\tThere was a remarkable article in the New York Times<\/i> on June 27. It had a remarkable headline too: \"Some in G.O.P. Call on Bush to Focus on Governing.\"\r\n
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\tThe piece went on to quote Republicans, both named (Newt Gingrich) and unnamed, as saying that the Bush administration has been in a \"permanent campaign\" mode, aimed at energizing right-wingers, instead of governing and trying to pass legislation--which of course requires working out compromises in Congress.\r\n
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\tThis is really quite an admission.\r\n
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\tIsn’t \"governing\" what people elect a president to do?\r\n
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\tAfter all, during the campaign, candidates spend most of their time telling voters how they would govern, and what they would do to run the country if elected. Bush certainly did that.\r\n
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\tNow it turns out that even his own backers in Congress don’t think he has been doing much governing; that rather, he is just running a permanent campaign aimed at attacking critics and winning the hearts of his \"base.\"\r\n
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\tOf course we knew this. The war in Iraq is not governing; it has been a gigantic, unprecedentedly costly campaign stunt from the get go. The Social Security wrecking campaign is not governing; it's a campaign theme. Ditto \"No Child Left Behind,\" which has been all talk and rules, and no money or program.\r\n
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\tWhat we have in the Bush White House is in fact virtual government--all image and showmanship, but no action.\r\n
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\tThat's not to say nothing is going on. What Bush and his gang are doing is systematically bankrupting and looting the country and handing the ripped off proceeds to corporations and the wealth in a way John Stockman could only dream of.\r\n
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\tOf course, the White House has been able to get away with this deadly charade in part thanks to the fact that the Democratic Party has been pretty much a virtual opposition. Its leading lights for the most part agree with much of the Republican agenda--free trade, endless war in Iraq, US imperial power in general, throwing money at the Pentagon, cutting taxes for corporations, etc., etc.\r\n
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\tWhat it all boils down to, I guess, is that we are living in a virtual democracy.
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For the rest of this column and other stories by Lindorff, please go (at no charge) to This Can't Be Happening! .\r\n
\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"dlindorff@yahoo.com","link":"http:\/\/www.thiscantbehappening.net","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"With Republicans admitting that the White House isn\u2019t governing\u2014just campaigning\u2014we need to face the truth: We have a virtual government, a virtual opposition, virtual citizens and, in the end, a virtual democracy. Our problems, though\u2014war, poverty, AIDS, global warming, etc.\u2014are all too real.\r\n---------\r\n","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/06\/130830.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":130852,"heading":"I agree 100 %","article":"Everything we see from Bush's junta distraction all the way down to our own movements bring little change because the heart of the matter never changes -\r\n\r\nour money and taxes pays for it all yet the one thing we won't do is boycott the system\r\n\r\nbecause we're a part of it\r\n\r\nand people who live or even think outside of it are excluded while we fool ourselves into thinking whatever effort we happen to be comfortible with is all that's required or *matters*\r\n\r\nmeanwhile the rich depend on this to stay in power and steal us all blind\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n"What good fortune for those in power that people do not think".\r\n\r\nAdolf Hitler\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"Hex","parent_id":130830,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-06-28 15:12:50","modified":"2005-06-28 15:12:50","fileurl":""}]}