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Economics and ethnicity are spicing the political menu here at home and abroad, and the Bushies are having a tough struggle with both.
I was sitting in the Republican think tank the other night, reflecting on our tumultuous times. I dubbed my Jacuzzi that because, first of all, while in it you think very little, and secondly, the last thing you think about is the poor and oppressed.
Wall Street, however, did come to mind and as the bubbles engulfed me and I sipped on a delightful wine spritzer. I decided there wasn't much I could do about the stock market tanking, and like millions of other Americans who are watching their 401(k)s plunge, I'd just have to grin and bear it.
I'm fortunate to have even a little capital to worry about. What about the poor, the unemployed, elderly people on fixed incomes, and those with inadequate or no health insurance at all?
How about those planning to retire this year and those who have just retired? They worked for years to build a little nest egg, and now they're in a terrible fix. This is not good, and the Bush administration is in the worst shape possible to restore confidence in our financial markets.
The president and vice president have no moral authority whatsoever in offering the leadership to restore faith in Wall Street. That will have to come from the determination of the American people.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney both benefited personally and enormously from business and stock deals that, at the very least, were highly questionable. The wealth they amassed had the underpinnings of accounting and financial reporting games that neither man has yet to fully explain, and won't until they are forced to do so.
Bush and Cheney's business careers were built on political and family connections, and on close examination, the enterprises they were responsible for were marked by failure, and in Cheney's case dependence on government contracts.
Maybe the new battle cry for the Republicans and their CEO campaign-money sugar daddies should be, "We'll only steal as much as we need." Now that would be refreshing. Instead of ripping off shareholders for, let's say, $40 million, they could pledge to show restraint and keep it down to $20 million or so.
Of course, Sen. Phil Gramm (Rep.-Enron) could pass a law giving them a significant tax break for not taking all the money up front.
The smartest thing the president could do is let the Congress craft the entire package of financial reporting legislation, sign the bill, and let his corporate pals howl. Later, he can send Cheney to explain to CEOs the political necessity to save capitalism from rapacious capitalists.
The president's playing ethnic politics to the hilt, already looking to the 2004 election. Bush came to Metro Detroit last week, hand in hand with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
About 10 percent of Michigan voters are Polish-Americans. In other areas of the Midwest, like Illinois and Wisconsin, Poles represent a major voting block in these key swing states.
Bush only made one attempt to pronounce the Polish president's last name, but did most of the expected things to curry the Polish vote.
Nonetheless, the president with the pedestrian palate didn't even try to sample the wonderful Polish food served at a luncheon.
Poland's economy is slowly moving ahead after the difficult transition from communism, and its anticipated entry into the European Union should help.
Bush should have said something about the disturbing anti-immigrant rhetoric heard in many Western European countries, some of it directed toward Poland and other nations in Eastern Europe.
But unfortunately, Bush was content to shake hands and be photographed with the cute kids in traditional Polish clothing. The president usually eschews the stage of world leadership, especially when it might get in the way of domestic political opportunity.
The president is playing every ethnic card he can in Florida to help ensure the re-election of his brother Jeb as governor.
There is no hope of any improvement in our relations with Cuba, since the Bushes are in the pocket of the most strident anti-Castro types, and even the most reasonable approaches to end 40-plus years of hostility don't stand a chance if it might cost Jeb 10 votes.
Expect the shameless Republicans to replay the Elian Gonzalez episode over and over.
The Bushes are also courting the large Jewish vote in Florida, and the president will take no initiative at all to push for a Palestinian State until after the Florida election.
The only thing the president has said is that the Palestinians must get rid of Arafat, like that will change the underlying conflict and the need for a land-for-peace deal.
Jeb's re-election is far more important than peace in the Middle East, and besides the state's electoral votes might come in handy again in 2004.
Just when you think you've heard it all, some idiot goes so far over the edge you can't believe such stupidity exists.
A guy named Peter Kirsanow says he can see a scenario where the public would demand internment camps for Arab-Americans and the government would yield to that pressure.
If there's another terrorist attack on America, he says, "and they come from the same ethnic group that attacked the World Trade Center, you can forget about civil rights."
So who's Peter Kirsanow? He's a man President Bush appointed a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He's a Cleveland labor lawyer and former head of the conservative Center for New Black Leadership.
This man, who should be preaching tolerance, calm and respect for human and civil rights, instead spouts this uplifting remark: "Not too many people will be crying in their beer if there are more detentions, more stops, more profiling. ... There will be a groundswell of public opinion to banish civil rights."
Now, sadly, that might be true, but it seems a member of the Civil Rights Commission ought to be doing more than echoing sentiments of fear and intolerance, and should be advocating fairness and decency, not raising the specter of repeating the disgraceful internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Imad Hamad, the leader of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee here in Detroit, said aptly, "It's becoming really ugly."
The president should demand Kirsanow's resignation immediately, but don't count on it. Injustice in the name of security has become a mantra too many are uttering in these difficult days.
People are suffering economically, and others suffer simply because of who they are. These are not fun times.
But we should cling to the optimism of Ireland's great poet and Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney, relish our times and seize the moment for decency. So, as Heaney reminds us, "Once in a lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | July 23 2002 |