Sunday, June 15, 2003

Right Wing Agenda
Over at Common Dreams Steve Miller has a synopsis of the goals of the current administration and their extremist supporters. He has three major goals. Let me paraphrase:

1. As has been said by The Nation and Bill Moyers recently, return the government to the time of President McKinley by "stripping government of all social welfare functions and all economic regulatory activity" and instead have government revert to "protecting property and sovereignty through the use of its police/military power". Functions that cannot be eliminated would be privatized. The result would be "an authoritarian state whose main function is repression of all institutionalized (and individual) avenues of resistance, perhaps even of dissent, particularly the labor movement."

2. Shift the burden of taxation from capital to consumption while putting ever-larger burdens on working families and the poor; and

3. Change the international arena to a US-dominated “new world order” in which narrow nationalist goals are achieved through unilateral and pre-emptive use of the US’s military power.

He has some analysis of methods by which this is being accomplished including wrapping themselves in Christianity which are worth reading. I believe that the American people are basically good hearted folk who have trouble conceiving that this level of manipulation or evil-mindedness is possible. In some ways we are very naive and think the best of people. That is why we turn on those who disappoint.

So it seems to me that the best way to get folks to understand who is currently governing the country is to follow the "Bush lied" inquiries that are gaining some momentum. That and the economic problems that are gaining traction now that average people can no longer ignore their now long-term unemployment and general failure to thrive are most likely to get their attention.

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