Staked Out On The Beach Of Politics

Many will remember a drawing inspired by Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satire “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in four parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First A Surgeon, and Then a Captain of several Ships”, commonly called “Gulliver’s Travels.”

Gulliver has been washed ashore after his ship was wrecked in a storm. He awakens to discover he has been tied and staked to the ground by hordes of little people six inches high, inhabitants of Lilliput. They are deathly afraid of this giant man cast ashore, but they finally accept his “no harm” pledge. They provide him a residence and he becomes a curiosity and a court favorite.

Swift wrote this satire to describe the political actions of George I, king of England at the time of writing. Swift also satirized the battles between England and France and the often silly charges exchanged by Catholics and Protestants. Even if readers young and old are not familiar with the politics and the religions of the times, the book is a fascinating adventure of the mind, ranging from Gulliver’s adventures in helping the Lilliputians steal the navy fleet of their neighbors, the Blefuscudians, to his capture by the giant Brobdingnagians, who average 80 feet tall.

When I listen to the candidates talk about the issues in the 2008 election, I think of the leadership of George I of Lilliput and the huge body of Gulliver staked down on the beach. Gulliver’s position seems to be symbolic of our middle class and how it has been staked out in the wilderness by George Bush, who thinks he’s king, and the Republicans, who are busy feeding at the rich Washington,D.C. buffet while our great country withers away.

The Ropes Holding Down The Middle Class

Here are just a few of the ropes holding down the middle class to the Bush beach after seven years:
Our “volunteer” military comes from middle-class Americans drawn from small towns and rural areas seeking to escape low wages and lack of opportunities. They are still being killed in Iraq after five years of incompetent leadership.

A year ago there was an average of 205 insurgent attacks per day across Iraq. Last month, the military recorded 82 per day. Last June attacks in Baghdad averaged 46 per day. This month the number is down to 11 per day.

John McCain says the surge is working. But the purpose of the surge was to give the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds time to reach a political settlement. No such reconciliation has been reached.
In the meantime, even Iraqis admit that Baghdad and other large cities have become so “Balkanized” old enemies have become separated by concrete walls and concertina wire. Many Iraqis have admitted it is getting increasingly difficult to find an enemy to kill. Areas dominated by tribe, sect, or militia have been surrounded by 12-foot concrete blast slabs.

At over $9 billion a month, it will be a race to see whether our children or our grandchildren go bankrupt paying for two wars while Lurch’s friends run to the bank with their tax cuts.

The gap between the rich and the poor has become so wide that several European countries have better movement from the poor to the middle and upper classes than we do. A young English man or woman has a much better chance to move out of his class than our young do. The American Dream is dying on our shores. But fans are paying up to $10,000 for a ticket to the Memphis vs. Tennessee basketball game on February 23.

Economists are arguing whether we are in a recession or not, even with the knowledge that middle class wages have not increased in five years. But Las Vegas casino attendance is down about 10 percent.

Credit unions and banks are now offering car loans for up to 102 months, with over 80 percent of the loans between 60 and 77.9 months. Toyota, fighting with General Motors for the top spot in auto sales in the U.S., is offering 84-month loans to boost sales.

Because of the subprime mortgages promoted by big banks, mortgage brokers, and bond accrediting companies, foreclosures are at an all-time high. Over 10 percent of our homeowners are in danger of losing their homes. In some California housing developments, over half the home sales come from foreclosed homes. In Nevada 17.5 percent of sales are from foreclosures. In Colorado, California, Tennessee, and Michigan sales from foreclosure make up at least 10 percent of sales. The national average is currently at 4.7 percent.

Home values have gone down over $1 trillion in just six months. The median price of a new home is now at $206,500, the same as it was in November of 2003. If the present rate of decline continues, the median price will equal that of 2000. The building industry is now building 40 percent fewer homes than it did last year.

We are forced to live with laws and rules made by an administration that out-Orwells George Orwell’s ability to call war “peace.” The Republicans passed “Clear Skies” laws that pollute the air worse than they did before and a “Healthy Forests” initiative that turned some of our National Forests into two-by-fours.
Lurch, with the advice of Dick Cheney and his fascists, has destroyed key parts of our Constitution by spying illegally on ordinary citizens without court authority and threatening librarians with prosecution if they don’t squeal on their readers.

Torture has been defined and prohibited by civilized nations for over 80 years. But our heroes in the White House, many of whom never wore a uniform except to earn merit badges, have established torture as official government policy. No wonder our good name has been besmirched in civilized countries.

Where does the Constitution give the administration the right to arrest protesters wearing anti-Bush T-shirts, while spying on citizens and listening in on phone conversations without warrants?

Let’s look at the record of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and determine whether this is the way to get the moderate Muslims to restrain their own right-wing nuts. Does anyone in the White House and Pentagon know that 85 percent of the 1.3 billion Muslims in the world are Sunni?

One of the ropes holding the middle class down is the Ronald Reagan myth of “the city on a hill.” Reagan added $2 trillion to government debt by actually believing that cutting taxes increases revenue for infrastructure, defense, and expansion of business. His policies put four million more Americans below poverty levels. This is the famous “trickle-down” theory that actually turns into “tinkle-down.” But it doesn’t tinkle money. Remember when he said the most-feared words should be “I’m from the government and I’m here to help?” The Republicans certainly proved this after Hurricane Katrina.

So Far We’ve Had 43 White Guys

It has been a fascinating primary season so far. We started with about 20 guys and one woman out of several million qualified candidates. Many would make better candidates than the five left standing.

The guy from Alaska was entertaining. One had a great haircut. Poor Mitt Romney was turned into a greedy android by the Club for Growth and the Chamber of Commerce. Is there an honest busnessman left in the country? In the end not even his friends liked him. Was Rudy Giuliani running just to advertise his consulting business? He got lots of free TV time. I don’t think he really wants to be president. He just wants to be rich.

We have had 43 white guys act as presidents in the country’s lifetime, a few great ones, many mediocre, and a few just terrible. Lurch is working hard to go down in history as the absolute worst.
I used to be tolerant and sympathetic with the “Square Shooter” John McCain but he almost put my mouth in a barf bag when he embraced George W. Bush after losing the 2000 South Carolina primary, one of the dirtiest Karl Rove campaigns in history. Instead of embracing George, he should have punched him in the nose on national TV. I think he would have been elected.

I really believe it’s time for a woman. I think Hillary Clinton would do a good job. She is smart and can think on her feet. But I think she is dead meat now (This is being written on February 22—one never knows!), running against a rock star.
Barack Obama is a nice kid but is definitely not ready for primetime. I’m not like Chris Matthews who said a Barack speech “sent a thrill up my leg (!!).” Poor Hillary is too much of a policy wonk to be inspirational. But she has terrific ideas. If Barack has the good sense to pick experienced advisors we will be all right. I have listened to most of his speeches, and so far he has just talked transcendent, ephemeral bullshit. But the college kids and young adore him as they did Brittany Spears, and they yell, scream, and prance as if they are at a Hannah Montana concert. The young really don’t care what he says as long as he says it well. And Brittany couldn’t even sing.

When I taught writing I used an old essay titled “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words.” Barack follows it like a hound dog on the trail