Liar, Liar

By Scott Beckman

Anybody who’s reading this has probably already concluded that President Bush is a liar. And the just completed Democratic Convention proved Ralph Nader’s campaign premise that the major parties have achieved a "duopoly on duplicity" beyond any shadow of my doubt.

John Kerry says he will restore "integrity and trust" to the White House "by telling the truth to the American people." Well, after a lifetime of U.S. citizenship, I’ve become so attuned to the moldy hypocrisy of political rhetoric that it has become downright sporting to spot and mock it. I have no reservation in calling Kerry’s Convention and speech a bald-faced prime time lie. Here are seven destiny-changing whoppers that the mismanaged Kerry Democrats told the American people about the State of the Union over and over and over again in last week’s world-class display of democracy-withering perfidy.

1. John Kerry will cut the federal deficit in half.

I desperately want to believe this fib because as a citizen, not as an employee, lobbyist, or partisan, I worked my tail off to help resolve this issue during the Clinton administration. To me, the deficit feels like an 800-pound albatross tied around the neck of America, a truly terrifying legacy of potential hyperinflation or bankruptcy for our children. So, I’m all for tax hikes on the wealthy. I’m all for rooting out waste and corruption. I’m all for pay-as-you-go planning. But, the sad "truth" is that even with these measures there are several factors not present in the Clinton administration that will keep John Kerry from delivering on his promise.

Most economists have concluded that a sound economy was the major reason the federal budget came into balance. The prospects for a similar economic recovery in the near future are dismal. Just add the wage and oil pressures presented below to record low rates of interest, including interest on the national debt, that can only go up and it’s just not an encouraging picture. Besides, the size and structure of the deficit and the interest and some truly serious debt payoff dates are looming much larger now than they were in the 1990s.

The budget war Clinton waged that Kerry promises to reproduce was the result of a Ross Perot candidacy that mobilized a huge angry constituency around this issue, a Herculean effort by many brave Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, and direct, sustained, involved leadership by the President himself. But, how many times has John Kerry talked about this? How often did it come up at the convention? Which cuts is he willing to make? What is he offering us besides feeble budget-cutting cliches? We’re a nation of debtors. Everyone knows the insidious temptation of a credit card. How much more powerful it must be when it’s not your money and constituents lack the knowledge to refute even half-hearted ill-formed plausible denials!

This is the invisible issue neither candidate will take on because if they do, it has to be priority one and trumps every spending promise they have to make to get elected. That’s unethical leadership.

2. The world, the American people, and the Democrats want more tough-talking foreign policy and military action from the United States.

By now, no one should harbor illusions that "hope is on the way" to the community of nations if John Kerry becomes President.

Opinion polls say that the ideal foreign policy of a majority of Americans is to wage world peace because it’s the American thing to do. The world and most Americans and most Democrats want a President who sets the good example of standing down arms sales, reducing U.S. military forces, destroying weapons of mass destruction, and cutting defense spending. Nearly everyone, including most Americans, wants the next President to ramp up our dialog with the United Nations about a lengthy list of global economic and social grievances and initiatives too long spurned by the United States. Kerry’s speech offered no "hope" that he’s given a moment’s thought ideas along those lines.

The most telling truth was told in the details. Mr. Kerry claimed to desire that America be a "beacon" to the world, but he ignored the blazingly obvious fact that practically nobody he’s courting wants what he’s selling. While Kerry made token references to diplomacy, they always came at the tail end of a "stronger America" theme that continues to boast of military power, and his strategy of out-flagging and out-gunning the Republican Party was not nuanced. Nor was the profound grasp of international relations he showed by insulting the Saudi royal family. Yes, John Kerry certainly knows how to win friends and influence people around the world. Not.

The concrete proposals he put forward show he’s given plenty of thought to accentuating the same failed ingredients that put us in the international stew. He defends a one-sided policy toward Israel that is the lightning rod for many of our troubles in the Middle East. He touts continuing Bush’s policies of unilateralism and preemption. He proposes the absurd notion that he can get other people to pay for the Iraq War. And he admits he wants to "add 40,000 active duty troops…to strengthen American forces… double our special forces to conduct anti-terrorist operations...provide our troops with the newest weapons and technology to save their lives…" etc. etc. etc.

This is not a "beacon of hope" for a world that already sees us as too militaristic for our own good. If there were truly a soul of the Democratic Party, they would have vigorously protested Kerry’s vision about how to win the ill-conceived war on terror. They would not sit dumbly complying with his drive to bolster our country’s image as the "Fascist States of America." Who does Kerry think he’s protecting? It’s certainly not the nine out of 10 delegates who oppose the Iraq War. Certainly, not the six out of 10 Americans who think we’re spending too much on defense.

3. The American Dream lives on.

Just like the lottery, the rare winning exception does not prove that loser’s rule the game. The "truth" is that for every Bill Gates and Barack Obama there are 5 million MM’s. Just as Mr. John Edwards described, MM, a single-mom with two kids, was sitting at her kitchen table fretting about how to make ends meet while he was talking. Why? Because after two years of compliance with every single work-related request made of her by the welfare system inaugurated by Mr. Clinton, a snot-nosed social worker cut off her food stamps and measly $200 welfare check because she missed her first appointment with him. So, there she was, scared to death about how to sustain two years of work toward recovery from an abusive relationship: citizenship, childcare, language training, job preparation, educational stability for her kids, everything.

Mr. Obama’s statement about MM was true. She doesn’t ask much. She humbly works her tail off without complaint. Yet, she needs everything, affordable childcare, reliable transportation, affordable housing, job training. Maybe if the Democrats deliver on universal child care and after-school programs, MM will get a little relief, but it’s just plain disingenuous to portray the prevailing Democratic model as the path to a better future for her and here’s why.

As Ralph Nader recently pointed out, one out of four full-time workers is now paid less than $8.75 an hour-less than an individual, and certainly a family, can live on. READ THAT AGAIN VERY SLOWLY.

Mr. Kerry’s version of "hope" for the growing number of folks who work in jobs like these is to raise the minimum wage to $7.00 an hour by 2007. I haven’t served in the Senate for 20 years as John Kerry has, but even I know that our government’s official poverty standard says that a working head of household needs a wage of at least $8.75 an hour TODAY, not three years from now, to provide a family of four with the bare essentials necessary to sustain life. And that cooked number is a lie. By knowingly allowing U.S. companies to pay workers far less money than what than is needed to live, Democrats and Republicans have over the last generation conspired to undermine one of the bedrock values upon which this great nation was founded: the right to life. While erudite politicians spend some more time arguing whether or not fuzzy math needs more study, I’ll call this what it is-STATE-SPONSORED SLAVERY.

Mr. Kerry can probably explain how MM will be vastly enriched by his plan to hire 500,000 energy researchers during his Presidency, but Kerry’s indifferent approach to rural and urban poverty tells me an awful lot about the man and the Democratic Party he is leading. They don’t know or care enough about MM to give her the kind of help she needs to achieve the American Dream.

If the American Dream ever existed at all, it is dying and it isn’t coming back. We need a national discussion to redefine a new social contract in light of the new emergent global competition and resource constraints on development in the 21st Century. The New Dream can be real, lasting, and meaningful. But, it has to begin with a hard, honest look at the facts and everyone’s is going to have to be willing to sacrifice something to the greater good of all.

4. Corporate welfare promotes family values.

Mr. Kerry made a very big deal of saying "Americans workers should not have to subsidize the loss of their own jobs." On the other hand, he outright tells us that "I will reward companies that create and keep good paying jobs where they belong, right here in the good ol’ USA." Oh great, John, now instead of subsidizing corporations to go offshore, we’ll subsidize them to stay onshore and employ us! A bribe by any other name is still a bribe. Since when did American workers decide that they ought to use their tax money to pay protection money to employers just to provide them jobs? As a former prosecutor of corporate criminals, Kerry might even know the legal name for what that is. Well, I guess it’s been going on for quite a while but frankly it hasn’t bought us the love or loyalty that was promised before. So, I don’t accept the idea that allowing corporations to further cannibalize our workers will make the country stronger. It’s time that we stood up to this lie and proclaim that American patriotism is far stronger than personal or corporate greed and we won’t be extorted any more.

The "truth" is that America is in a terrible wage bind. Despite their awesome productivity, American workers simply can NOT compete with every other worker in the world because their cost of living is lower and they have huge worker surpluses. That playing field is NOT going to level out for a long, long time. In the meantime, before the government goes completely bankrupt, Mr. Kerry’s plan merely enables the increasingly rich to keep filling their bellies at the federal feed trough. Like most political solutions, it’s a short-term fix that benefits politicians and their patrons and stiffs Joe Six-Pack big-time down the road. The unholy practice of requiring workers to subsidize things such as gross corporate malfeasance and the international wage differentials with their own money must end.

If American business doesn’t like the price of American labor, let ’em move to China or India. We may pay the high price of rebellion in the short run, but I like our chances better of staying free and depending on each other for help building a new America than by enslaving ourselves to greedy thieves that love money more than they love our country. At least if they’re gone, their fingers will be out of what’s left of our American pie and we might be able to salvage a nation worth living in. Given the chance, they’ll just gut it and skin it altogether and leave us by the roadside later anyway. I personally have faith that the ingenuity of American patriots, our work ethic, and the requisites to compete according to standards of a new global economy will result in a new, more equitable, democratic, and profitable economic structures in the long run.

5. Wishful thinking will solve the imminent end of the oil age.

In progressive circles, it’s common knowledge that today’s high gasoline prices are just the beginning of a slow grinding devolution of global economics as we know it based on declining supplies and increasing demands on the world’s most addictive non-renewable resource. Regardless of the short- to medium-term variations in estimates about when and how much crunch will occur, it is reasonably certain the world has, at best, five generations to solve this problem. Many, many forecasters project massive disruptions long before the highly optimistic outer ranges of this ticking time bomb. Some say the crunch is distressingly near.

Compared to Bush, John Kerry’s focus on and proposals about this issue are admirable, but his statements about it are just plain dishonest. He is keenly fond of saying that no American should die because of America’s dependence on foreign oil. After 20 years in the Senate, Kerry has to know by now that most expert oil analysts say that the reality is that as long as America keeps consuming oil at its current pace, we will need Middle Eastern suppliers. Clearly, he’s just playing politics with oil and one would think he might be smart enough not to put the Saudi royal family in the middle of a contentious domestic argument because we absolutely need them as allies.

Kerry’s proposal to put another 500,000 folks to work on this problem is a good one. I’m encouraging my sons to go in this direction as a profession. But, there’s no guarantee that we’ll find a solution. Again, most experts who’ve looked at all the plans on the drawing board are telling us that the environmentals or economics of most available options simply don’t add up to a complete replacement for oil dependence. To ignore that fact is to be as selective with the evidence as Bush was about the Iraq intelligence. Major conservation initiatives combined with large-scale structural social and economic adjustments will be required in combination with new technologies if we are to ease ourselves as smoothly as possible through the end of the oil age. It is not too early to begin telling America the "truth" about that.

6. The truth, oh so pretty.

Oh man, have we heard calls to believe in the politics of "hope, hope, hope." I am totally alienated from the saccharine politics of hope. Give me some hard truth. The America painted by Mr. Kerry and the Democrats posits the dangerous fallacy that all we have to do to "change the world" is soft-pedal big problems and vote for people who stand and fight for dinkies in the margins. We the people are called only to dream about the possible and forget about it when it doesn’t happen so we can be fooled again next time. In the meantime, set no concrete goals. Make no sacrifices. Respond to no call and all will be well.

The carefully parsed mincing of feel-good words the Democratic Party offers are wholly insufficient representation of and inadequate answer to the imminent dangers facing our nation. The Democratic Convention of 2004 provided its supporters on the left what they want; indecisive leadership, obsolete and/or poorly positioned products, bad packaging, and lousy used-car salesmanship.

Democrats are right about one thing. We have a lot work to do. But don’t patronize me with phony talk about hope. Hope isn’t going to solve anything. Have you thought at all about trying a little vision and hard work?

7. Politics is imagining the unreal to be real, not debating issues.

Amidst all the rhetoric portraying America as one big, happy, hard-working, flag-waving family, I noticed nary a mention of the half of America that is so distracted or disengaged or disgusted with politics that they don’t bother to vote, many for fear that something gooey might rub off on them.

Notably absent was the incontrovertible fact that Republicans, Democrats, and Third-Wayers like myself hold dramatically different views about the most important quality of life and death issues facing our country. At least Republicans acknowledge this and have the wisdom to boldly rally their constituents and fight courageously for the wrong things because they understand that elections create winners and losers. Kerry’s so-called "fight" to defend liberals and progressives turned on an incomprehensible appeal to a transcendent spirit of supposed universal American goodness that is supposed to mystically make all of our cares and differences melt away like the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. I guess you could call this avoidance of political reality a "marketing strategy" rather than a "lie." But anyone with a caring respect for the value of democratic discourse can smell that the oppressively shallow convention patter about national unity was just a hollow ruse built out of manure to troll for a few gullible and exceedingly uninformed suckers. If you don’t believe me, visit a few conservative chat-rooms and treat yourself to a shocking dose of the "true" meaning of partisanship politics in America.

What made the "unity" marketing theme so galling-I call it a lie-is that it drew so heavily on the feel-good nostalgia about what the founding fathers did just around the corner in Boston. In making these comparisons, Democrats just plain re-wrote history by forgetting to note the fact that our forebearers were deeply divided and fought bitter, narrowly contested political battles over the future direction of the nation. Despite Al Sharpton’s impromptu off-script save, none of the Democrats I heard mentioned that most of the freedoms we now have resulted from contentious and often bloody political fights between vehemently opposing factions.

If Kerry’s such a fighter, then show me some fight.

At some point one has to be fair and accept that no one is perfect and give credit where credit is due for someone being a decent human being, with some presumably noble motives, saying some positively true things like "Values without actions are just slogans." And since he may very well be the next President of the United States, I sure hope it’s true that John Kerry is the brave, patriotic, deep thinker who is willing to change his mind about things that the Democrats made him out to be. In respect of Mr. Kerry, heeding his request for civility, and with sincere intent to live out the progressive value of vigilant open-mindedness, I hope, beyond reason, that he listens to patriots trying to preserve the union by crying out truth to power from the remote but warm and welcoming quarters of a wilderness called democracy.

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