Several pieces of recent news information came together that struck me as both interesting and instructive. Many will recall how the “American People” [a term that is frequently tossed about as if it had some ascertainable definition] were promised a “Kinder, Gentler and More Compassionate” kind of conservatism in government. That was the marketing message of the GOP at election time to obtain votes from citizens who were cautious about the tendency of past GOP initiatives to cut social and educational programs in favor of tax breaks for the wealthy and favoritism in the award of government contracts to large GOP campaign contributors.
Flash forward to the most recent announcements of the GOP controlled Congress regarding their activities and priorities. A group of GOP Representatives have derailed the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, a measure that was to have received bipartisan support from House and Senate leaders. The Voting Rights Act was passed in the wake of strong and concerted efforts in some states to intimidate, exclude and suppress voter turnout [particularly among voters of color] and to restrict voting and ballot access. Unfortunately, more than three decades later we find the urgent need for continuation and extension of such legislation because the political machines of the electoral process require enforced morality in the absence of any internal moral compass. Witness the recent criminal conviction of New Hampshire GOP political operatives for dirty tricks including jamming voter registration and get out the vote phone operations in connection with the 2004 primary for the national election. This sizeable cadre of GOP representatives seeks to block passage of the Voting Rights Act because it would provide ballot and voting assistance to eligible voters who lack english language proficiency. An obvious ethnic targeting device, the move is an attempt to exploit sentiment being stirred in this country against immigrants.
The failure of the Immigration Reform compromise legislation that was apparently supported by the White House can also be traced to this racist and ethnic bias sentiment that is being fostered and stoked by the GOP. The compromise sought to address the real world circumstances of millions of undocumented persons already in this country who are technically “illegal” and who are working and paying taxes into the system. The overwhelming majority of these “illegal aliens” are otherwise law abiding [probably moreso than the public at large because of their fear of drawing attention to themselves] and are providing labor to employers eager to hire them. The right wing GOP zealots contend that any measure that would allow these immigrants the chance of becoming citizens would constitute “amnesty” and would be unacceptable. They say nothing about enforcement of laws against companies and employers who provide jobs and wages to the same immigrants, ignoring the fact that if there were no prospect of employment, most of the immigrants would not come to the US in the first place. So the hostility toward illegal immigrants is not really based upon any rational “law and order” argument or any anti terrorist safety rationale, but rather upon simple ethnic and racial bias. This conclusion is confirmed by the nearly complete absence of similar border control and anti immigrant hostility respecting visitors from Canada, almost all of whom are white.
The GOP controlled House was able, however, to push forward a couple of measures that also demonstrate their priorities in this election year. They passed a measure that would allow the President an effective line item veto respecting spending measures. The idea is to allow the President to select out spending authorization measures that may have been introduced into legislation to obtain Democratic compromise for the Bill and cut those measures. The primary expected targets would be social and education measures such as college loans, medical program support for the elderly and indigent and other “safety net” types of measures. This legislation that the House is sending to the Senate is touted as a measure to help control spending. This excuse prompted Rep. Miller from California to remark that in a GOP controlled Congress, with a GOP President, to suggest that such help was needed to “control spending” sounded like a bit from Comedy Central.
On the flip side, the House passed a measure to remove the Estate tax from a large segment of eligible transactions passing large estates through probate. The Senate had balked at eliminating the Estate tax completely, in the face of strong and vocal nationwide opposition to this measure intended to benefit the super wealthy. However, the House views the current measure as an attempt to make good, at least partially, on their promise and commitment to their right wing elite contributors as they go into campaign contribution solicitations for the upcoming fall elections.
The shift of the government and the people of this country toward a meaner, nastier and more intolerant nation seems to have gathered substantial momentum as we head for the fall elections. This momentum can only be countered by active participation in the voting booth by eligible voters who reject that philosophy. The GOP Congress and the President are fond of justifying their actions by stating publicly that they are doing what the “American People” want. The plebiscite in the fall of 2006 will go a long way toward clarifying what kind of nation and what kinds of priorities the people of this nation truly desire. We can only hope that the electoral process has not been so corrupted that the actual people of American can get to the polls and be allowed to vote so that their voice will actually reflect the will of the “American People.”
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