IS SIMPLE TRUST TOO SIMPLISTIC?

SIMPLE TRUST

By Peter Fredson

June 1, 2005

I live in a small town where voter apathy is at least 50% and on a rainy day will go even lower. I have very few complaints about the administration of this town. The public utilities are well managed. The water is quite drinkable except when our river gets very low, and then the water smells faintly like the bottom of a fish tank. The streets are swept often, the street lighting is adequate, potholes are fixed fairly soon, trash is removed on schedule, police and fire protection are satisfactory.

Crime is very low and people can walk about the streets without fear of being assaulted. Very few incidents of misappropriation or embezzlement of public funds have been reported. I have some doubts about the way elections are held, levies levied, but generally they run without much incident. So I tend to “trust” our elected officials to do their job honestly and efficiently.

Sadly this “trust” does not extend to the national scene. I have absolutely NO confidence in the administration of George W. Bush and his neoconservative cabinet warhawks. Their war mongering, invasion of sovereign countries by lies, the killing of many thousands of civilians, the theft of foreign oil, and the unnecessary deaths of 1,700 of our soldiers is a reason to mistrust those people.

Other reasons to mistrust administration people include their incompetence and misdirection in dealing with our national economy, the environment, medicare, social security, civil rights, freedom of speech and assembly, holding people without warrant, and voting machinery. They seem intent on privatizing public resources and turning them over to corporate entities which I believe are unutterably corrupt.

Their intolerable Christian “piety” has gone beyond the bounds of religious freedom to that of tyranny. Statements of the executive, that he does “not want to intrude” his beliefs, have gone far beyond credence. Imposing National Days of Prayer, National Bible Reading Week, Faith-based government, Faith-based Judges, etc., are grounds for religious warfare.

When the Judicial branch of government is infected with the religious virus it will turn democracy into theocracy.

The Bush warmongering privatizing virus has infected the entire Republican Party and made it a branch of the Oval Office. Any legislation proposed by the power-mad executive is passed and any measures disapproved by the executive office are either ignored, shoved aside, or mangled beyond recognition.

No Republican Congressperson is allowed to utter a single word of criticism of the Chief Executive, but instead all laud and praise his “leadership” to the sickening point of regurgitating my lunch. Evidently they have all sworn to “hang together or they will all hang separately.” They all walk in lock-step to the Bush drum beat.
Historians show us that Presidents lie.

We know that Lyndon Johnson lied and that thousands of American soldiers died as a consequence. We know that Richard Nixon lied and that his lies infected most of the government but that a few citizens and senators finally ousted the lying scoundrel. We know that Ronald Reagan lied about “arms for hostages” and that his lies spread to Central American countries. We know that the Bush dynasty has lied about their connections to overthrowing regimes in several countries.

We know that George W. Bush lied like a drunken cowboy on the streets of Laredo, or Crawford, about Weapons of Mass Destruction, pilotless planes, atomic arsenals and “intentions” of Saddam Hussein, while ostensibly pursuing terrorists. We know that Bush lies about ultimate plans to privatize our national resources and turn them over to the tender care of his corporate friends. We know that his friends Dick, Donald, Condi, and Karl are neoconservatives to the point of committing stupidity.

We know that Bush lies by his gutting of regulations protecting the environment, then relieving his sabotage as “Clear Air” or “Clean Water.” Like Ronald Reagan asserting that trees cause foul air, Bush asserts that cutting down all the trees by his corporate buddies will prevent forest fires. We know that exploiting the environment for a profit is the game. To Hell with consequences!

We know that Bush is a divider, not a uniter. His stance is that of petulant arrogance. We know that his policy is “my way or the highway.” We know that his international strategy involves preemptive strikes on “intentions”, aggressive dominance over the U.N., unilateral action, and complete domination of other countries.

We believe that all of his swaggering and strutting show his imperial and arrogant plans to rule the world. We think it an obscenity for a draft-dodging AWOLer to strut about the deck of a naval vessel and declare “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.” We think it is obscene for a draft-dodging AWOLER to visit the graves in Normandy to represent honest soldiers who served their country honorably. We think it is an exploitation of Bush to talk about "our brave soldiers" when they are dying because of his lies.

We know that his oft-repeated assertions to “spread liberty and democracy” are simply distracting rhetorical devices to assuage his True Believer supporters. We believe that Bush had no exit strategy for his war in Iraq because he planned to stay there permanently, building several huge airbases and the largest embassy in the world in order to terrorize and dominate the entire Middle East.

We believe that anyone who says they have never made a mistake, refuses to accept any responsibility for decisions, and blows off all criticism as irrelevant or lies, cannot be trusted. In days of the old West, anyone who said, “Call me Honest John”, is a person who should NOT be trusted.

In short, we do not trust George W. Bush with our democracy or our freedom, because we have found sufficient evidence to the contrary. “Regime Change” is a double-edged sword that can cut both ways. The designation of “EVIL” also depends on whoever is assessing that designation, and can be applied widely whenever required.

Isn’t there some saying about: “He who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword?”