Vote Democratic to put some control on Bush

On the very eve of the election, I urge readers of rubyjewsday, whereever they may be, to vote Democratic tomorrow in Senate and House races, and place a counterbalance on Bush, Cheney and their band of radical rightists who have taken America in wrong and dangerous directions on so many issues--Iraq, the Middle East, arms control (they want to dispense with it, except when it comes to Iran), their rejectionism of America as a responsible member of the international community, their fill-throated rape of the environment, especially their theological madness in rejecting the consensus of the scientific community and insisting nothing can or should be done about global warming. That is the image that upsets me more than any other about Bush; like Nero, fidlding while the world liuterally burns up, thereby denying our children and grandchildren of a livable world.

The Bushies are Christian right crazies who want to do away with the separation of church and state, who want to drive women back to life-threatening back-alley abortions, who question evolution--what century is this, anyway, the 21st or the 19th--yet here we are in the thrall of this bunch of Christian Taliban who want to turn America into a fundamentalist Christian state. They pose cynically as guardians of the moral order, even as so many of them use their positions of power in blatantly corrupt ways and even as they milk the system to make the obscenely rich even richer. There is their ongoing 'starving of the government' in order to give tax cuts to the rich, and finally, their attempted snuffing out of American democracy itself; the attack on our civil liberties and basic constitutional rights, the denial of due process to prisoners, who can now be held for as long as the Bushies desire without access to legal support, the condoing, even encouragement of torture--all of which does not weaken the Islamic fundamentalists we are fighting, but strenghtens them.

In short, this has been the worst U.S. Administration since this reporter came to political consciousness at the age of 10 in 1960; worse in some ways even than Richard Nixon, who at least accepted that basic social services for the less fortunate needed to be maintained. No, electing a Democratic House or Senate will not be a magic panacea and the Democrats are all over the map and do not present a coherent message on Iraq and other key issues, but at least they would put a serious check on the power of this arrogant, authoritarian bunch intent on blindly pursuing a set of disastrous policies that not only threaten decent and humane government in America, but the very perpetuation of life on earth itself.

In the not too distant future, our children, struggling to survive in a world beset by disastrous global warming and the crashing of basic species, like most of the fish in the oceans will look back and shake their heads that such a bunch of madmen were allowed to take control of the levers of power and insitute a set of policies that has left America so much worse off than when they began. Six short years, and look how far down the road to hell they have taken us. The damage is immense, and will take decades to repair, but first we have to say a collective NO to this bunch of tuggish ideologues. The chance to take that step and take back our country starts tommorrow. Friends, druzya, chaverim, go to the polls and say 'No' to Bush.