By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH – April 12, 2009
Over the past several columns I have discussed the successes
of George Bush in terms of substantive outcomes. They would have been enough for the Georgites, I’m
sure. But some of them can be and
are being reversed by the Obama Administration.
Thus many Bush policies, in the foreign and domestic arenas,
from war and its threat as the primary instrument of foreign policy, to the
deindustrialization of the US with the replacement of industrial capitalism by
finance capitalism, to the total degradation of the environment for the sole
purpose of enriching the extractive industries in the short-term, and so on and
so forth as we have detailed in some detail in recent weeks, can be and to some
extent are being moderated by President Obama. What may be more important for the country in the long run
is the political process “achievements” of George Bush and his minions. For these apply to the GOP, which
remains a major political force in our nation. It is now licking its wounds. Many analysts say that it is “searching for its
identity.” That is not true. It has an identity.
It has been developing this identity since Goldwater was its
Presidential standard-bearer. That
developing identity underwent something of a detour under Nixon (who, for all
his faults, liked diplomacy and thought that government had some level of
social responsibility, for the environment and in health services, for example)
but its modern pathway was established by Reagan and, in succession, Gingrich,
DeLay, Bush, Cheney and Rove have cemented it in place. As long as the party remains intact and
remains one of the two principal US parties, if indeed Obama fails (and the GOP
is doing everything it can to attempt to ensure that outcome) they could come
roaring back to power. So what is
the nature of the GOP political processes that have been cemented in place by
George Bush?
First of all, the GOP has become the only major political
party in the non-Muslim world for which a principal plank is homophobia. And it gets away with it. The “anti-gay marriage” platform plank
is just a symbol for homophobia. It’s amazing to think that that is the case. Part of the fault for this lies at the feet of the
Democrats, who out of fear for being “labeled” (who knows what?) continue to
let them do it unchallenged. Part of it also lies at the feet of the
gay and lesbian community which numbers among some its wealthiest members
Republicans, who simply will not allow it to raise as an issue the fact that
the GOP runs on homophobia.
Second of all, the GOP has become the party that runs on the
denial of the freedom of religious belief as to when life begins. And gets away with it. Part of the fault likewise lies at the
feet of the Democratic Party which continues to fall back on the half-measure
of protecting Roe v. Wade. But
part of the fault also lies with the “pro-choice” movement, which a) was very
late historically to make abortion-rights a political rather than a legalistic
issue, b) continues to frame the issue in terms of a “woman’s right to choose,”
nothing broader, c) has only half-heartedly and relatively lately made abortion
the health issue that it truly is, and d) has never attacked the Republicans on
the fact that a central platform plank of theirs is the criminalization of the
belief that life beings at the time of viability, for everyone, regardless of
sex.
Third of all, the GOP has become, especially under Cheney,
the party that holds that the Constitution can be destroyed if it is in power
and says, on its own authority, that there are one or more reasons for doing
so. So, they still defend torture
and warrantless wiretapping and Presidential “signing statements” that arrogate
law-breaking power to the President (as long as he or she is one of theirs, of
course) and unilateral abrogation of treaties. This extremely dangerous GOP governmental-process plank may
well come under direct attack from this Administration, once certain new
high-level Department of Justice personnel are in place. But that remains to be seen. In the meantime, the GOP is allowed to
get away with having such a process plank in its platform, generally
unchallenged on the political level.
Fourth of all, still on political process, and a successful
outcome of the Bush Presidency, the GOP has become the party of election theft,
which of course is how they got hold of the Presidency to begin with. Karl Rove was their master propaganda
master, but he was also their master election thief. There are indications that he may have been maneuvering even
to attempt to steal this last election, until someone told him to cease and desist
with an obvious “or else” thrown in, although we will likely never know who
that might have been (?Jim Baker) and what that “or else” might have been. Funny, isn’t it, how Rove’s point man
for election computer manipulation was killed in a light plane crash while on
his way to testify about certain matters in the Ohio election. But you can bet your bottom dollar that
they ain’t done on this one yet.
Fifth of all, they have developed their Privatized Ministry
of Propaganda (PMoP) to a very high level. It ranges from the Fox”News”Channel to the O’RHannibaugh
Republican Scream Machine and everything in between. This will forever be a clear and present danger to the
Republic, regardless of whether the Fairness Doctrine is ever reinstated. That the radio and television airwaves
are the property of the general public, not the private networks that use them,
is reason enough to restore it, but so far President Obama seems not to have
the stomach for this one.
Sixth of all is of course the racism that has been at the
center of the GOP since Nixon developed the Southern Strategy in 1968. It is muted now and they even have an
African-American national chairman (who knows for how long, but they’ve got
one). But for the time-being at
least they have become a White/Southern regional party and they will continue
to have to appeal to that constituency.
Seventh, the GOP is the party of the promotion of fear as a
principal means of winning elections. Cheney has famously been at it again, with a vengeance. (They may also be the party of
false-flag operations, but that is another story.) Again, if, with their assistance, Obama indeed fulfills
the spoken wish of the Limbaughites and the unspoken wish of almost every other
Republican leader and fails, or can be made with the help of the PMoP and their
willing servants on cable news to appear to have failed, the GOP will be
rolling out fear as a major electoral tool, perhaps as soon as 2010, certainly
by 2012.
Finally, on the process side of the ledger, the GOP is stuck
in the process mode of politics: “cut taxes” and “shrink government” is what they
are all about all the time. That
these are the policies that have directly to the economic disaster we now face
is irrelevant to the GOP, viz. their recent “budget” proposal. But, David Brooks’ and David Frum’s
pleadings to the contrary notwithstanding, given the economic realities, there
is no way they can come up with any alternatives to what President Obama is
pursuing with vigor that has any substance to it. Thus the constant “cuttaxesshrinkgovernment” noise, the
constant of the Bush Administration, is all that we will hear.
The modern GOP is thus cemented into the Bush mold in terms
of political process. It has no
prospects for change for the foreseeable future. And that is the most important legacy that George Bush has
left behind: a party that in any other developed capitalist country would be
regard as far right-wing and which, if it ever does manage to regain power,
will rule in such a way that we might even look back on the Bush Era with some
longing. 