No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

A Modest Prediction

Being from Texas, I am a moderate Democrat partly because I don't see Democrats doing the hate radio stuff or the Ann Coulter stuff. Al Franken did good research as far as I have been able to determine, and he is funny. Coulter, as near as I can determine, spouts nasty opinion and nothing else. I also consider Tom Delay to be whatever the secular for 'antiChrist' would be. [My thesaurus failed me here.] Ashcroft is as dangerous a man as America has ever spawned. George bush either represents or appointed them all (except, of course, Al Franken.)

Being a Texan, I watched Bush buy his way into office as governor and lie repeatedly to the electorate. Then I watched him do it again on the federal level. Since then I have watched him avoid the issues that Clinton considered important for no better reason than simply because they were identified with Clinton [not because they were not important] and cease to consider anything at the Presidential level important except getting reelected, appointing more ultra-conservative Judges to the bench, and cutting taxes no matter what the need the federal government had for funds. [the last is pure Grover Norquist.]

His creation of the most extreme deficit this nation has ever seen and his failure to deal with the economic problems of the nation and the loss of jobs to lower-cost nations should be enough to eliminate him from consideration for reelection all by itself. He simply has no clue.

His attack on Afghanistan was correct after 9/11, but then after that he walked out and has ignored it since then. It may well go back to the Taliban.

His preemptory invasion of Iraq is a farce as an anti-terrorist action. It has created more anti-American terrorists than it could possible eliminate and has stretched the Army to the point that the Reserves and National Guard will not recover for a decade. He will need to expand the Army or he will decimate it.

The financial cost to America will strain, if not severely damage, both Social Security and Medicare for the next twenty years at least. Saddam is age 68. Upon his death, Iraq could have been handled at significantly less cost, and his death wasn't that far off. While his sons would have tried to retain the power of their father, the uncertainty would have made the replacement much easier and cheaper, both in American lives and in dollars. In any case, it has NO connection to the 9/11 attack on America.

In the meantime, the degree to which the al Quada terrorists have been dealt with is certainly no more than if we had not invaded Iraq, and may very likely be a lot less. First, we have fewer resources available to deal with al Quada terrorists because so many are tied up in Iraq, and second, the many nations who object to the high-handed actions of the Bush administration are clearly not as likely to cooperate with this administration.

The Bush-administrations focus on terrorist-supporting ~nations~ is simpler than focusing on non-national terrorist organizations, but frankly is not as productive as focusing on going after terroists themselves. The problem for the Bush ideologues is that focusing on terrorist organizations instead of the nations who supposedly support them means using intelligence agencies, diplomats and special operations troops as the first line of action instead of our greatest (and most politically exploitable) strength - the military. The military is designed to use against enemy nations, not against non-national organizations. The ideologues of this adminstration do not appear to understand this.

This is not a time for ideologues. The problems are unlike those of the past, not easily handled using existing systems of government and society, and not easily described in political sound bytes. Unfortunately, our government has been taken control of by ideologues and the solutions they are offering simply don't match the problems WE are facing.

Look at the Democratic candidates for President. Eliminate Kucinich, Sharpton, Brown and (I am sad to say) Edwards. One of the remaining five will be our next President if we are lucky, because the only way Bush can win is by fraud.

A fraud at that level will result in American internal disruption that is at this time unimaginable. It is my prediction that a Bush "reelection" will result in civil strife on the level of that in the 1960's and early 1970's at least. Probably more.

We ~really~ need to get out and support the Democratic nominee, whoever it is. The alternative is just flat scary.
posted by Richard at 12:03 AM