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By Eric C. Bauman, Chair, Los Angeles County Democratic Party
Not long ago Karl Rove had a plan and it was masterful. George W. Bush, wearing his Texas ten-gallon, would ride his horse “Nine-Eleven” triumphantly across the nation. Nine-Eleven’s saddlebags would bulge with more money than any candidate had ever imagined, while Saddam’s head would sway from Nine-Eleven’s tail. As Cowboy-Bush trotted by, the masses would dance in the streets and welcome him with open arms … a true American hero.
Democrats, left penniless by the primary season and facing an unimaginable campaign of shock and awe and the incredible agility of Nine-Eleven, would have no choice but to admit defeat and surrender. Cowboy-Bush would get to hitch Nine-Eleven to the White House gate for four more years. His posse, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft, would be free to trot across the world creating new settlements in accordance with the Cowboy doctrine. A Cowboy’s “dream come true.”
But a funny thing happened on the way to the corral… old Nine-Eleven got spooked and threw Cowboy-Bush.
You see Master Rove assumed that the mere sight of Nine-Eleven, with Saddam’s head bobbing on his tail, would spark fear in every challenger. He believed those over-stuffed moneybags assured total dominance of the field. And he was absolutely certain that the plainspoken, albeit tongue-twisted Cowboy would face down any challenger with a sneer and a smirk.
It never occurred to Rove that Democrats would find a standard-bearer who not only understood “dressage,” but who was both a decorated war hero and a veteran of the peace movement. Rove never imagined that Democrats, far from being broke, would raise more money in April and May than the Cowboy – leveling the playing field.
According to Rove’s plan, Democrats would end their divisive primary season bloodied and without a dime. Cowboy-Bush would then begin riding Nine-Eleven across every television screen in America; after all, the Cowboy would have more than $200 million waiting to be spent.
Alas, as the saying goes, the best laid plans…
Having spent $90 million in two months, Cowboy-Bush and Rove expected to be soaring in the polls. They surely figured Kerry would look like Bob Dole in ’96, a mere caricature of a presidential candidate. After all, who could survive that much negative advertising and still be standing?
But neither Rove, nor Bush, nor the posse imagined that their great Persian Gulf adventure would turn into a nightmare. They never conceived that the people of Iraq would view the post-Saddam occupation as anything other than a love fest. Despite warnings from respected military leaders like Generals Zinni and Shinseki, they seemed stunned by anti-American riots in the streets and impassioned “resistance.”
It never entered their minds that the techniques they embraced for interrogation and information gathering would lead to horrific abuses documented photographically, and that no amount of cowboy-spin would contain the world’s anger and horror.
Furthermore, the whole gang was caught off guard by the fact that their favorite purveyor of anti-Saddam propaganda turned out to be, shock-of-shocks, a liar and in cahoots with Iran.
On the domestic front, while they were busy telling us how the exportation of millions of American jobs was good for our nation, they never figured out that all those people whose jobs were exported had run out of unemployment benefits. They didn’t understand that getting a job at the 7-11 was not the same as being an engineer or manufacturing cars.
They were stunned when seniors (and newspaper editors) figured out just how phony their prescription drug plan really was – how the only real beneficiaries were the drug companies and insurance companies who stand to gain $60 billion in “promotional fees.”
And parents, teachers and politicians began discovering that the No Child Left Behind plan, which was supposed to be the Cowboy’s great domestic achievement, was, in fact, leaving tens-of-thousands of children behind.
To make matters worse, as each day passed, those who filled Nine-Eleven’s saddlebags with all that money demanded their payback. More tax cuts for the rich, reductions in environmental protections, fewer regulations on businesses and financial institutions. As gas prices spiked to the highest levels in a generation and the federal deficit soared, the Cowboy was forced to demand cuts – in college tuition assistance, in housing programs for the poor and the homeless, in healthcare, in transportation projects and in government oversight of our food and drug system.
Things got so bad on the ranch, the Cowboy had to mount Nine-Eleven and ride him down Pennsylvania Avenue to spend an afternoon sitting around the campfire at the Capitol with Frist, Hastert, Delay and all the other nervous Republican cowpokes. Despite the marshmallow roast, the Cowboy’s jawboning and Nine-Eleven’s hoof-stomping, the cowpoke Party remains seriously uneasy about Iraq and the voter’s perception of the nation’s direction.
All in all, nothing has quite followed Master Rove’s plan. Bush is still trotting around on Nine-Eleven, telling tall tales about how the people of Iraq are delighted we’re there. He’s still telling us how wonderful the economy is, as interest rates and inflation creep upward. He still claims to be compassionate, but the only domestic programs he is talking about are the Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and the reauthorization of the hateful so-called Patriot Act.
With Rove’s plan failing and the Cowboy’s administration seemingly unable to do anything right, the American people have finally realized that Cowboy-Bush has no credibility and no answers. His poll numbers are plummeting and for the first time most Americans believe the nation is on the “wrong track.” Not even galloping around on Nine-Eleven seems to be helping.
Only one word can describe the feeling at the Cowboy’s White House corral - Chaos. And only one word can describe the American public’s feeling about what’s going on – Outrage.
Meanwhile, John Kerry is slowly and methodically introducing himself to the American public, addressing a new policy area each week, laying out his plans and his vision – and avoiding getting sucked into Bush’s Persian Gulf vortex, Cowboy-Bush and his posse are circling the wagons, sticking by their ill-conceived roadmap. No matter the problem, no matter the crisis, they point fingers, blame underlings or deny the very existence of any negative facts.
Anyone who speaks out or questions the Cowboy is labeled unpatriotic or is accused of endangering our troops. Anyone who offers an alternative approach or suggests reconsideration of a policy becomes the victim of the posse’s attack machine.
Cowboy-Bush is on the path to riding Nine-Eleven back home to Crawford, permanently.
But let us not become complacent or overconfident. We still have much work ahead of us. Cowboy-Bush and his gang still have tens-of-millions of dollars to spend confusing voters about the facts. They will continue pounding on Kerry in every way imaginable, accusing him of being responsible for everything short of the Civil War.
And those who have benefited from the Cowboy’s “honorable” administration are not about to give up their golden goose, no matter the cost.
We Democrats must focus our energy on the chaos Bush and his gang has wrought. We must not shrink from challenging each and every lie and distortion they tell. We must voice our outrage loudly and fearlessly, without intimidation. We must remind our fellow citizens that this Cowboy administration and its Wild West policies are not what America stands for.
Most importantly, we need to stop second-guessing ourselves and our nominee. We must be proud that our candidate is both a war hero and peace hero. We have to accept the fact that John Kerry sometimes speaks like a senator and not in sound bites. We should loudly proclaim that our candidate has a plan to win the peace, not just to win the war.
We should never be embarrassed that our candidate wants to rescind the Cowboy’s tax cuts that benefit the richest among us to pay for healthcare for those most in need and to ensure a high quality education for all our children.
And while Cowboy-Bush will continue galloping around on old Nine-Eleven and waving Saddam’s head around, we must show our outrage at his lies and deceptions at every opportunity and continuously challenge the chaos he and his posse have created.
We can overcome the saddlebags full of money, the phony flag waving, the attacks and distortions, but only by pulling together and emphasizing that America can be so much more than it has become since this crowd rode into Washington.
We must be proud of what our Party stands for and where John Kerry will lead our nation, without reservation or hesitation. We must not hide our outrage, and we must not allow the Cowboy’s chaos to go unchallenged. Millions of Americans are depending on us to save the American dream… and send Cowboy-Bush with his Texas Ten-Gallon and his horse named Nine-Eleven back to Crawford, for good.
PERMISSION IS GRANTED FOR REPUBLICATION
Copyright 2004 Eric C. Bauman
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