The best plutocracy money can buy

The results of last Tuesday's election were incredibly disappointing, but not very surprising. The party of the rulers won. Last Tuesday was a victory for the rich and powerful in America. President Bush now has the means to enact a legislative agenda that is even more destructive to the majority of people in this country than the one already passed with the help of the cowardly Democrats.

President Bush and his cadre of top officials have made it quite clear whom they represent. Tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and powerful corporations are in place. These tax cuts ruin the economic prospects of the less fortunate, but ensure the wealthy have even more money than before. The environment is sacrificed to provide bigger profits for notorious polluters. The Pentagon system is gorging itself on the swiftly falling budget revenues and the idea of social spending is laughed at on Capital Hill. As terrifying a place as this country has become since Sept 11, the possibilities now presenting themselves are even worse.

It seems incredible that voters have handed more power to the Republican Party after the disaster that the last two years have been. The economy is in a nosedive with prospects for the future looking grim. Every day the numbers of unemployed people and people living in poverty grows. Practically nothing has been done about the spectacular corruption and incompetence of corporate America and the same companies that bankroll our elections still have just as much influence over our leaders. As spineless and as dithering as the Democrats are, I find it hard to believe that many of the people who vote for Republicans actually believe that putting right-wing Christian fundamentalist war mongers in power will actually improve life in this country. However, looking at it rationally, this again is not surprising. Not surprising when the mass media in this country is all too happy to obfuscate and censor itself to serve the interests of the government. And not surprising when the official party line is the one we hear in our supposedly independent media. Moreover, the same corporations that bring us our news and shape our political views are very active in financially supporting the party of business.

The President now has the power to make war on any country for any pretext. His definition of a threat to National Security is all that is needed to destroy another country. International law and self-restraint are dead concepts. The only important thing is raw power. American military might, always a tool for resource grabbing, can now be openly used to further the interests of the business class.

The coming war on Iraq is fundamentally about oil and American control of the Middle East. If America takes over Iraq, we can shut out any rival contenders for its oil riches. Tens of thousands of people may die so that Exxon-Mobil and Halliburton can line their pockets. The notion that America will "liberate" Iraq and install a democracy is a sick joke. People in a democracy usually want control over their own lives. In a country with as much oil as Iraq, that is simply unacceptable. This is not unexpected if one pays attention to the people that placed George Bush and the Republican Party in power. The oil industry is a major player in Washington. It helps set energy and environmental policy, fuel-economy regulations and many high level officials in the White House have direct links to Big Oil. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are all former oil industry employees.

This government is in power to enrich the business classes. Is it a coincidence that every corrupt, brutal dictator America supports is either in a resource-rich country or in a position to threaten such a country? We don't have military bases in Central Asia and Afghanistan to root out terrorists. The Afghan campaign was an abysmal failure on those terms: none of the high ranking Al-Qaeda or Taliban figures that America set out to capture or kill were found. However, it was a spectacular success in ensuring that America controls the next big source of oil, the Caspian Sea. There are US troops in every country in Central Asia and now that we have a "stable" government in Afghanistan a deal is being struck with Unocal to bring an oil pipeline through that country. The War on Terror is a naked power grab for the business class and their servants in Washington. Our government loves to tell us that it is fighting for our protection. However, a look behind the lies and distortions reveals its real agenda and where the biggest threat to our peace and security lies.

Adrian Clarke is a majoring in English and Art History.