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A Coming
Restoration
February 20, 2003
By Andrew Sarchus
On January 20, 2005, a new administration will take power
in the United States. It appears increasingly likely that
the new presidency, and probably both houses of Congress,
will no longer be controlled by Neoconservatives of the Republican
Party. As of early 2003, Neoconservative foreign policy has
positioned the United States for spectacular diplomatic failures
in Iraq and North Korea. First NATO, then the UN will likely
repudiate US demands for war. By the end of this year, America
may well be an international pariah. Meanwhile, the US economy
continues to deteriorate, our civil liberties are being diminished
daily by neocons and religious right wingers in the Justice
Department, and the rest of the Bush Cabinet wages perpetual
war on every part of society save the super-rich and the military.
By 2005, the neocons will have failed both as managers of
the economy and as promoters of a greater American reich.
Yet Neoconservative ideas are pernicious, and civil liberties,
international cooperation, and world peace are threatened
so long as these ideas catch the attention of Western leaders.
Progressives must unite on a platform that will consign these
ideas to history's dustbin, along with colonialism and Stalinism.
Here is how the coming restoration of tested and true progressive
policies might be accomplished.
Restore people's trust in their elected representatives.
Start with small steps first. The 109th Congress will convene
two weeks before the president is inaugurated. This Congress
must immediately reinstate the strict guidelines concerning
gifts and meals supplied by lobbyists to congressional staffs,
which were lifted by the Republican majority in January 2003.
Next, the Democratic leaders of House and Senate should work
with progressive GOP members to jointly chair key committees
such as Foreign Relations and Ways and Means - while stripping
rightists and former Bush administration gophers of their
influential committee assignments. Democrats and progressive
Republicans should unite behind a program that includes restoration
of the Freedom of Information Act, abolition of all Patriot
Act provisions, and rescinding of all legislation granting
the president power to use military force against another
country without a declaration of war. This will be a new,
true Contract with America, not the Gingrich-concocted scam
perpetrated by the GOP 11 years previously.
Bring forth all the facts about the economic meltdown
and corporate misdeeds. After the new Democratic president
is inaugurated, the first act will be to appoint a new Attorney
General and Treasury Secretary. These cabinet members must
set to work immediately to enforce corporate accounting reforms
passed by Congress in 2002 to the hilt. Outlaw CEOs must be
indicted, tried, and punished for looting Enron, WorldCom,
and other imploded companies. Additionally, the Securities
and Exchange Commission should reopen investigations of insider
trading by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's mideast deals
at Halliburton. Both men have never been required to explain
under oath their questionable business behavior. They must
be given this opportunity, and the investigation must be scrupulously
bipartisan. Honest Republicans such as Warren Rudman and William
Cohen should be asked to lead the investigations. This time,
there should be no presidential pardons in advance of open
hearings.
Restore the image of the United States as a world peacemaker
and a trusted international partner. The new president
must immediately replace the Bush regime's Secretaries of
State and Defense. By 2005, both these individuals will be
credible only as liars, bullies, Bush toadies, or all three
by the rest of the world, allies and enemies alike. The world
of 2005 may well be dark, fatalistic, and exhausted by four
years of unrelenting US brinksmanship, if not by several nasty
and unnecessary American-instigated wars. The replacement
Secretaries must be persons with broad international backgrounds,
persons respected by leaders in Europe and Asia. They must
also be political realists, not think-tank ideologues. They
must ratchet down the fear and loathing that neocon policies
have inspired throughout the world. The new administration's
first foreign policy statement should be to change its focus
back to using international law enforcement, not the military,
to root out non-state sponsored Terrorism. The United States
must also forever renounce preemptive use of its nuclear,
chemical, or biological weapons for any reason. Even nations
such as North Korea should receive assurances that unless
they directly attack United States forces without provocation,
they are safe from American attack. In addition, America must
become a signatory to dozens of international agreements that
the Bush administration withdrew from or ignored. For example,
our merely rejoining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
will markedly reduce tensions around the world. Another positive
step would be for the United States to subscribe to the International
Criminal Court. This step might prove dicey, however, because
several of our current leaders may be under indictment by
the Court in 2005. (More about this in a later column.)
Recommit to a responsible system of taxation, and do not
shrink from asking for financial sacrifice. The fiscal
irresponsibility and irrationality of neocon rule must be
stemmed. The new Congress must act to halt further tax cuts
exclusively for the rich. If the Bush administration has succeeded
in abolishing estate taxes and taxes on stock dividends, new
laws must be passed to restore these revenues. The new Congress
and president will have to make good on George W. Bush's pledge
of 2003 not to pass the bill for tax cuts on to the next generation.
This task will be difficult. Unlike Bush, our new leadership
must call on all Americans to make small financial sacrifices
in order to avoid a second Great Depression and a possible
national bankruptcy along the lines of Argentina. Some progressives
may fear a conservative electoral backlash from "tax increases",
but by 2005 the dynamics will have changed. The Baby Boomers
will be just a few years from retirement, and will want both
Social Security and Medicare on sound financial footing. Few
will believe in private alternatives such as investing in
the stock market after its collapse of 2001-03. False stories
about "market magic" circulated by neocon holdouts will find
few adherents.
Restore the Wall of Separation between government and
organized religion. Our nation's leaders in 2005 will
need to drive the moneychangers of the Religious Right from
the Temple of Government. The new Attorney General will likely
find that funneling billions of federal dollars into Bush's
so-called "Faith-Based Initiatives" has resulted in gross
financial abuse of unregulated funding. Faith-based programs
must be vigorously scrutinized by Congress. When abuse surfaces
(and it will, trust me) the programs should be shut down in
favor of a return to regulated governmental assistance. Thomas
Jefferson's "wall of separation" between Church and State
must be patched up. The new Democratic president can use the
"Bully Pulpit" to emphatically repeat that the United States
is a country where religious favoritism will not be a factor
in government policy, and vice-versa. Progressives of all
faiths should publicly join in applauding this return to true
First Amendment freedom.
Reinstitute the "equal time" provisions for broadcast
media. The new administration should propose, and the
new Congress pass, a law restoring the FCC Fairness Doctrine.
By requiring talk media to air opposing views, this will help
end the neocon/religious right hammerlock on the nation's
radio and cable television networks. The days when right-wing
disinformation goes unchallenged over the airwaves must end.
There are many sound, sober, responsible progressive arguments
that Americans are eager to hear. Remember: By 2005, Neoconservative
politics will have alienated a great majority of the citizenry.
With our nation headed back towards sound financing and respect
for civil rights, and with Terrorism a manageable concern,
our new leaders can focus their attention where it was needed
back when Bush II took office: to maintain and preserve a
judiciary free of crippling neocon ideologies, to save the
environment (and the planet), to wean ourselves from the dependence
on oil that makes mideast war so appealing to the neocons,
and to finally face the absolute necessity of enacting universal
health care for our citizens. We will have wasted four precious
years shortchanging ourselves in these areas. With the fears
and follies of Bushism behind, Americans may restore their
political infrastructure. Ably led by a new, Bush-free government,
we can recapture national greatness and international respect
in a world at relative peace.
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