The USA in 2006

Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies was written as a blog in 2006 following the release of American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips.

Publishing it Blogger brings the work full circle. It was started as a blog in 2006.

Cliff Potts -- June 4, 2014

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The Unites States Today

The United States of America is now in the hands of a radical element of the Republican Party commonly known as the neo-conservative Right. They are idealists who have taken it upon themselves to dictate the beliefs of Christianity and the destiny of the United States. They have to be stopped. We have one opportunity. This year, 2006, is the mid-term election of Mr. Bush’s second term in office. He is now a lame duck and there is every opportunity to put an end to the stranglehold that the neo-conservative Right has on the nation.

I am not going to make any apologies for questioning Mr. Bush’s administration. He squandered the solidarity of the nation in the wake of the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. He led us into war in Iraq on a lie.  His administration has been inundated with charges of corruption.

See:

• Poll: Most Americans Say Bush Not Honest, Friday, November 11, 2005, Will Lester, Associated Press
• Capitol Hill Blue, Bush Ignored the Truth about Iraq, Doug Thompson, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
• Mercury News Washington Bureau, Boxer challenges Rice's Iraq statements, Jim Puzzanghera, January 19, 2005

Slim Majority 

Mr Bush has blatantly disregarded the constitutional guidelines that define us as a nation of laws. He has professed a mandate from the people, when he actually won the 2004 elections by only 50.7% of the vote. There is substantial evidence that he feels that he has a mandate from God. He wants to lead this nation on a crusade in the Middle East to establish Christianity among Muslims. There is substantial historical evidence to prove that his drive into Iraq specifically was carried out to secure a sizeable oil reserve for the United States.

Displaced Citizens 

Not only has he been at the helm of the nation during the worse attack on U.S. soil, he has allowed the entire Gulf Coast to languish in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, displacing well over 400,000 citizens. With the exception of the realty markets, the nation’s economy is dismal. When the real estate numbers are removed from the economic equations, all sectors have lost ground. We have become a nation where destroying the economic prosperity of our citizens has become a thing of celebration in corporate America. Good jobs of all types are replaced with “McJobs” of dismal prospect. In foreign policy, Bush has alienated most of our historic allies and made us look like fools to the global community. His administration has authored abuses of power like that of a tyrant king. This includes the detention of foreign nationals in an offshore prison, the humiliation of prisoners under our control in Iraq, and the wholesale slaughter of well over 10,000 citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Not Enough Evidence?

A few weeks ago, I happened across an interview in which American Theocracy was being discussed. The moderator said that there was not enough evidence to tie Mr. Bush to the neo-conservative Right, the Theocracy Movement, and the radical religious policies of the religious reconstructionists. It is too bad that the statements of Mr. Bush have been overlooked by the mainstream media.

God Speaks Through Me

According to the Irregular Times, President George W. Bush made a visit to the offices of the Lapp Electric Service plant in Smoketown, Pennsylvania. The report is as follows:

There, waiting to talk to Mr. Bush was a group of about 60 local Amish, one of whom had made a quilt for the visiting President. Mr. Bush shook a few hands, tried on a straw hat, and then made his announcement to the small crowd. "God speaks through me," he said.  This story was first reported in the local papers, including the Intelligencer Journal and the Lancaster New Era, on July 16, 2004, and was subsequently recanted (http://www.irregulartimes.com/godspeaksthroughme.html).

If Bush were the leader of a religious organization, like the Pope of the Catholic Church, then this would be a reasonable statement. However, he is President of the United States. While this statement is questionable enough, he made a similar statement on February 3, 2006 :

See, part of my foreign policy is this: I believe that there is an Almighty and I believe that the Almighty's gift to everybody on the face of the Earth, regardless of where they live, regardless of their religion, is freedom. 

The question here is begging (Exodus 20:7 KJV):

What ever became of, “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain"?

The Godly Foreign Policy

Mr. Bush says his foreign policy is based on his religious views. This foreign policy is a dismal failure. We are occupying Afghanistan. We invaded Iraq based on very inaccurate information. Japan has considered defensive strikes against North Korea. Venezuela is now on our watch list. Cuba is faltering, and we have been warned to keep our hands off.. Mexico has been sending their masses across our borders to find work, while the leftists protest in the streets. We have alienated most of our friends in Europe. Israel has invaded Lebanon.

Clinton,Clinton, and more Clinton 

While the pundits of the Republican Party will tell you in a loud, clear voice that Clinton also believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, what the assertion tries to cover up is that Clinton, for right or wrong, did not take action on that information. We know that Iraq had no connection with the events of 9/11. We know that Iraq had an underdeveloped raw oil supply. We know that they were in negotiation with the Chinese to deliver that oil to China’s growing economy. We know that the reasons presented before the nation, and the world, to rationalize the invasion of Iraq were in error. Yet, in 2004, Mr. Bush was given a chance to continue his incompetent administration.

Rational Choice 

In our winner-take-all electoral system, we got saddled with his chaotic leadership. We now can intervene to elect sane, rational, eloquent statesmen who will chart a lucid path through the troubled waters of the Bush administration. As a nation, as a people, as a civilization, we are much better than what we are seeing in Washington, D.C. Kevin Phillips argues that the invasion of Iraq was to secure the oil supply and that the war was driven by religious zealots to bring about Armageddon. Phillips strives so hard to pin the failures of the Bush administration on the neo-conservative Right. In truth however, Mr. Bush’s motives are far more primal than greed or religion. His motives are simple revenge.