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archived: 6 - 12 Nov, 2005 Back Next UPDATED: November 8, 2005 IMPLOSION & HOPE Four years after his ghastly apotheosis on 9/11, George Bush lost his mojo. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, it revealed the flipside of neoconservativism: blatant racism, perpetual impoverishment, bankruptcy, unemployment and enslavement for America’s sprawling underclass and, at the same time, tax incentives for the rich, gigantic grants for the biggest corporations, plus massive government bonuses for the politically powerful. At that Katrina moment, the flame went out in the candle of Bush’s benighted presidency and his political popularity plummeted in the dual wakes of Katrina and her younger sister, Rita. Today, barely one in three Americans believe in Bush’s policies. Bush is now the most unpopular president in recent memory, and to those of us in the opposition camp, it looks as if he is trending lower. In order to resurrect Bush’s presidency, Karl Rove came up with a plan. He would transform Bush from “Village-Idiot-in-Chief” to the “Comeback Kid.” In order to accomplish this truly magical transmutation, Bush would be sent out to strut the world stage at the Summit of the Americas held in Mar de Plata, Argentina, where he would lead the crusade for free trade in the form of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). Striding across the global stage has worked for other presidents who wished to distract the American people from difficult domestic dilemmas. Nixon used the global tactic to great effect when he went to China. Ford even attempted to recapture Nixon’s success in China, but his ploy failed. Reagan went to Reykajvik. Bush, Sr. went to Tokyo, where it all fell apart when he disgorged a projectile of vile regurgitation that struck the poor, unsuspecting Prime Minister of Japan. This tactic is, therefore, not without its risks especially if the president in question has the surname, “Bush.” Karl Rove and Dick Cheney reasoned that Bush should go to Mar de Plata, where the American people would see their president in a new light as a world leader. They reasoned that Americans would be so mesmerized by a few images of Bush in Argentina that they would forget Katrina, forget Iraq, forget Al Qaida, forget Miers, forget Enron, forget the price of gasoline, forget the economy, forget the tax cut, forget the deficit, forget their mounting debts to China and Japan, forget the medical bills, forget John Poindexter, forget Lewis Libby, forget Patrick Fitzgerald and feel proud to be a nation under the sway of gun-packing neoconservative swagger, the fear of a God and the glories of Falluja, Firdaus Square, the sacking of Baghdad and the sacred torture chambers of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo where we are systematically shredding the rights of foreigners held in our custody in order to preserve the rights of Americans. This time, they were wrong. Dead wrong. Bush flopped in Argentina, and he was run out of town by a series of inflammatory riots and massive public protests the scale of which has never assaulted the dignity of any American president in our nation’s long and illustrious history. It is going to get worse, because the global situation is worsening rapidly. The anti-Bush riots engulfing Paris are not to be sneered at by neocons under investigation in the White House. While the Parisian riots have been ostensibly aimed at an unpopular French official named Sarkozy, American businesses have been among the main targets for devastating incendiary attacks in the City of Light. Images of burnt out McDonalds in Paris have appeared cross the globe, and a violent wave of anti-Americanism is now sweeping across our warming planet.
These violent riots have spread from Paris to Brussels and Berlin. Europe is now braced for a wave of violent riots as politically disempowered people now emboldened by the fall of Bush and the swift rise of Anti-Americanism are now beginning to lash out against all forms of authority. Recent events in South America add fuel to the fires of Bush’s domestic political opposition. In a well-organized demonstration of public protest staged at one of South America’s largest football stadiums, Bush was pilloried and vilified as Global Enemy Numero Uno. Bush was lampooned and ridiculed. The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, led the blazing attacks on the Bush who, in four short years, has become the most hated man on earth. Calling Bush, “Mr. Danger,” (Senor Peligro) Chavez harangued the crowd for three and one half hours regaling them with his coruscating excoriations. Bush was lacerated for transforming America into a frightened and fearful nation deeply afflicted with mass paranoia. More. Chavez charged Bush with being the most dangerous man on our glowing planet and the greatest obstacle to peace and prosperity in world history. The gigantic crowd loved Chavez, and they were whipped up into further frenzy by their heroic football genius, Diego Maradona, who has emerged in recent weeks as the leading critic of Bush in the South American media. Thanks to George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove, South America has become a wall-to-wall zone of virulent, crackling, rippling and explosive Anti-Americanism. Humiliated, embarrassed and humbled, Bush apologized to his Argentinian hosts; then he fled the Summit of the Americas to hold a very private meeting with the president of Brazil, Ignacio Lula da Silva. From there, he will limp home via Panama to return to his desk in the Oval Office in a White House that is now under siege. With the wagons drawn in a circle, the natives of America are now circling the besieged Bush-Cheney White House firing explosive arrows and bullets capped with warheads laced with political cyanide. Everyone remembers where they were on 9/11. On that fateful date four years ago at the beginning of the supremacy of George Bush, I happened to be with Naomi Wolf in an audience to hear her read from her book, Misconceptions. In her latest essay, Wolf rejoices at the recent turn of political events. In a burst of optimism, Wolf proclaims that the current political predicaments of our neoconservative president are strong incentives for a rebirth of hope. Sources
Naomi Wolf, We
Americans are like recovering addicts after a four-year bender:
Bush made his white constituency feel good about themselves, but no
longer. Citizens are rediscovering democracy
Rioters shatter Bush's
hopes of forging free trade coup: Violent protests have turned a
prestigious foreign policy trip to South America into another public
relations catastrophe
French riots claim
first fatality as unrest spreads to Belgium and Germany __________________ Since 1968, Michael Carmichael has been a professional political consultant. Beginning as a Student Coordinator for Robert F. Kennedy, he has worked in five US presidential campaigns as well as over 100 major American political campaigns for federal and state offices. In 1985, he founded The Oxford Centre for Public Affairs in the United Kingdom. In 2003, he founded The Planetary Movement Limited, a global public affairs organization based in the United Kingdom. He has appeared as a public affairs expert on the BBC, European Business News, NPR and many European television broadcasts examining American politics and culture. In addition to his column for The Political Junkies, he is a regular contributor to the Moving Planet weblog. See: www.planetarymovement.org and http://planetmove.blogspot.com/
Last Update: 03/23/2006 |
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