Bush And The Radical GOP Apparently Don’t See
Anger And Loathing Beneath The Political Surface

By Michael Bradley

In recent months The Bradley Report has been asking questions of involved and active individuals throughout New England, people who identify themselves as Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Additionally, The Bradley Report has been listening to every open discussion, especially among people who don’t consider themselves active civically, all in an attempt to gain a sense of how people in this region have been viewing the national political situation and its international ramifications, and what conclusions people may be drawing.

The capstone of these efforts took place on Friday, November 7^th, at a public meeting, principally of Cape Cod Democrats, that was held at the Mattacheese Middle School in West Yarmouth.

What is clear at this point is that throughout the New England region there is a seething resentment toward George W. Bush and his version of Republicanism, and that so far this anger – which is often surprisingly well focused and articulated – has escaped notice of the local, regional and national media.

The occasional reference that is heard in the general media is of an ‘unfocused’ opposition. But that is not what The Bradley Report has witnessed. On the contrary, the Americans who are deeply angry with Mr. Bush and his right-wing Republicans are very well focused; they seem to know quite well what it is that they loathe, and it also seems that they are very close to becoming so visible in the gathering storm of their opposition that the main stream media will no longer be able to look the other way.

In terms of the Democratic Party’s national candidates, only two of them – Howard Dean and John Kerry – seem to have any true idea of the groundswell that is waiting to be tapped, or which soon will simply explode on the scene by its own force of energy, much as political forces did during the mid and late 1960’s. In fact, what The Bradley Report has discovered is a disaffection and division that rivals that famous period in recent political history.

"In the last 20 years, the Republicans have built an empire based on fear," declared Ronald Bergstrom of Chatham during the Friday meeting at the Mattacheese School. He was roundly applauded by the several hundred people attending the meeting, many of whom vied for a chance to add specific comments, making the role of moderator increasingly difficult for Lawrence Brown, a teacher at Cape Cod Academy who had volunteered to chair the meeting.

"This is a meeting of the loyal opposition," Brown declared at the outset, and it clearly was a group with strong patriotic feeling. Yet it was precisely a sense of the country being under attack by radicals that was reflected in the discussion. "I am so angry at what George Bush and his administration have done to this country over the three years they’ve been in power," declared Lou Cerrone of Sandwich, adding: "Internationally, what he’s done is make the United States despised like no nation on this earth has ever been…"

With comments like that opening the discussion, the audience was increasingly energized and enthusiastic as the night progressed, but it nonetheless remained a polite and self-disciplined crowd.

It was pointed out by a number of speakers, in various styles and with considerable eloquence, that it is more than a public looting of the American treasury that is taking place, it is a calculated, radical political theory being enacted boldly in front of the entire nation.

One speaker observed that the GOP first tested the theory, perhaps even accidentally, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, when it was discovered that the apparently invulnerable national social programs, so hated by so-called conservatives, could be crippled if not destroyed by overspending the government budget in other areas. The vast military buildup that took place under Reagan, and which ultimately led to the collapse of the Russian empire, was more than a risky gamble that paid off when the Russians folded instead of acting on the desires of their own hard-liners by having a last ditch showdown by nuclear war.

The military buildup had drained America’s resources, and perhaps by the law of unintended consequences, many of the nation’s social programs had to be cut back or curtailed. This was a lesson not missed by the Republican right-wing and its radical religious zealots, but just when they were gearing up to refine the concept, Mr. Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush’s presidency ended and Democrat William Jefferson Clinton became president. Their disappointment might well account for the venomous hatred that was disgorged against Pres. Clinton, and his family, for eight years.

A businessman from the Upper Cape spoke and put it bluntly.

"The Republicans are purposefully trying to bankrupt the country for political purposes," he said, explaining that by doing so, the nation would finally be forced to curtail social security programs and other vital safety nets. Watching a budgetary surplus of several hundred billion dollars left by the outgoing Clinton Administration turned into a deficit of some four hundred billion, he said, is more than just watching a public looting of $700 billion taxpayer dollars, and it is even more than watching gross handouts to the wealthy in tax cuts and corporate tax breaks – welfare for the rich – it is a purposeful impoverishment of the nation for political purposes.

This gentleman and other speakers clearly seem to have come to a conclusion that offers an explanation for what has so far seemed inexplicable; that is, the vast depletion of the American treasury in only three years by Republicans who normally espouse fiscal responsibility. Assuming that this is truly the plan of the radical GOP, there is an overwhelming irony in the fact they may have set the nation on a course that will lead to a repeat of the Great Depression, which was of course largely due to GOP policies post WWI, when Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were presidents. Only this time the result will be purposeful.

If the goal is to finally unravel all that was done first by Democratic Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and later by JFK and Lyndon Johnson, to bring the nation back from the depths of the Depression and assure a more equitable society, then indeed the current radical right-wing Republican administration is more sinister than even what has been revealed about the presidency of Richard M. Nixon.

It seems obvious that this theory needs to be tested in a public forum, where large numbers of Americans can think it through and discuss it. Equally, it seems obvious that this should not be dismissed as too outrageous, too absurd to consider, which is likely to be the first reaction of the mainstream media and most professional politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike. Again, the two possible exceptions in that regard are John Kerry and Howard Dean.

Given that this theory has the power to put a practical framework to the confounding reality of the GOP’s depletion of the national treasury, it is likely that the idea will emerge soon of its own strength, whether it is brought forward by anyone in a prominent public position or not.

"Where’s the outrage?" demanded Peter White of West Yarmouth. "We have a president who has lied to us, worked with the oil companies, manipulated us into the war! Why don’t we have one member of Congress calling for his impeachment?"

The outrage, it would appear, is just under the surface in many parts of New England, and if New England is in any manner reflective of other parts of the nation, then sometime in the next few months it will come to the surface with a vigor not seen since the 1960’s and early 1970’s.