ARE THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA TRULY SO SHALLOW?

I have just finished reading the latest Times/CNN poll that shows Bush up by 11 points among likely voters, and I find it mind-boggling. The Republican National Convention--including hate toward those who disagree with them, vile rumor and innuendo about John Kerry, and the most extreme form of money-worship one can imagine--ended this week with GWBush listing a litany of things he hopes to achieve in his second term that have so far failed to be implemented in his first term. Nothing new. Nothing original. Nothing innovative. Promises to continue the failures that have done nothing to improve the economy, that have done nothing to make us more secure, that have done nothing to provide better health insurance for those who have none. Bush's most significant moments came when he made fun of himself--there's nothing that he said that we can disagree with.

"You know what I stand for," Bush said at one point--yes, we do; and that is what scares many of us more than threats of terrorism. I live in a small rural community. I do not foresee terrorism directly affecting this area in any possible future, but I know very well that Bush's continued policies will undoubtedly affect me and my family. He proposed reforming the tax code and I said to my wife, "That's great. I've been in favor of that for 15 years. Simplify the code and remove ALL the tax breaks except personal exemptions and first mortgages--make the tax code fair." Then in the next paragraph of his speech, Bush proposed to create new tax breaks for Health Care Savings Accounts to protect people from catastrophic health-care costs. Does no one else see the irony here? 'We will reform the tax code to eliminate breaks and then we will add some new breaks.' The Health Care Savings Accounts, by the way, will not benefit my family. Most of my family live paycheck to paycheck. I have a minimal retirement savings above and beyond Social Security, and some members of my family do not even have that, because I have to pay college tuition loans, rent, insurance, health-care costs, and buy food. I received the biggest raise this year that I have ever gotten, and still my expendable income is minimal. The people who will make use of the Health Care Savings Accounts are those people who make much more money than I do--to call them 'rich' or 'wealthy' continues to be impolitic. (Did you hear what Bush said about Kerry's plan to revoke the tax cuts on people making over $200,000 a year? He said that was a silly plan because the 'rich know how to avoid paying taxes.' I wish I had a link to this--it was in a Hampton Roads newspaper after Bush made the comment on August 9 at a rally in Newport News, but the link is now dead.)

The new jobs figures were released yesterday--144,000 new jobs were created in the month of August. Not quite enough jobs to keep up with the number of new workers entering the job market, but enough jobs for Bush to claim that his policies are improving the economy--and people believe him!!! Bush wants our workers to compete with workers in foreign countries who are willing to accept much lower pay because the cost of living in those countries is significantly lower. Does that seem fair to anyone other than big businesses? Does that seem fair to the American worker? I appreciate the ideal of a free market economy, but we continue to have a trade deficit with every other first-world nation--does that make sense? Why does free trade mean that our corporations can move their offices out of the country and no longer pay taxes? If Bush wins re-election, he WILL begin talking again about ending payroll taxes, starting CONSUMPTION taxes, and completely privatizing Social Security. (In the meantime, let's ask some seniors if they like the new prescription drug coverage. I bet most of them will say that it isn't what they were promised, and yet it will cost the federal government more money than the Bush administration claimed.) Let's ask wage earners if more of them are getting paid overtime--as the Bush Labor Department claimed would happen with their new regulations. I bet wage earners are not only NOT getting paid for more overtime, but I bet they are working FEWER hours--thus taking home LESS money!

I am completely disgusted with the American people. Bush has destroyed in his first four year term everything that the Clinton administration established economically. He could have saved Social Security, but instead he gave money back to Americans--the ones who got the most back didn't even spend it, while the ones who got the least back spent theirs in a matter of days! Did this help the economy? NO! Will another tax cut help the economy? NO! Will the deficits that the government continues to run up help the economy? NO! To whom will we owe all of this debt that continues to accumulate? Mostly to the CHINESE--the one remaining national power that could mount a serious threat to American interests worldwide.

The saddest thing is that the negativity of the Bush campaign continues to work. The convention last week was about how terrible John Kerry and John Edwards are; very little was said by any speaker about what Bush has DONE for America. The Republicans criticize Kerry for centering his convention on the four months he spent in Vietnam, and yet they spent their convention centered around a couple of hours that George W. Bush spent at Ground Zero in New York City on Sept 14, 2001. I'll take my chances on a guy who spent time in combat--hearing the bullets flying by, facing threats from both shores of the river, knowing what our soldiers and marines face every day in Iraq. Bush hasn't been on the front lines of any battle. He has never smelled death and destruction. Even in New York on Sept 14, 2001, he came afterward--when things were safer, when scents and sights were different. I realize that Kerry may have a complicated record in his life, in the Senate, but AT LEAST HE HAS A RECORD. We know what George Bush stands for, but we aren't sure where he comes from!

If Bush wins this election, I am going to make some very serious decisions about leaving the United States--Canada, maybe? New Zealand or Australia....somewhere it doesn't matter quite so much that GWBush is an international asshole and proud of it.