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Sometimes I think the rightwing billionaires who are running everything do certain actions just to insult us. I mean, what bigger insult could there be to the American people than inflicting us with George Bush as president? No matter how democratic we are (with a small d), we to some extent identify with the president as the sum of all of us, the way we would identify with a king. If he's intelligent and witty, and cuts a fine figure on the world stage, and has a good heart--JFK, for instance--we all feel a bit of the glow. And how better to attack us deeply--in our self-image as a nation--and thus to strike at the heart of our power as a people (our power, for instance, to regulate corporations, or determine the use of our military) than to force this ignorant, brutal puppet upon us, with stolen elections?
It kills hope.
And I'm feeling something like this about the Bush twins cavorting in Argentina. Argentina--and, indeed, all of the South America--is only just recovering from a decade of rape and rampage by global corporate predators (following decades of brutality, torture and death at the hands of US-backed dictators). How it worked is that the rich elite in these countries would hock the country to the World Bank, incurring big loans on onerous terms, rip off the money, and leave the poor with the debt. The IMF would then require, as terms of payment, that all the social programs be gutted, and that the country open up its natural resources to global corporate exploitation, or remove labor protections to permit sweatshops, or accept the dumping of US ag products that destroy local farmers and the country's food self-sufficiency.
The World Bank/IMF destroyed Argentina's economy this way, and very nearly destroyed the society. However, the Argentinians rose up against it. A coalition of the poor and middle class--both decimated by these policies--took tiny hammers and went round breaking every bank ATM display window in the country, in protest. Three governments later--in quick succession--and they finally got a good leftist government that pledged to get them out of World Bank debt and never get into it again. Then, Venezuela bailed Argentina out of a big chunk of the debt, on easy terms. Argentina is now recovering--with all indicators up. In fact, they're doing so well that they are in talks with Brazil about a common currency, like the euro (to get off the US dollar). Venezuela, which has a president who is committed to regional self-determination (Hugo Chavez--he calls it the Bolivarian Revolution) benefits by acquiring a trading partner with a healthy, recovering economy, and by the regional political and economic strength that comes from cooperation.
The Bush twins are getting drunk and living it up in a country, and on a continent, with a vast population of very poor people--people who have been harshly exploited by their own rich elites and by the global corporate predators that the Bush Cartel is a leader of. This vast population of the poor is finally coming into its own, as a political force, after centuries of exploitation and, in the last century, violent destruction of their democratic institutions by Reaganites and Bushites. Their new power is the result of very hard work on civic institutions such as transparent elections, and grass roots organization. Ten thousand poor, indigenous Andean peasants came down out of the mountains to anoint Evo Morales--the first indigenous president of Bolivia--as their leader, prior to his official inauguration. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans poured into the streets during the 2002 US-backed violent military coup against Hugo Chavez, to demand return of their elected president and reopening of their National Assembly. In Venezuela--and in all of these new leftist democracies--ordinary people are at last able to participate in government, and benefit from government, the result of years of work by ordinary citizens and activists, as well as various leaders.
Compare and contrast. Unlimited money. US-taxpayer paid for protection, air travel, the best hotels, the best restaurants, the best bars, privilege of every kind. And what do these daughters of Bush do? They party.
You don't see them out among the poor, praising civic organizations, visiting medical clinics and schools, asking questions about what the people need, paying homage at the graves of the 'disappeared,' or providing good moral example of any kind. You see them wallowing in wealth--while others starve and struggle for a better life.
It is an insult.
It insults all of South America--and the peaceful, democratic, leftist (majorityist) revolution that is occurring there--in Argentina, in Brazil, in Chile, in Uruguay, in Venezuela, in Bolivia, and, yesterday, in Ecuador (leftist Rafael Correa elected president, with 56% of the vote!)--a revolution that, in essence, is empowering the poor and creating decent government that serves all of the people.
And it has ominous tones. Bushites and Reaganites kill poor peasants and leftists. They topple democracies. They don't care. Money is all. And they will do this again, in South America, if they can. And there is some reason to believe that they intend to. We know they are pouring money into Venezuela's rich oil elite--the opposition to Chavez--not to win (they can't) but to foment riots and another military coup attempt. They've lavished the dinosauric Colombian government with $600 million in military aid (OUR money!) this year alone for Plan Colombia (killing peasants and leftists, in the name of the US "war on drugs"). They've built a state-of-the-art military air base in Paraguay (with our money), and rumor has it that the Bush Cartel has purchased a 100,000 acre enclave also in Paraguay (possibly negotiated by young Ms. Barbara Bush)--the route that "Plan Colombia" would take to Bolivia and Venezuela, to topple those democracies, and to Peru, to prevent the left from getting elected there in the next election cycle. These few facts alone point to a possible Bush Cartel plan to conduct a private corporate war to gain control of the oil, gas, minerals and other resources in the Andes region, to prevent those resources from benefiting the people who live there, and rip them off for the super-rich, by killing the opposition, and sabotaging and destroying these countries' tremendous achievement of good, democratic, populist government.
The Bush girls--consciously or unconsciously--are pissing all over these countries. They are giving them the bird. They are flipping off the poor. Such a nice rich elite we have, that doesn't even have the grace to put on a hypocritical performance of caring. And they are--consciously or unconsciously--conveying the attitude of their padrones, who cavalierly inflict mass murder and grand theft on defenseless people.
I do think that the South Americans have had it with Bush and our Corporate Rulers. And I think this peaceful revolution that has swept South America is unstoppable. It is deeply rooted, at all levels, by good grass roots organization. It cannot be decapitated. It has widespread support and many leaders. It is the future. But that doesn't mean that Bushites can't cause a lot trouble and grief anyway. At the least, they will be a boon to war profiteers--what they do best--by causing these democracies to have to arm themselves against fascist paramilitaries and death squads, or by using black ops and other means to stir up trouble within or between governments. At worst, a lot of people could suffer torture and death before the continent pulls together to expel the malefactors. (In Oaxaca right now, in Mexico, we're seeing how much horror corporate/fascist-paid paramilitaries can create--at least 17 deaths, assassinations of protesters--and federal military occupation, inflicting yet more suffering.)
I wouldn't treat the Bush twins in South America as a casual, accidental thing. Its psychological message is too pointed. And it may be a harbinger of worse to come. And, if nothing else, it surely is an insult to all of us, to the American people, to have "goodwill ambassadors" that tear up the hotel room.
We deserve better. We really do.
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