Like the Common Folk Do

Bush doesn’t open his own car door, and hasn’t since he was inaugurated as POTUS in January, 2001. Condoleeza Rice shops for shoes at the finest boutiques on 5th Avenue, without giving a thought to the cost or how to make the bill payment. Cheney and Rumsfeld are corporate animals who may never see their own checkbooks because those who manage their affairs manage everything for them.

Can you imagine one of these titans of power standing at the counter at the dry cleaners, asking if this shirt would be better off laundered or dry cleaned? Or any of them taking the time to stand in line at the local market, answering the checker’s ubiquitous inquiry, “Did you find everything OK?”

Can you picture one of them wondering if they should run the air-conditioning on any given night during this ridiculously-hot summer in order to get a night’s sleep without sweating on the pillow, because they might not be able to pay the horrendous electric bill as a result next month? Or can you imagine any of them thinking about whether to buy those pants, or this shirt, or more milk or less bread, because they just can’t make financial ends meet by saying yes to every purchase?

What would happen to these people’s decisions if they had to give up living like royalty, and scrape along like the rest of us, worrying about our budgets and medical care for our families and all the rest that goes along with the American Dream? Would they consider what the consequences are of carrying out a reckless foreign policy that jeopardizes all sides, as well as alienating potential allies throughout the world? Would they look at the other person’s dilemma with a bit more empathy, instead of through a telescopic viewer with only political goals and ends in the sight?

Bush uses a term “Islamic Fascist” for the enemy in the so-called cause of eliminating terrorism from the world, as if that could be done. He might as well have said, "Moon-men,” for all the unintelligent gobbledygook "Islam-Fascist" means.

Fascism is a quasi-political term given to a government that is not democratically elected, is totalitarian, and wants to control the means of production—as opposed to communism which purports to have the people, which is to say the “state,” own the means of production. Islam is a religion, followed by millions and millions of people world wide. Islam and fascism together is like saying Native Americans and parliamentary government. There is no connection. But “Fascism” sounds really bad—like saying “axis of evil,” or “evildoers.”

There is no reality check for our executive leaders. They are a bunch of hysterical megalomaniacs trying to punch their way out of a paper bag of trouble that they have created for themselves. The real problem here, is that they’ve dragged American citizens along with them into this mindless abyss, along with a good portion of the rest of the world as well. It is mind boggling to even think of the untold damage a mere two terms of Bush’s presidency has done to the people of this small planet. Our only hope is that by voting, we can bring this to a halt sooner than later.