The Softer Side of the Coup:
No Vacation for Activists --by Michael Rectenwald

A new wave of offensive charm will be unleashed in the coming weeks, as the softer side of the Bush coup will be (re)presented. While Bush is on his month long vacation after six months of "work" and most Americans who work 60 hour weeks have had their rights eroded as a result the Bush residency to date, the "softer" side of the coup promises to promote itself to women with the "softer" issues of education reform, "values" and a prescription drug program for the elderly. While the rest of the nation is lulled into complacency while Bush, the mental giant, "decides" about the ethics of stem cell research, progressive activists have to be every bit as vigilant as before, or more so, as the new offensive is explicitly meant to disarm the public and wash over somnabulists a fresh wave of amnesia as to the results of the "charm offensive" to date.

Beginning with the repeal of the ergonomics regulations, the offensive is almost becoming unmanageable to even enumerate. Activists are overwhelmed with merely keeping the list of offenses against the people. Kyoto, ABM Treaty, small arms treaty, biological warfare treaty, ergonomics regulations, gag rule regurgitation, etc. etc. I, for one, am tired already. See http://www.legitgov.org/Brecord.htm for CLG's attempt to track and trace the outlines of Bush atrocities.

While Bush is on his month-long sabbatical from the White House, look for the subversiveness of the facade to be every bit, if not more, pernicious. As such, progressive liberal interlocutors must reinsert the obvious back into all discourse regarding the Bush facade of "compassionate conservatism." As if "values" could make up for global warming and a Second Cold War, as if hugs can stop the violence sure to follow the proliferation of guns that Bush is intent on seeing, as if a new "volunteerism" is an anodyne to the increase in economic miseries sure to result from the tax cutting whoredom to wealth and big business, the new wave of "compassion" amounts to painting peace signs on warheads, selling gasmasks as environmentalism, and handing out "values" vouchers to the hungry. Those who are wise to the completely double-speak rhetoric that says that the oppressors are the benefactors, the heartless are the compassionate, and the immoral are the "moral," must be the clarion voices of sense against the completely fallacious, camera obscura image that will be proffered as the Bush "vision" of the world.

To counter the Bush Occupation rhetoric, I offer a three step action plan, which is by no means meant to be a comprehensive one.

Remembering Hiroshima (see below) is a good place to start. The Missile "Defense" System promises to violate the 1972 ABM Missile Treaty, which has served to keep the world "safe" from nuclear war. But Buhies are intent on ending the treaty, saying that it is a remnant of Cold War Logic. However, it is the Bushies themselves who are revitalizing Cold War Logic, by reintroducing the possibilities of nuclear proliferation, and the fun of building defenses to blow ever more projectiles out of the sky (with the help of "beacons"). Hiroshima is a real historical result of the beginning of the arms race. He who forgets history is doomed to repeat it.

Secondly, signing the pledge to honor the Kyoto Treaty, despite the rejection of that treaty by Bush, who after all, does not represent the majority, is another step to take against the rhetoric. We need to remind all of Europe and the world that Bush does not act on our behalf when he rejects the Kyoto protocol. "Compassion" does not knowingly endanger the future of the entire human race. The American public overwhelmingly favors the treaty as a sensible first step in reducing green house gas emissions and reversing the trend of global warming. See the link for signing the pledge, below. Signing the pledge serves to counter the reverse logic of the Bushies, who insist that words make good when their real actions (or inactions) do real harm. As someone once said, "by their actions ye shall know them."

Thirdly, the rejection of the energy policy is part and parcel of signing the Kyoto Treaty pledge. The House passed this week that part of the energy plan that calls for drilling in the ANWAR. We continue to voice our opposition to this energy "plan" by boycotting Exxon Mobil. See http://www.legitgov.org/protests_SOP.html. Also, we are behind the efforts to have the energy task force investigated, and ask you to write letters to the General Accounting Office (GAO) to urge them to continue investigating the fraudulently wrought energy plan, which is surely a payback to donors who fueled the failed Bush/Cheney election bid.

Lastly, almost all of the opposition and opponents to Bush will coalesce in Washington, D.C., for the September 29th action. The protest is nominally against the World Bank and globalization, but we at CLG believe that the entire Bush occupation will become the unofficial object of the protestors. We are officially endorsing the action, and urge all of our members and other pro-democracy activists to participate. See http://www.iacenter.org for more details.

We are entering into the most dangerous phase of the Bush offensive to date, as the Bushies hope to elude criticism for their draconian programs, and to supplant an imagined "compassionate" president for the actually tyrannical resident that we have. What the Bushies say is usually the complete opposite of what they do. We must remind the American public about what the Bushies do, and contrast that with what they say. Now is the time to remain vigilant, not to lapse into complacency.

Michael Rectenwald
Founder and Chair
Citizens for Legitimate Government
August 5, 2001