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 From The Desk Of
Ron Walters
Columnist Page
Friday, November 5, 2004; Page 19
Bush's Power of Ideology
Did you see those last-minute polls that had Bush leading in states that gave him 172 to 295 electoral votes. Many people that I talked to scratched their head, not knowing what to make of it.
Here is a man that has invaded another country illegally, wasted the lives of over 1,000 brave young soldiers, wasted untold financial resources, lied about the reason for going to war, run up trillions of the national debt, given corporations billions of dollars in no-bid contracts in broad daylight, soured the relationship of America with most of its major allies, and can barely rub two sentences together to get out a mediocre thought — and he has been leading the most powerful nation in the world.
I understand the utter disbelief of most people because his supporters are the people who have preached at Blacks and the poor for years. They have made us believe that America stood for democratic values, that they wanted an international system that was civil and free the domination of tyrannical violence, that they stood for excellence in leadership and we believed them. We also believed them when they said that they had no resources for social programs: “Where will the money come from?” has been the question.
Well, I don’t every want to hear that question again because I know that it is not an issue of the availability of resources; it is the presence of the values and priorities held by the ruling class. And I also don’t want anyone to tell me that Black people can’t run this country or anything else, when the gang running it headed by a former drunk who was also a failed businessman and whose father was responsible for making him governor of Texas - and everything else.
So how did Bush get there? I wrote a book about it. He is there because the facts don’t really matter; his background really doesn’t matter; his actions really don’t matter. In fact, he is there because he gets some of the highest scores on public opinion polls on “likeability.” In other words, he got there because he is liked and trusted by the majority to do what they want.
He shares the ideology and world view of the majority, I can remember some of the most authoritative voices in the media and politics talking about Marion Barry; the former mayor of Washington, D.C., who was busted on a drug charge; saying, “What will the children think” and “Won’t his drug and alcohol use induce them to follow his lead?” and “What kind of example does it set to make someone with that background the leader of the city?” And when Barry was restored to credibility by the redemption ritual of some prominent ministers, some in the national media said that he was just using religion as a cover that he really wasn’t saved. Where have these voices been recently? Silent when it came to Bush.
I had a saying for some time that when people give you a substantial benefit of the doubt and keep giving you that, something is at work other than the facts or logic. Something was at work between George Bush and the majority who are his supporters that does not lend itself to the normal, fair functioning of the political system with all of the cannons of rational choice that we like to use. What is at work is a deeply cultural basis of choice which gives him a pass on many of the things that would severely limit others, especially Democrats and most certainly Blacks, in this era of history from doing some of the same things.
I think about the relentlessness with which all of our Black candidates for president have been found lacking in their background by the media; and I think about what would have happened to Bill Clinton if he had passed out no-bid contracts like so much Christmas candy, or if he had started a war with the flimsy rationale that was used to promote the war in Iraq – and I think about the theft of the entire election of 2000 – and I wonder what will it take to stop the profound corruption of the path toward democratic society in this age that the Bush supporters are waging. |
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