Table of Contents | President Bush takes pride in the claim that he doesn't read what the media are reporting about his administration. The public, however, is best served by the media when information gets to us in some form other than the innocuous briefings from the Press Secretary. Even then, the exchange of views is essential. Bush's "reversion," for example, from the position of his Republican party, "less-government-means-the-best-government" and "get-the-government-out-of-my-face," to that of "compassionate conservatism" must be chronicled if not interpreted. I hope Karl Rove will read what Bill Moyers calls "the real interests and deep opinions of the American people." And report it to President Bush in some briefing when he is actually listening. Someone should "pass along the story" since the President won't read it. A leader must listen if he is to lead. He needs to know what people who constitute "the loyal opposition" are thinking and dreaming and planning. Otherwise, to use Moyers' image, he is just jogging in a cul-de-sac! Moyers is "puzzled as to why, with right-wing wrecking crews blasting away at social benefits once considered invulnerable, Democrats are fearful of being branded 'class warriors' in a war the other side started and is determined to win." He contends that social dislocations and meanness are resurgent but so is "the vision of justice, fairness and equality." He asks what it will take for the progressive spirit of democracy, not oligarchy, to get back into the fight? "The first order of business is to understand the real interests and deep opinions of the American people. What are these? * That a Social Security card is not a private portfolio statement but a membership ticket in a society where we all contribute to a common treasury so that none need face the indignities of poverty in old age * That tax evasion is not a form of conserving investment capital but a brazen abandonment of responsibility to the country * That income inequality is not a sign of freedom of opportunity at work, because if it persists and grows, then unless you believe that some people are naturally born to ride and some to wear saddles, it's a sign that opportunity is less than equal * That self-interest is a great motivator for production and progress but is amoral unless contained within the framework of social justice * That the rich have the right to buy more cars than anyone else, more homes, vacations, gadgets, and gizmos, but they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else * That public services, when privatized, serve only those who can afford them and weaken the sense that we all rise and fall together as 'one nation, indivisible' * That concentration in the production of goods may sometimes be useful and efficient, but monopoly over the dissemination of ideas is tyranny * That prosperity requires good wages and benefits for workers * That our nation can no more survive as half democracy and half oligarchy than it could survive half slave and half free, and that keeping it from becoming all oligarchy is steady work -- our work. "Ideas have power -- as long as they are not frozen in doctrine -- but they need legs. The eight-hour day; the minimum wage; the conservation of natural resources and the protection of our air, water, and land; women's rights and civil rights; free trade unions; Social Security; a civil service based on merit -- all these were launched as citizens' movements and won the endorsement of the political class only after long struggles and in the face of bitter opposition and sneering attacks. Democracy doesn't work without citizen activism and participation. Trickle-down politics is no more effective than trickle-down economics. Moreover, civilization happens because we don't leave things to other people. What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight as if the cause depends on you. Allow yourself that conceit -- to believe that the flame of democracy will never go out as long as there's one candle in one citizen's hand." Everyone who voted for "family values" and "moral concerns" is invited to join the rest of us in "passing along this story." But there is more. Moyers reflects on his early years in Washington when Republicans were conservative by temperament and moderate in the use of power. That brand is gone, "replaced," he contends, "by zealous ideologues...united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate. That includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives, the use of the taxing power of the state to transfer wealth to the rich, and the use of the authority of law to give corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment as well as to control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable. This new hegemony also means secrecy on a scale you cannot imagine and, above all, judges with a political agenda appointed for life. If you liked the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House, you will swoon over what's coming. "And if you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture. The quasi-theocratic vision of the religious pillars of the new conservative movement is embodied in Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, who has said the Almighty is using him to promote 'a biblical worldview' in American politics." When joined to political aggression, this kind of fervent enthusiasm is dangerous. And frightening. If you don't believe me then look at 9/11 and Iraq where this perspective is being given full expression with a vengeance. When one is addicted to an ideology, a real danger to democracy and freedom is posed because these aspire to impose their views on the rest of society by force of law and economic sanctions. (1) A friend, Dr. Harry E. Moore, is equally disturbed by what he sees. These are his words. "In the name of values (family values, whatever that means), America elected a man who has gotten over 1,100 of our young troops slaughtered, 6,000 more Americans wounded, about 100,000 Iraqi citizens killed (mostly women and children), has pilfered the till to the tune of over $120 billion on a war we should not have entered, has squandered the trillions of dollars Bill Clinton left him and all in the name of 'compassionate conservatism,'...The American electorate gave him its vote on non-issues -- such as gay marriage, the pledge of allegiance, the threat in North Carolina and Arkansas that Kerry would take the Bible away from the people and the 'threat' that Osama Bin Laden would strike again if Kerry was elected....He has made this country less safe than it was before 9/11. He has created in Iraq a magnet for attracting terrorists from the four corners of the earth to kill our troops and innocent people." (2) Strong words, Harry. You are "passing along the story" with passion! One of the reasons Bush was given four more years is related to the "promise" to protect marriage from those who would destroy it. Supposedly, the essence of marriage would be jeopardized if persons of the same sex were given the freedom to commit themselves to a loving relationship. Love and commitment will destroy marriage? Yet, the truth is that marriage isn't the healthiest of social relationships anyway. Some 50 percent of marriages fail. Too, astonishing to many is the statistic that the highest divorce rate in the country is in the South or the Bible Belt while the lowest rate of divorce in the country is in Massachusetts! The decision of the courts relating to the freedom of same sex couples to enter long-term commitments legally didn't do damage to marriage. Not in Massachusetts. Married heterosexuals are doing the most damage to that "family value!" For many of us, "...until death parts us..." means little more than the time it takes to find another partner who agrees to put to death a prior commitment. No bed until dead -- and the wake is already scheduled! Marriage needs substantial revitalization. Maybe same sex commitments can do what nothing else has been able to do! My pre-marital and re-marital counseling doesn't have enough power to hold together those who say "I do." Those who oppose so passionately the right of same sex partners to marry remind me of the rude, crude and lewd sergeant who swaggers to hide fears more threatening than those of his raw recruits. The less sure you are then the louder you need to scream! This is the end of my rants about politics, violence, war and religion. But just for now. I never know when my patience will run out and my passion for another perspective will boil over and I will be compelled by conscience to speak up. I choose to end my snit here. Then I read what Bob Jones III, president of Bob Jones University, wrote to the president. He claimed, "God has graciously granted America -- though she doesn't deserve it -- a reprieve from the agenda of paganism." I admit that I don't see what he and the evangelical community see in their agenda of "family values" and "moral concerns." But is my agenda one of paganism? What I see is the "alternative social vision" to which Jesus keeps pointing and I yearn for that "kingdom to come on earth." That's the "agenda of paganism?" No, it's the agenda of a domain of justice, mercy and compassion. The voice they claim to hear I don't hear. I'm a disciple of the one who was a "subversive storyteller" and a pointer! I like what Bill Moyers wrote about how he and William Herbert Crook became friends. They had met by coincidence, "if by coincidence you mean God's way of remaining anonymous!" Was there a voice in the ear of Bob Jones? Maybe. I don't know. Was it the voice of God? I'm not willing to name the voice but I do have a different opinion! This I do know. From what I read in the gospels the voice of Jesus "remained anonymous" whenever he was with the religious. He was more likely to speak openly to the outcasts, rejects and powerless. The source of his vision? Unknown in his lifetime. Do you want to guess what was the voice and vision Jesus heard and saw? Then, too, I wonder what "the agenda of Jones" looks like. I am willing to suggest the shape of it: (1) the absolute end to a woman's right to choose; (2) the end of jurists on the Supreme Court who look at every case before them in light of all circumstances; (3) allowing corporations to choose profits before environment; (4) pre-emptive strikes as an acceptable policy of the executive branch of government; (5) no stem cell research to seek cures for Parkinson's, diabetes and other diseases; (6) condemning the United Nations to an insignificant role in the foreign policy deliberations of the United States; (7) turning away from the concerns of the world community; (8) continuing a bankrupt policy in Iraq, the Middle East and Afghanistan; (9) "strolling to and fro upon the earth" seeking whom to destroy in the name of an "axis of evil" and terrorism. Bob Jones III, when you anointed Bush, his entire agenda became yours as well. Not just "family values" and "moral issues." The agenda on the domestic front is concerned with the reform of the tax code, privatizing Social Security and strengthening private education (by stripping public education of critical funds in the guise of "no child left behind?"). Nothing new. Just mass destruction of the social contract. Universal health care, improved wages, benefits and working conditions, social justice and ending discrimination, development of energy needs from renewable sources, concern for the hungry, homeless and diseased -- all of these are items on what Bob Jones III designates as the "agenda of paganism." I suppose that includes the irrational opposition to full rights of all people. President Bush, you claim that you don't read your press releases. Ask Karl Rove if you can ignore this one. No president has to keep up with the Joneses! -------- (1) See Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times, pp. 18-20, 68, for other details of his perspective. (2) Personal correspondence of November 4, 2004. |