insurgent49
  updated weekly
 home - submissions - donate -  message board - events - links - contact us - archive
February 10, 2006
The Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford

The Problem With Democracy

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one hundred percent."

 - from Horton Hatches the Egg
by Theodor Geisel, aka “Dr. Seuss”

     Although the elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party, President Bush is pretty much the opposite of Horton the elephant in Dr. Seuss’ story. Horton says what he means and means what he says. President Bush, on the other hand, goes out of his way to say exactly the opposite of what he is actually doing.

     You probably already know about his Orwellian naming of legislative proposals. His “Clean Skies Initiative” gave corporations increased freedom to pollute the air. His “Healthy Forests” bill should more properly have been called the “No Tree Left Standing” bill. His “Patriot Act” constitutes a frontal assault on the rights of patriotic Americans. His “No Child Left Behind Act” is designed to destroy the system of public education in the United States. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. His lies will set you free.

     If you listen to President Bush’s speeches, you can often understand his real agenda by simply assigning the opposite meaning to each sentence in the speech. I have done this while listening to several of his speeches, and it works remarkably well. For example, if Bush says that Osama Bin Laden “can run but he can’t hide” what he really means is that Osama can run and he can hide, and that is fine with Bush because it keeps the American people scared.

     Recently, President Bush has been claiming that he is promoting democracy and that democracy is on the march. What he really means is that the United States has been aggressively moving to crush democracies around the world. I could give examples from many places, such as Venezuela, Iran Peru, and the occupied territories adjacent to Israel.

Lets talk about Haiti instead. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. It certainly does not pose any security threat to the United States. A few years ago, Haiti had a popular and democratically elected president, Aristide, after suffering under decades of extremely brutal dictatorships.

     What did the United States do to support this fledgling democracy? It trained and financed supporters of the former dictators so they could violently overthrow the elected government. It assisted the overthrow by cutting off Aristide’s access to his security forces, and flying him out of the country. It then immediately recognized and provided aid to an “interim” government, which has subsequently sent death squads to hunt down supporters of the ousted elected president. The interim government repeatedly postponed promised new elections, and set up institutional barriers that have helped prevent large numbers of Haitians from being able to vote in the recently held election. How has the United States orchestrated these activities? Through the National Endowment for Democracy, of course. Orwell would be so proud.

     The problem with democracy is that people sometimes vote in their own best interests, instead of voting for what is good for America. How are we going to dominate the world if the have nots are allowed to pick progressive leaders who show that self-sufficiency is possible. We can’t, so we have to stop them for their own good. OK, it is actually not for their own good, and not even for our own good. It is for the benefit of multinational corporations, but who’s counting. Certainly the corporate owned media are not reporting these facts.

     When the Whos of Whoville were threatened with destruction, they shouted for help. Horton heard that cry for help and acted to protect them. I know, I know ... I’m mixing my Horton stories, but it is the same character. Not to be outdone, when President Bush learned that Haitians were threatened with democracy, he heard the cries of the thugs of the former dictators, and acted to help them.

     President Bush, I knew Horton the elephant. Horton was a friend of mine. You, sir, are no Horton.














Kevin Morford is a political activist and an attorney in private practice in the Anchorage area.  He can be reached at kmorford@insurgent49.com.
- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford





Copyright 2005 Insurgent Media. All Rights Reserved.
in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.