies that Bush Inc. intends to cut.

While the “Blue States” that voted Democratic have benefited from Republican policies. Their incomes have climbed above the national average, they are better educated, and they have lower unemployment rates than Middle America. They are also wealthier, and would have paid higher taxes in a Kerry administration to support programs that benefited their poorer countrymen.

The culture war has turned American politics upside down. Those who benefit from the Republican agenda vote Democrat, those who lose vote Republican. In addition, the Bush administration has not been forced to answer for their real performance during the last four years.

The United States now runs trade and budget deficits of over $400 billion a year each. There are one million fewer jobs in the US today than when Bush took office in 2000, and per capita incomes have declined. President Bush failed to capture Osama bin Laden or destroy al-Qaeda, yet one third of our army is fighting in Iraq because the President lied about WMDs to put them there.

And they got away with it by hyping the excesses of a few too-far-left liberals, and using the September 11th attacks to justify the War in Iraq. Simply put; Middle America was manipulated by an alliance of right-wing conservatives and cynical Republicans. They‘ve been duped, and now they will be discarded.

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