Mary Pitt: To Our Republican Congress

WOW!!! That felt good, didn't it? You sent the message to Little George, loud and clear, "The security of America is NOT for sale!" At long last, the lion of the American Congress found its hind legs, stood up and roared! This, the first truly bipartisan act since the Bush cabal took over, stomped into the White House, locked the door, pulled the shades, and gave the true governing body of the people the proverbial finger, is historic and little less than heroic. For this we thank you! As a life-long Republican who cannot be comfortable in the Democratic Party, this writer felt that the early years of party loyalty were at last, in some small measure, vindicated. For just a little while there we were pleased, gratified, and elated that Congress was, at last, acting as an independent branch of government with power equal to the administrative in upholding the will of the people.

Unfortunately, this euphoria was dampened with the renewal of the hated Patriot Act regarding which Congress regressed into the, "Anything you want, Boss", mode of the past five years. However, the determination to continue with the promulgation of a measure to enact into law the principle of American control of all installations essential to American security would indicate that the change in attitude may continue. It will take a long while to correct the errors that have been made during the last five years but, if Congress has truly regained their sense of equal power, there will be time. We have lived for too long under the yoke of the fear that has been generated largely by the propaganda that has been perpetrated by this administration. We have sacrificed the blood of our children in a campaign of aggression which was inflicted upon us by the lies and manipulation of a gang who are experts at spreading fear and dissension.

When the Republican Party chose Little George as their standard-bearer in 2000, we were aghast. Surely there was somewhere in this party of accomplished executives and "king-makers" a better and more accomplished person who could have become the President! This man, who has done nothing spectacular in his own life without the help if his father and and his friends, was the most unlikely executive you could have found. Was there no war-weary soldier desiring nothing more that peace upon the earth like Eisenhower? Were there no diplomats like General Marshall, no successful businessmen who had grown up poor and thus related to the common people, no men with real vision for the future of the nation other than world conquest, or no public relations experts like Ronald Reagan? Was there nobody who had truly, by his own accomplishments, earned the honor of holding the highest office in the land? Nobdy with a vision of a "shining city on a hill" or even a "kinder, gentler nation"?

True, this man, with his financial backing already in place and with his cabal of determined power-grabbers behind him, came in like a whirlwind, bombarded the voters with his message of Christian "compassionate-conservatism", and flummoxed everybody, including you! But it was immediately evident, once he took office, that he had absolutely no respect for the power of Congress or for the niceties of political life. While you were lining up obediently, according to protocol, practicing the customary lock-step down the aisle and the "honeymoon" with your new President, he was already beating you over the head with "executive orders" All the regulations which you had passed over the years were negated regarding all presidential papers, effectively hiding them from the view of historians forever. You simply smiled and said, "Okay, honey, if it makes you happy."

After this initial "slapping around" had accustomed you to the pain, it continued as, while failing to actually veto any of your legislation, he signed with annotated "exceptions" stating that the law applied to everybody else but not to his minions in the Executive Branch. He persuaded you to enact legislate permission for him to "use his own judgement" in response to the emergency created by the dastardly attack on the World Trade Center. It was SO easy just to crawl under your desks and allow the "macho man" to take over the task of protecting you and the American people. Then you found that the initial "authorization" that you gave to allow him to deal with Osama Bin Laden was stretched into the authority to preemptively attack another sovereign nation, Iraq. It was not until after as many Americans had died or been maimed for life as were harmed in the World Trade Center attack that you began to learn that, not only were there no WMD's in Iraq, but the people of Iraq did not want us to invade them and destroy their homes and their children, and we were certainly not greeted with "flowers and candy". And now your "leader" wants to attack another nation, based upon those same suppositions and innuendo!

Meanwhile, having been reared steeped in the philosophy of lower taxes and reduced spending, you went along with the tax cuts for the rich as a stimulant to the economy while almost destroying all the social safety nets that had been instituted during the previous century. It was "for our own good", he said, and would "stimulate our economy". At the same time, he told us that "off-shoring is good for American industry" while factory after factory moved overseas and Americans were reduced to holding multiple minimum-wage jobs in order to survive. In the meantime, your "leader" was going on a spending binge, tossing money into the pockets, not only of his re-tread criminals from Watergate and Iran-Contra, but to his business-buddies via no-bid contracts for "rebuilding" Iraq. The knowledge has arrived, too late, I fear, that your errors have led you and the nation to the very brink of bankruptcy.

As with the typical very-abused wife, you now find yourself at the crossroads. There are very few options for you. You cannot go on as you have been or you will share the blame for the consequences, the voters will revolt, and you will lose your vaunted status and somebody else will take your place. The most severe available option would be "divorce" or impeachment which you would certainly not like to consider for all the obvious reasons. The second would be to continue to roar, to let this man know, in no uncertain terms, that this behavior will no longer be tolerated, that he may have mortgaged the nation and its future but you will not allow him to forfeit it completely. He must be told that he has had five years in which he has wrought disaster after disaster upon the normal working arrangements and that now he has three years left in which to correct it, (it will take him that long to find and negate all those "executive orders" which he has been creating behind your back). Tell him that you will not allow him to claim an "executive exception" to the measures that you pass or you will pull them back and pass them by veto-proof majorities to which he cannot claim an exception. Tell him that you are accepting his "personal responsibiliy" mantra and insist that he do the same.

You have taken a stand on the national security as regards the Dubai ports deal and that is a good step. But, as we who have worked with battered women know, you cannot go back! If you allow him to bully you one more time, you are lost again! You must follow your conscience and the dictates of your constituents, (as you are sworn to do), and reconstitute, as much as you can, the democracy of which we have all been so proud for all of our lives. Tell him in no uncertain terms that there will be no more tax cuts for the rich at the expense of the working class, that his agenda of world aggression will no longer be tolerated, and from now until the end of the Republic, the United States of America will stand for peace and the brotherhood of mankind, on a truly solid financial basis, and with three EQUAL branches of government who will all be equally considerate of the welfare of the electorate. Time is running out and your future, and ours, depends upon it.

Mary Pitt is a septuagenarian Kansan who is active in the field of service to the handicapped and dedicated to the pursuit of freedom and the preservation of the United States as a compassionate and democratic nation.

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