HOW MUCH DO I LOATHE THEE 2

HOW MUCH DO I LOATHE THEE 2?

LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

Part Two

By Peter Fredson

August 1, 2005

I was puzzled by the ascension of George W. Bush to the highest office of our country. After perusing hundreds of stored files pertaining to his life, I am still puzzled. There is a missing element.

I believe it has to do with the Far Right penchant for secrecy, coupled with a strategy of stealth, misdirection, and simple imposition. At sometime in the indoctrination of Bush by a flock of televangelists and similar ilk he was brain-washed, hypnotized, drugged, or in some other way became entirely committed to the fantasies perpetuated by religion, politics and corporate welfare.

Over time he became persuaded that the U.S. needed prayer in public schools, Bible reading in public schools, the Ten Commandments posted in every court-house, the public display of Christian symbols and icons, and the perpetual aggressive proselytizing of the American public under governmental supervision with official prayers and Bible quotations to become legislation.

As a corporate executive himself he was fully committed to aggressively pursuing maximum profit and gradually reducing restrictions on corporate greed. His despective views of workers and their problems fully reflected some current Republican views of the “good life” for corporate executives.

During Bush’s indoctrination the Far Right had become committed to the destruction of the Wall of Separation between Church and State. Their strategy was to insist that all law emanates from ancient Jewish literature and that their God has the most perfect system of government possible. To this end several Christian law schools were instituted to hammer this point aggressively, with Jay Sekulow presently at the forefront of the battle yammering daily about the need to abolish “activist” judges, and the urgent need to institute all Biblical injunctions as the law of our land.

He was joined by thousands of Dobson cloned televangelist entertainers, who are unceasing in proselytizing for Christian dogma and “fair” judges. Then came the Dominionists and Reconstructionists, not to mention Army of God true believers, whose aim is total dominion of Christianity by any and all means, as the ends justify whatever means are necessary to impose their views.

Of course everyone in the nation knows that the term “activist” judge means someone who does not intend to put religious claims into law, and that a “fair” judge means a truly committed white supremacist Christian. Everyone in the nation knows that George Bush is committed to abolishing abortion, to punishing gays, to imposing his fundamentalist Taliban-like beliefs on the nation, and to rewarding his Christian supporters by giving them access to public funds and resources.

Yet, something is missing. At some point, probably over a considerable period of time, there were meetings, conferences, with Bush and many True Believer organizers. But secrecy has veiled whatever happened there. We would like very much to know the exact details of what the True Believer agenda was, what they expected from Bush, and what he promised to do for them in return for millions of votes and millions of dollars.

We are fairly certain that he promised the religionists, politicians and corporate executives that he would give them whatever they asked. We are fairly certain that he pleased most of the lobbyists for Christianity and Reagan/Nixon agendas. We are fairly certain that he did not offend the very rich contributors who wished to loot and plunder natural resources, get rich from arms sales, and apply the Leo Strauss doctrines to U.S. hegemony around the world.

But so far I have run into a stone wall of silence. Does anyone know exactly what happened when Bush met with True Believers in Christian evangelism and proselytizing, with ex-Nixonites, and with the very bloated capitalist robber-barons?

We know only that Dick Cheney, to fine-tune American energy requirements, met with the rulers of American energy corporations, with the very lobbyists against whom America needed protection, and that he treated them very kindly. But he has refused to provide any details of how they influenced legislation. The same might be said of other legislation to protect consumers, the aged, education, environment, Medicare, social security, etc. etc. etc.

The Bush policy of never apologize, deny everything, keep silent on whatever shenanigans were devised, refuse all contrary opinions, go-it-alone, take preemptive aggressive action, “railroad” legislation, and “to-hell-with-you” attitude seems to work for True Believers. Chutzpah, hubris, utter gall, shameless arrogance, smirking and swaggering, must please many people. The soap opera climate of daily crisis, narrowly skirting disaster, is the Bush atmosphere.

We know that the slogans invented by Bush people, like Karl Rove, about “Compassionate Conservatism”, and “Uniter not a Divider” turned out to be vicious parodies of truth.

There are still some who believe we invaded Iraq in order to bring freedom and democracy there with our lovely cruise missiles, shock-and-awe tactics, Humvees, grenades, cannon, torture and abuse, disregard of conventions, and disregarding “collateral” deaths. There are still people who cannot believe that Bush would invade a sovereign country just to seize its oil resources and land for military bases from which to invade other countries.

Many people still believe that bullying, preemption; military intervention, swaggering, and nuclear threats still reflect American values. There are still people who believe that Bush actually accomplished some mighty mission by landing on a carrier in full cod-piece.

There are still people who, despite the finding of several Commissions, regarding Saddam’s non-involvement with 9/11, insist he was going to nuke us. There are still people who insist that despite the nearly 2,000 American dead soldiers and thousands of maimed troops, it was worth it because we are “fighting EVIL.” Some still believe that when the Black Angel of Death, Condi Rice, issues warning to nations about freedom and democracy that it is a justified prelude to war.

Perhaps that is why they smirk.