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Letter to the editor

Tuesday's winners: not us

By ROBYN E. BLUMNER
Published November 7, 2004

George W. Bush has won the presidency and in a much more decisive fashion than in 2000. This time he won the popular as well as the electoral vote.

In a nod to being a gracious loser, I would like to devote this column to congratulating the winners.

First and foremost, to the giant pharmaceutical companies: Congratulations. Making Bush the top recipient of your campaign contributions, with nearly $950,000, has paid off. He most assuredly will keep those lower-priced drugs from being imported from Canada and prevent Medicare administrators from negotiating fair prices when the new seniors' drug benefit kicks in. Who cares if Americans can't afford the drugs to stay healthy? The important thing is that your profits will soar.

To the big oil companies, wow, you guys dodged a bullet. You almost had someone who cared about alternative energy in the White House and saw our dependency on Saudi oil as a national security issue. But instead you retained two former oil men who think destroying pristine wilderness in the Arctic for an added 3 percent supply is a solid energy policy. It must be very comforting to know that Bush has no real interest in promoting conservation or making any serious effort to wean us from the Saudi oil teat. Hey, maybe you'll be invited for another secret meeting with the V.P.?

And to all you corporate polluters, environmental despoilers and tax avoiders, "whew." Boy that was a close one. Imagine if all those former industry insiders Bush has appointed to "oversee" pollution controls and "steward" our federal lands were removed and real regulators took their place. Yikes.

You no longer have to fear the word "Kyoto" or any of that "global warming" silliness. Those scientists around the world warning of the dangers of carbon-dioxide emissions may have piles of advanced degrees but they represent the old school of fact- and reality-based thinking. They are not getting a seat at the Bush table.

And all those tax loopholes are safe too. Just keep that "business headquarters" post office box in the Cayman Islands and federal taxes will remain a thing of the past. Don't worry, the IRS isn't going to get an extra dime for enforcement.

To America's richest: Happy Christmas in November. Now you can collect on Bush's promise to continue shifting the tax burden from you onto wage earners. I'm sure he will make good on his pledge to "simplify" the tax code by cutting taxes even more on dividends and capital gains, and eliminating permanently all estate taxes. Goody for you.

Perhaps the biggest winners on Tuesday were all those people who said they voted to protect "moral values." Oh, we understand that this concern had nothing whatever to do with providing for the poor or making sure children have health insurance. And we also know that the amorality of sending young men and women to die for a war grounded in a lie is not what you meant either.

What you "moral values" voters were talking about, of course, was the need for a more muscular intolerance toward gays and lesbians, the recriminalization of abortion, the end of stem cell research and the protection of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance - no doubt the most important issues facing a nation that is now mired in $7-trillion in debt and an intractable war.

You guys - who are more concerned about what happens in our homes than what is happening in your own - have successfully taken charge. You wanted a man in the White House who talks to God as his only adviser - a man who is willing to stop the advance of science if necessary to uphold his religious convictions - and you won the day. Congratulations. Tomas de Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisition's inquisitor-general, would be proud.

We live in a country where the winning coalition is made up of crony capitalists and religious zealots - unethics in business meets the Dark Ages. Certainly, many people who voted for Bush don't fit in either of these categories, but these are the two interests that will be primarily served by his administration. What happened on Nov. 2 is much more than the Democrats losing, it's about the most dangerous and damaging elements in American society winning big. I fear for the next four years . . . and beyond.

[Last modified November 6, 2004, 23:27:31]