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Under the Sun Cynthia Oi |
Trickle-down antagonism
stains political discourseYou gotta love him or you gotta hate him. Of course, "love" and "hate" may be the wrong words, so overused as the terms have become that they hardly hold the impassioned definitions of the two emotions anymore. Instead, "like" and "dislike" may be more appropriate. Or maybe "favor" or "disfavor," "adore" or "abhor," "admire" or "disdain," "respect" or "revile," "cherish" or "despise," "idolize" or "loathe." Or not. Let's see.
I'm sure there are Americans who don't have strong feelings one way or the other, but George W. in his three-year presidential reign has certainly incited and polarized a good many people in this country and elsewhere. The self-styled aw-shucks Texas cowboy by way of a Connecticut Yankee-Yale, frat-boy circuit has by no means been "a uniter, not a divider," as he pledged during his 2000 campaign that now seems so distant as to have taken place in another, kinder, gentler era.
His conservatism has been compassionate only to those whose extremist views he shares and to the special interests he holds dear. By and large, his agenda and policies veer hard to the right, guided by an arrogance that has alienated global allies, and aided by a "yessir" Republican Congress that kowtows to his every whim. (The spineless, hapless Democrats are a whole other matter.)
While deploring "hand-outs" to the poor, the president hunts eagerly for opportunities to dispense welfare freely to corporate cronies, disguising them as tax cuts to stimulate the economy. He refuses to rein in companies who move their headquarters, on paper only, to Caribbean islands as a dodge to paying taxes.
His administration -- spurred by power industry complaints to Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force -- alters rules to weaken the Clear Air Act, exempting scores of plants from pollution controls and withdrawing enforcement of the law against at least 13 that have already been tagged as outlaws.
His roustabout pals are primed to change literally the landscape of the West with drilling rigs as his Interior Department abandons protection of millions of acres with the myth of reducing U.S. dependency on foreign fuel sources by opening up for exploitation the Rocky Mountain Front, Desolation Canyon, the Vermillion Basin and other wilderness areas that contain insignificant stores of oil and natural gas.
Meanwhile, he has created a political atmosphere of "we're in charge and hold all the cards so who cares what the public and those whining, lily-livered liberals think," prompting House majority bulldog Tom DeLay to cynically disguise a charity event, ostensibly for abused children, that will serve to pay for expensive, opulent parties at next year's Republican National Convention. The plan to circumvent campaign spending laws will allow donors IRS deductions for their $500,000 tickets to rub shoulders with the Texas rep. Not to be labeled a fund-raising piker, Senate majority leader Bill Frist will host a charity event of his own during the New York convention, this time for AIDS charities, but funds from this also will be diverted to GOP revelry.
Anybody mad yet?
Though all of these recountings are true, Bush admirers could probably do without the vitriol, no? But the blame for talking trash largely lies with the conservative wing of the Republican Party, along with the Coulters, Limbaughs, O'Reillys and other media noise-makers. They have set the caustic tone for public discourse. The president and his Ashcrofts and his Cheneys have fostered a "for us or against us" attitude, reducing opposition simply as catcalls of unpatriotic evil-doers.
As rivals fully adopt the same conduct, the months leading to next November's election will be shrill, deafening and discouraging even more Americans to take part in thoughtful debate. In that case, no one really wins.
Anybody mad yet?
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Cynthia Oi has been on the staff of the Star-Bulletin since 1976. She can be reached at: coi@starbulletin.com.
