Our country is in danger. Like lung cancer, sometimes it may be too late when the symptoms to our demise is eminent. Hurricane Katrina is equivalent to us catching Stage II lung cancer. Our chance for survival as the America we know is at 30% and falling.
How did we get here? Like the facade of the New York skyline on the Las Vegas strip we have a President that gives the semblance of resolve and determination without the aptitude, fortitude, or competence to govern. For too long the media at large has been scared to confront the administration for all its known incompetence with fear of retribution from the well oiled Karl Rove Right Wing. What a difference a wounded Tom Delay (possible election fraud) Karl Rove (possible treason for outing an American spy), and Ralph Reed (gambling scandal) has made to remind a “free” media of their constitutionally implied duty.
A competent leader need not know everything but must be able to listen to rational arguments and come to the correct conclusions. It is not necessary to be right all of the times but imperative to be right most of the times, specifically on issues that materially affects the country as a whole. When a president is wrong virtually one hundred percent of the times how can he be anything but the facade of a president.
President Bush’s four largest blunders the war in Iraq, the
ill-distributed tax cuts, the
energy bill, and the patriot act has already cost the country billions that will be paid by most tax payers. Each of these action however has resulted in a corrupted financial windfall for the administration’s friends.
Then came Hurricane Katrina. Visions of the Iraq war’s failure could be masked and managed by isolating the media as much as possible from the atrocities of the war. The temporary benefits of irresponsible tax cuts gave the stock market and key indicators the semblance of prosperity. The energy bill gave the false promise of energy independence to be fulfilled through its policies at a later date. The patriot act gave through its fascist articles the legal justification to cover up most of the government ineptitudes.
Unfortunately Katrina placed all of President Bush’s blunders into perspective visibly on the world’s TV screens. Resources stretched thin due to the war in Iraq remain scarce leaving Americans living in third world conditions in New Orleans for an extended period of time. The supposed prosperity from the tax cuts missed many a people. With or without an energy bill the oil companies imposed a recessive tax on America with inflated oil prices with no fear of retribution from a friendly administration. The patriot act with its repressive articles successfully dampened the media’s ability to truly report the failure of our homeland security for fear of compromising sources or themselves.
A broken façade is easy to repair, however, if the underlying superstructure is too damaged it will crumble. Our superstructure is severely damaged by a huge budget deficit a failed economic policy a failed energy policy a failed war and a failed homeland security policy.