Political Expedience

Political expedience - it's the driving force behind George Bush's "career" and explains the raging hypocrisy at work within his administration. His many references to faith, religion, and God are all a "schtick" used to lure in the social conservatives. (Things that make you go hmmm: when does a "west Texas" boy start using the word schtick?) Does anyone think the Religious Right would tolerate this or this from a Democratic White House? Robertson and Dobson would have coronaries. (whoa, I just had a brilliant idea - Z.)

His tax cuts at any cost, even to the point where our soldiers die for lack of equipment, tells Big Business this: you can count on the George H. W. Bush family to take care of You. The lack of vision in his energy policy, elimination of environmental regulations, fealty to drug companies, and rewriting of important scientific reports are all of the same piece -- it's the old "what's good for GM is good for America" fallacy.

So those are the two constituencies: big business + social conservatives. The first signs of friction in this unholy alliance are just now being exposed, but they are still a strong force in society. And more importantly they form the votes + money necessary to keep the GOP in prominence at the national level - for now.

Those two components come together in a strange yet dangerous combination with the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church and owner of the Washington Times - conservatives' answer to the "liberal" moderate Washington Post. This dangerous mix of ideology (the Washington Times pushes many conservatives' favorite causes and publishes the vile rumors that no other news organizations dare touch) and business ("Moon remains a Washington political powerhouse in his own right, a generous friend of the Bush family") is laid out very well in this excellent article by John Gorenfeld - a smart and tireless muckraker of the fatal formula that creates the toxic atmosphere of today's politics.

Does George Bush really care about spreading democracy and fighting terrorism, or does he do the politically expedient thing at each and every juncture in his administration? I think the answer is obvious, and more Americans are coming to realize it daily.

(updated: various edits - Z.)