An Admonition
Mood:  sharp
A friend of mine asked me the other day, probably rhetorically, if I was going to be voting for Bush this fall. I said I couldn't imagine not voting for him at this point. But my votes for President the last two elections were little more than protests, as I couldn't stand either of the two major candidates on either occasion. It is not impossible that I will protest vote again.

Bush is vulnerable in lots of ways, even to his own supporters. Now, it's true that I trust him as a man and believe absolutely in his decision to go to war in both Afghanistan and Iraq. But, even in this, he and his Administration have done a very poor job of selling his reasons for war to the American public and the world at large. It may be that they cannot always come out and be as explicit as they wish for reasons of political correctness and caution, but it's that very lack of communication that has driven his opponents (and friends) to distraction. Only a gay French communist could quibble with our actions against al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, and the Taliban ---but Iraq? He advanced his case for war against Saddam very fitfully and inconsistently and, for that, he has earned a lot of criticism, especially from the Left. Couldn't Bush have better stressed the human rights aspect of the war, making it a more liberationist cause? Theoretically, that would have put the Left more firmly on the spot, as that should be their cause, too. But, maybe I "misunderestimate" their hatred of the man.

The President is also screwing up royally with his immigration agenda. Most Americans disapprove of it because they see it for what it is: a blanket amnesty for Mexicans. It will only add to the irreversible and detrimental transformation of the cultural character of our country, especially of the Southwest. And for what? To make it easier for corporate giants to take on cheap foreign labor, thus depressing wages for those of us at the bottom of the income ladder? It's a betrayal of the common, working-class American. Maybe the elites think it's also a way to better monitor the identities of foreigners in our country, but that should be done, anyway, independently of enticing millions of Mexicans into our labor market.

A third reason to consider not voting for GWB's re-election is his tax policies; in particular, the dividend tax cut. One of the most offensive things I've heard in the past year or so is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist saying that cutting these taxes was a "moral" issue. That's fucking preposterous. The GOP sold this as a way to put more money back into the hands of those who do the hiring and the investing, but I don't know about all that. I think it's a way for the rich to feather their nests ---and I think this has been borne out in the nature of our recovery from the recession. As Pat Buchanan said, this has been a "capital recovery," and not a "jobs recovery." Which means that the only ones who are really "recovering" are those who have so much invested in the stock market already that the amount that they save on dividend tax cuts would make a considerable difference to their own finances. But where's the evidence that these assholes are re-investing in the average American employee? I don't see any.

One more thing: Bush is spending way too much. More than any conservative is supposed to, as my man Sluggo said here recently. I know that there's a lot of extenuating circumstances for this (viz., the war), but pushing for more tax cuts at the upper range while shoveling money out the window everywhere else is not fiscally sound in the long run.

Bush can't rely on the Democrats to nominate a man he can beat. He needs to take better care to not leave his poorer supporters out in the cold.