A CALL TO MY FELLOW CONSERVATIVE BUSINESSMEN
TAKING STOCK: A REVIEW OF AMERICA, 11/00 -11/05
In November 2000, and again last November, we all faced momentous choices regarding our nation’s future – Choices that even then were seen by all as among the most important decisions facing our country that would occur in any of our lifetimes. Anniversaries are an excellent time to review past decisions in order to determine the success or failure of the choices one makes. So, let’s take stock for a moment, shall we?
November, 2000:
Domestically, the country was enjoying an unprecedented 7 year run of prosperity — A prosperity highlighted by record surpluses that not only guaranteed the long-term solvency of the nation’s Social Security programs, but also promised to wipe out the staggering debt accumulated through years of deficit spending in the 1980s and early 1990s. Indeed, the main gripe at the time was that the nation’s economy wasn’t growing as fast as it had been the previous three years! America’s major cities were intact and optimism abounded as America’s bounty was not only spurring upward mobility but also laying the foundation for a better social safety net to help the less fortunate.
Internationally, the U.S. was at peace, enjoyed unprecedented respect and influence, and had recently led an alliance that put an end to yet another Balkans War – the very region of the world that gave rise to WWI (and, by extension, WWII) – without suffering a single U.S. combat casualty! In doing so, the country had stood up for American values of justice & equality on behalf of Muslims in the region, and helped bring to justice Slobodan Milosevic, perpetrator of the worst acts of genocide in the West since Adoph Hitler. Other than a few radical Islamist Fundamentalists who we had been successful in tracking, we enjoyed the support of most of the Muslim world.
November 2005:
Domestically, the record run of peace and prosperity is “gone with the wind,” the record surpluses have gone to record deficit, the record economic growth has evaporated, the very viability of the Social Security program is under attack, thousands of Americans were killed in the preventable attacks of 9/11 that decimated a large chunk of New York City, thousands more in the preventable Iraq War that is costing hundreds of billions, and thousands more killed in the preventable floods that decimated New Orleans, which was affirmatively denied relief. Americans now live in daily fear of other preventable, deadly catastrophes, including a potentially devastating avian flu pandemic, and are deeply pessimistic about the future. Our post-9/11 unity has been sacrificed to the political expediency of lies and greed in support of economic and military policies that benefit only the very wealthy corporations and their benefactors, and not the small to mid-sized business interests that are the backbone of our economy.
Internationally, we are mired in a Vietnam style quagmire with no end in sight, dependant upon an unstable alliance that includes rogue states to whom we are now politically indebted, are fighting what is essentially WWIII on an open ended basis without any comprehensive strategy of how we are to meet our goal, and without a specific exit strategy – The very flaws in our Vietnam War policy that Colin Powell said in 1996 should be avoided in future military actions! Tens of thousands of innocent civilians lay dead and thousands more Americans will die at the present rate. We are now either actively hated, contemptuously ridiculed, or morbidly feared worldwide.
What is the difference between then and now? An unaccountable regime that has come to power and held on to power through racially based voter disenfranchisement, politically based voting irregularities and just plain fraud that had denied the vote to millions. A corrupt regime that doles out billions of dollars to its hand-picked corporate benefactors via no-bid contracts that short change our citizens at home and our troops abroad. A crony regime that plants sycophants in the most sensitive positions of our government — some of which are lifetime appointments with power over our most cherished liberties — and allows sneakthieves to plunder our treasury for their own narrow interests. A cruel regime that justifies torture, forced sodomy and other disgraceful acts of subhuman barbarity that truly are abominations before God. An uncaring, compassionless regime that has denied food, water, medicine and transportation to tens of thousands of poor African Americans following Hurricaine Katrina — tens of thousands of people who just happened to be of a racial minority that typically votes for the regime’s political adversary. An incompetent regime that has venally sacrificed a governing philosophy of service to all the people in favor of a governing philosophy of theft, criminality and unchecked governmental power over the most intimate details of our lives. A treasonous regimes that has permitted its operatives to undermine and neutralize patriots who have sought only to protect our security. A radical regime that seeks to remake the world in its own narrow, fundamentalist image, regardless of the costs of its agenda to ordinary people.
THIS IS NOT CONSERVATIVE! Indeed, it is an ANTI-Conservative, reactionary, nihilistic agenda that, at its core, more resembles anarchy than the Federalist Republic envisioned by our Founding Fathers.
THIS IS NOT CHRISTIAN! OR BUDDHIST, OR HINDU OR MUSLIM, OR ANYTHING ELSE OF THAT NATURE! Indeed, is a godless, ANTI-Christian, ANTI-religious, ANTI-Spiritual agenda that is, at its core, utterly, completely, soulless and profit driven.
THIS IS NOT IN THE INTEREST OF AMERICA’s SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS! Indeed, it is an agenda that is ANTI-thetical to the interests of small and medium sized business owners that, at its core, more resembles an oligarchy of corporate giants who are bent at passing the costs of their piracy onto the backs of the smaller businesses (like us) who lack their political and economic clout.
THIS IS NOT FREEDOM! Indeed, it ANTI-Liberty agenda that, at its core, subjugates human rights and liberties to those of the corporations upon whom they have bestowed greater “personhood” than the actual flesh and blood persons – our families — upon whom most of us depend for our happiness and/or livelihood.
THE WORLD Can’t WAIT TILL 2008! It is for this reason that I, a white, married, Christian, small business owner who himself rose from poverty without any government assistance joins the WORLD Can’t WAIT call for a National Day of Resistance to Drive Out the Bush Regime. Take the day off work and school and join me in the park, in the street, in the town square for the beginning of our Drive To Take Back Government. You have nothing to lose but your shackles.
LIVE FREE OR DIE!
Marc L. TerBeek