Why Bush is Scared in 2004

This is a black day, a day for anyone associated with the Republican Party to be ashamed and embarrassed. Piling a new trillion-dollar Medi-Pander entitlement to appease geezer-beggars on top of all the others that the Republicans should be busy eliminating is way, way beyond scandalous. Why, then, has the Republican Party from President Bush on down become determined to betray its basic principles?

If you ask George Bush, Dick Cheney, or Karl Rove this question, they will look at you as if you are from Mars. “You’ve never had a near-death experience, have you?”, they will ask in return. They will assure you that it is no fun, and something you will do everything in your power to avoid experiencing again.

This is the basic reason why Bush has made no effort to contain domestic spending and hasn’t vetoed a single appropriations bill in three years. Does this excuse his abandonment of the Republican principles of limited government? No. But does it explain it? Yes.

We need to return to the days of yesteryear that seem so long ago, but were actually a scant 36 months past, to November 2000. Forget about the famous red/blue County Map displaying a handful of Gore blue islands floating in an ocean of Bush red. Forget about the stuffed ballot boxes in Missouri, Iowa, and South Philly in Pennsylvania that gave those states to Gore. The bottom line is that Gore did win the popular vote, and Bush is President thanks to a few hundred ballots in Florida, and it took the Supreme Court to prevent the Dems from stealing those.

Coming in to November after the third debate, Bush thought he had it nailed. He was sure the American people were as revolted over Clinton’s White Trash Presidency as he was. He was wrong. America had gone on an economic and moral binge, and did not want to be told it was time to sober up. As a recovered alcoholic, GW knew what an effort of will and character it takes to kick an addiction, and he saw that scores of millions of Americans didn’t have what it takes.

It was a revelation about his countrymen that stunned him to the core. And then came September 11, less than eight months into his presidency. Suddenly America was at full-scale war with an enemy more evil and dangerous than the Soviet Union. (Do you doubt for a second that if Moslem terrorists had a nuke they could use against us, they wouldn’t use it? The Soviets didn’t — and there was never any such thing as a Soviet suicide bomber.)

Yet did the Democrats unite behind the President, placing their country’s security over their personal struggles for political power? How rhetorical a question do you want? Instead of getting a constructively critical Loyal Opposition, he was — and is– subjected to an endless torrent of rage. Instead of gratitude and humility, he got bitterness and bile.

Thus came Bush’s second revelation: If he is not re-elected in 2004, and Democrats are in charge of national security, America will lose the War on Moslem Terrorism.

There is not the slightest chance a Howard Dean or Hillary Clinton would adequately defend America from the Osama bin Ladens of the world. And Bush is not willing to give them that chance.

So if it takes continuing to feed Americans’ addiction to entitlements and government subsidies in order to protect them from enemies that would snuff all their lives out if they could — well, so be it. That’s GW’s choice and decision.

We have a President totally dedicated to protecting America from an enemy the crazed likes of which she has never faced before. He is convinced that trillion-dollar entitlements are worth the price of doing so. And after all — while it is a straight-forward pander, the real blame in a democracy lies with those being pandered. It’s not like there are angry demonstrations organized by AARP in Lafayette Park across from the White House, with Non-Greedy Geezers carrying placards saying, “FREEDOM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SUBSIDIES!”, “THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!”, or “IT’S IMMORAL TO SADDLE MY GRANDCHILDREN WITH TRILLION DOLLAR DEBTS!”

While we can be repulsed by Bush and his party selling out their limited government principles, we need to realize that Bush is running scared. My arguments of this article’s companion piece, Why Bush Will Win in 2004, cut no mustard for him. I believe they are true, but he is taking no chances on a repeat of November 2000. He believes the very existence of our country is at stake. He may be right, and I am not willing to take the chance that he may be wrong.