An Open Letter to George W. Bush:
17% Does Not a Mandate Make
by Carol Norris
Dissident Voice
January 10, 2003
Dear George,
Happy New
Year. And, I know it is for you,
because you (and when I say “you,” I mean Dick, Karl and the Carlyle Group) now
have control of both houses of Congress.
You must be sitting on top of the world, your oyster.
You declared
that the mid-term elections were a mandate from the American people. The People, you claim, speak with one
voice. George, you can bang The
Majority Has Spoken drum all you want, but here are the facts: a meager 33% of
all Americans voted. And of that 33%,
some 15% voted Democrat, 17% voted Republican and 1.1% voted Green,
Libertarian, Independent, etc.
I know school,
in general, was not your best subject, so let me help: 17% of the vote, only
two percentage points more than the Democrats, DOES NOT A MANDATE MAKE. Perhaps if you print that sentence out and
tape it on your desk at the Oval Office to remind you, it might help. (Then again, as you take more vacations and
spend less time there than any other President in history, maybe not.)
Capturing only
the minority of votes in the 2000 Election, yet still winning the presidency,
might make the term “majority” a bit confusing for you. (Let’s not even bother with all that extra
stuff about the Electoral College and the Supreme Court. It’ll just confuse you more.) Here are some examples that might help you
with the concept:
* Between 60 and
75% of ALL non-organic supermarket food tests positive for the presence of
genetically engineered ingredients, unbeknownst to the consumer. Either number, George, constitutes a
majority. There is no legislation
requiring GE foods to be labeled as such, despite an estimate that between
80-95% of the people want this labeling (most want the labeling so they can
avoid GE foods). Again, 80-95% is a
healthy majority, George.
* Some 75% of all
military recruitment centers are in low-income areas and the “projects.” 75%.
Another solid majority. The
military must know that poverty, despair and almost no hope for a viable future
make wonderful recruiting agents.
* Last
September, radio’s Democracy Now! surveyed 70 Republican and Democratic Senate
Offices, asking about constituents who had contacted them about a possible war
against Iraq. Aides for both
Republicans and Democrats reported an “overwhelming” majority of people
calling, faxing and emailing against the war.
In some cases, the calls, etc. were running 200:1 in opposition of
war. Now this might get confusing
because we are talking ratios, not percentages. But this ratio of 200:1 represents a huge majority of people who
don’t to go to war, don’t you think?
And finally, 99%
of your new tax cut proposal benefits the rich. Almost 100%. Now, that’s
a real face-slapping majority.
Are you getting
the hang of it now, George?
Actually, come
to think of it, you’re right: the
majority – the whopping 83% that didn’t vote with your party - HAS spoken. And it said: I’m too disgusted with U.S. politics to vote for any of you; or
corporations control everything anyway, so what’s the point; or you’re alright,
I guess, but I don’t want to miss the 16 hours of reality shows I taped to go
vote; or I’m uniformed and the media won’t cover the real issues that affect me
that would certainly motivate me to vote; or I think you are the most shameless
special interest lackey the Oval Office has ever seen and I wouldn’t vote for
you if Charlton Heston had one in his arsenal of guns pointed at my head.
So, let’s be
clear. The People did not say: “I, the singularly-voiced American People,
housed from sea to shining sea, bequeath to thee a mandate to continue on thine
path – to further thine special interest, neo-conservative agenda. With haste, Anointed One, go.”
Your agenda is
being furthered by default, George.
But, kudos to
you and yours for trying to convince the American people otherwise; that the
majority thinks the way you do and everyone is 100% behind you. It’s certainly shaping up to be a public
relations victory, much like the made-up story about Iraqi soldiers removing
babies from incubators. That was
powerful stuff, that lie. There was an
absolute outcry from the American people.
That rumor really helped drum up public support for your daddy’s Gulf
War. Much of the credit goes to the PR
firm Hill & Knowlton for that one.
What a good job they did, coaching the “source” for the story, the
daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S.
Interestingly,
despite knowing scenes in it are patently false, HBO is still rebroadcasting
“Tales from Baghdad,” which includes, among others, the false incubator
story. Yes, yes, they do have a little
disclaimer tucked away in the end credits, saying the facts are
“unsubstantiated.” But we know that
very few, except for those credited, sit and read the end credits. And people are so very willing to believe
what they see on TV, later quoting it as fact.
I wonder why HBO would continue to circulate that tall tale? I don’t know, but it certainly does help
demonize and dehumanize Iraqis all over again and will probably drum up support
for your very own Gulf War, don’t you think, George?
And then there
are those “opinion” polls people believe; the polls whose job it really is to
influence opinion - not collect, quantify and report it. (The same goes for the bulk of the
mainstream media who are loathe to report the truth, lest they be branded “unpatriotic.”) “Oh,” say the people who hear polling
results, read the papers and watch TV, “I guess most people agree with the
President. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m the only one who feels the way I
do.”
And your
popularity rating is really just a media-generated,
five-scary-Arab-men-on-the-loose,-we-heard-from-some-guy-and-have-absolutely-no-proof,-but-will-report-it-nationally-anyway,-so-for-chrissakes,-protect-us,-Mr.-President,-protect-us
fear rating. People don’t love you,
George, remotely as much as you would have us believe. They are mostly just afraid. It is the well-known psychological Rally
‘Round the Flag phenomenon that your strategists exploit spectacularly.
It must give you
a moment’s pause, though, to think that if the Democrats could only find a way
to use the veritable cornucopia of potential campaign issues spoon-fed to them
by the Republicans, they would only need to kick their percentage points up a
few notches to win future elections. I
bet you’re keeping your fingers crossed Nancy doesn’t figure that one out.
You once said it
would be easier if you were a dictator.
I imagine, then, you are finding things pretty easy, as you are almost
unfettered while you dictate the wishes of your industry friends. But, again, just be clear that you aren’t
implementing the majority’s wishes and mandates. Here is what the majority of the people want. Here are just a few of our mandates, to get
you started:
Mandate #1: Give us – all of us - quality, affordable
health care. We get sick. We choke on pretzels. We need access to health care, George. Very few of us can afford to pay out of
pocket medical expenses. Those of us
who do have medical coverage want our friends and neighbors to have it,
too. We are the only industrialized
country in the world that doesn’t guarantee health care to all its citizens
(and non-citizens). I know you’re mad
at him, but maybe you should call Fidel.
With all his faults, he has created a very successful national health
care system and has even extended free medical services to the never-ending
supply of victims of Chernobyl. He
might be able to give you some pointers.
Mandate #2: Please stop saying in your rehearsed
I-would-if-I-could voice that there is simply not a penny to spare to fix our decaying
education system as you work to reallocate literally trillions of dollars to
develop a weapons defense system that even Rumsfeld admits has produced
“failure after failure after failure.”
This system will not protect us from box cutters and an angry world,
full of injustice. Only justice will do
that.
But you, as the
book says, are the Fortunate Son. Most
of us are far less fortunate, in the material sense. Most of us don’t get to where we are because of our name. So, even though you had elite schooling, the
fact that quality, accessible education is the major vehicle to a viable future
for most of us might be hard for you to conceptualize.
If all we focus
on is trying to get our kids to eke out passable standardized test scores
amidst a teacher shortage with untrained people stepping in to fill the void,
crumbling schools, outdated textbooks, rising class sizes and declining
quality, to show how well our failing school system is doing, then all we’re
going to get is uneducated kids who can memorize answers for standardized
tests.
We want to
produce creative thinkers, George; kids who have a curiosity about how things
and people work; kids who know how to ask questions, whose natural inclination
to learn and explore is nurtured; kids who can engage in authentic dialogue,
who can see beyond themselves to create a sense of connectedness and, hence,
justice. That’s a big piece of what
will keep this country going and what will make the rest of the world and us
safe - not the promise of preemptive strikes and defective missile shields and
the ability to choose the correct multiple choice letter.
Mandate #3: Enough already with pretending your proposed
tax cut will help all Americans. We
know you are just paying back your friends.
We know it doesn’t help us, the other 99%. Some 74% of your proposed tax cut goes to Americans making one
million dollars per year or more, 25% goes to those making $100,000 or more, an
equitable 1% goes to those making $25,000 to $99,000 a year, and finally an impressive
0% goes to those making less than $25,000 a year because God knows those of us
scrambling to put food on the table certainly couldn’t use a little break.
While the
so-called trickle down “theory” was, in fact, ingenious, it was not borne from the
sophisticated economic theory of erudite, impartial scholars. It was a vehicle, during the Reagan years,
to pay back special interests, veiled as a solution to help the economy. Some say he was a good actor, so maybe
Reagan actually convinced himself it would really help everyone. I don’t know. But, while I feel sure your economic stimulus package is
stimulating, if not downright arousing, to many of your friends, those of us
down here who have been waiting all these years for that little trickle to
slake our parched wallets have not tasted a drop, George, not a drop. Personally, however, I have been nearly
drowned by the reality of two job layoffs and a deflated 401K. I guess that’s something.
Mandate #4: Never use the phrase “Axis of Evil” again. I mean it.
Never. The phrase originates
from a speechwriter, meant to appeal to our basic “you bad, me good” fear
instinct, and was reworked by some of your handlers. But, some of your other advisors, perhaps a bit more
sophisticated in international diplomacy, told you this was really not a good
thing to say. I can’t believe I’m
saying this, but listen to them George.
Such immature emotional reasoning is painfully embarrassing to hear
coming from a president – even an appointed one. The phrase conjures up scenes from a schoolyard. Every time you say it, I hear: “Axis of
Bullypants.”
Mandate #5: Give us the same amount of vacation/daily
exercise time you get, Georgie. Playing
puppet is no doubt singularly taxing, but our health and well-being is just as
important as yours, isn’t it? Well, it
is, isn’t it?? We are the little cogs
that make this country run. If we all
got as much R&R and time for daily exercise as you do, maybe we wouldn’t
need all those prescription drugs we can’t afford. (Maybe you better not tell your pals at Eli Lilly I said that.)
Mandate #6: Do us a favor and just call it like it
is. Stop insulting the intelligence of
the American people. As you so
eloquently put it: don’t misunderestimate us.
I, for one, would breath easier amidst the winds of honestly. Just give us the “State of the Special
Interests” Address, and tell us what you and your industry friends are doing,
and dispense with all this “by the people, for the people” crap.
We may be poor
or struggling financially; we may be frozen in our tracks, afraid that this war
is going to make all hell break loose all over the world, leaving us infinitely
less safe; we may be dying of industry-caused diseases, lacking adequate,
affordable health care to minister to us; we may find ourselves without
affordable housing; we may no longer have the financial promise of a carefree
retirement; and we may not have gone to the elite, private schools you and
yours went to – but, honestly, George, we aren’t stupid.
Best to Laura,
Jenna and the other one,
Carol Norris (A
member of the vast majority who is wondering if after 480 days, in your quiet
moments at the ranch, you still sometimes remember your fervent vow to get
Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.”)
Carol Norris is a freelance writer and psychotherapist. She can be contacted at writing4justice@planet-save.com.