Editorial - 

Pres. Bush Should Back Our Democracy
Over Convenient Right Wing Supporters

            “Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people already settled – the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains – the successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it…” Abraham Lincoln.

            The first and perhaps the greatest of all Republican presidents, Abraham Lincoln had every reason to discuss maintaining democratic principles of government; he was facing an armed insurrection by the so-called Confederate States of America. But his words are no less truthful today even though the current battle to maintain America’s delicate democracy is being fought with propaganda, not bullets.

Lincoln understood rhetoric and was its master, which is why at the same time that he tacitly condoned repressive and anti-democratic measures during the heat of the Civil War, he offset such tactics with some of the most fluent and ardent verbal expositions of the democratic principles upon which the nation was founded.

            President Lincoln thoroughly comprehended the fact that words embodying the concepts of freedom convey more lasting power than actions, particularly if those actions seem contradictory to the stated beliefs, because such words and concepts are retained in the minds of free thinking people and therefore are the seeds of ongoing support for democracy. He understood that so long as the high principles of the country remained sacrosanct, the repressive actions his wartime administration took while fighting an armed internal rebellion could not be sustained once unity was restored . And in his public pronouncements he always elevated those concepts of democratic and Constitutional freedom, which to his critics seemed contradictory to his actions, but as history shows it was a pillar of his genius.

            Unfortunately, the current inheritors of the Republican Party are fighting their own Civil War, which they seem to be in danger of losing to the purveyors of reactionary concepts of power for the few at the expense of the many. A cynical paternalism is the mildest form of this GOP Civil War, but its most virulent form embodies an exclusionary form of politics that casts aside all Americans who don’t adhere to a specific set of viewpoints, ranging from unquestioned support of business tactics to intrusive social dictums and a controlling agenda of internal security measures that can only end in the loss of individual freedom.

Given that the Grand Old Party currently holds both executive and legislative elective power at the same time it is enduring this internal Republican battle is a massive danger to America’s democratic systems. It is time for Pres. George W. Bush to illustrate that he is a part of the great GOP tradition, and not a part of or a party to the insurgents that seem to be on the verge of capturing the Republican Party with a well-defined right-wing agenda.  

            It is time for Pres. Bush to publicly disavow Rush Limbaugh and all his imitators, and to declare his independence from fascist minded power brokers like Richard Mellon Scaife and his ilk and all of the reactionary press that they support and underwrite. Let us begin to hear Mr. Bush talk about upholding our democratic ideals while simultaneously fighting the War on Terrorism.