We are an “endangered species -¦ my wing of the party has been swept into oblivion by the ultra right, which now controls the Republican agenda.”
— A moderate Republican
The radical right has hijacked the Republican Party and poses the greatest danger to our nation in decades. Desperate to further their own agenda, they abuse power and do not play by the rules or follow the U.S. Constitution. They decide what they want to do and then pursue a win-at-any-cost strategy to achieve it.
The far-right’s quest for power gained momentum in the 90’s when they got control of Congress and tried to overturn the results of two presidential elections.
– They engi-neered a series of useless investiga-tions of President Clinton, wasting well over $100 million of your money.
– When these investigations failed, they misused our Federal judicial system to ambush the President over a personal indiscretion. In their haste to destroy him they violated federal law.
– They followed these abuses with an unconstitutional impeachment, black-mailing other members of Congress to get the necessary votes.
– Knowing the Senate would not convict, they planned to force the President to resign. That plan didn’t work but the illegitimate impeachment laid the groundwork for gaining control of the White House in 2000.
While we were being distracted by the far right’s assaults on the President, al-Qaeda declared war and attacked the United States.
With the emergence of the far-right Bush Administra-tion, our nation has suffered a number of reversals, both in foreign and domestic policy, while incurring a crushing debt which endangers future generations. One of the most prominent foreign policy reversals has been the President’s mishandling of the war on terror before and after 9-11.
The record shows that Bush did not take terror seriously during his first 8 months in office despite early warnings by President Clinton, his CIA Director and his head of anti terror in the White House. The Bush Administration:
– Did not take obvious preventive measures, when faced with a history of al-Qaeda attacks, strong advice as to the gravity of the threat and unprecedented warnings of an impending catastrophe.
– Evaded any responsibility for the 9-11 disaster, trying to block even a review of what happened and then stone-walling the 9-11 commission for over a year.
– Diverted most of our military power away from al-Qaeda, our num-ber one threat, to an unneeded, costly, and unending war in Iraq.
– Pursued a limited strategy for the war on terror instead of an aggressive worldwide effort which engages all heads of state. Bush’s strategy also failed to address the root causes of terrorism that would reduce the continuing threat to the United States.
These astonishing misjudgments of the Bush Administration went un-check-ed because the far right controlled all three branches of government and neither Congress nor the media did their job.
In Congress the far right is trying to create a monopoly in the House by rearranging districts to their advan-tage. This practice is under Supreme Court review. In the Senate they already have an edge that favors money and less populous states.
Much of the media has lost its independence — public hear-ings into media concentration, ownership and conflicts of interest are long overdue.
To sum up, no extreme element in our society, whether to the far right or to the far left, should ever control even one branch of government. But, when an extreme faction controls two or more branches of government and exercises that control ruthlessly — as the far right has done — we lose the all-important check and balance, and the will of the peo-ple is largely ignored.
The specifics, documenting how the far right did irreparable damage to our country, can be found in several articles on http://blogs.salon.com/0004011/.
“This is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats -¦ it is between the ultra right-wing element, who want to mold us in their image only, and those of us who want to preserve a open, free nation with real possibilities for the future for our children and grandchildren.”
— A moderate Republican
