Last night President Bush gave the annual State of the Union speech, his fifth such speech and the first of his newly-inaugurated second term. In it, the President outlined a broad list of proposals, from reforming Social Security to instituting new programs for underserved urban youth to reiterating America's purpose in Iraq and in the Middle East as a whole. Bush has every reason for optimism going into his second term, after winning reelection and ushering in a new congress with even wider Republican majorities to advance his agenda. What Bush and the GOP must remember, however, is that they, as the government of the most powerful nation in the world, have a responsibility to people the world over.
This responsibility begins at home with the Republican-led congress showing that it stands for all Americans, not just red-staters. The right's extensive banter about President Bush's "mandate" misses the fact that over 48 percent of those who went to the polls on election day voted for his opponent, Senator John Kerry. The true spirit of democracy is not for the ruling 51 percent to lord their majority over the slight minority who voted blue, but rather to work with all Americans to make this country safer, happier and more prosperous.
Emboldened by their electoral gains, Republicans have set out to pursue an agenda that is healthy for neither the American people nor the idea of democracy itself. President Bush is preparing to push the idea of a Social Security "crisis" that is neither imminent (as he claims) nor dire (as he would have us believe). Social Security "ownership," as proposed by the President, is a great way to remove the safety net for older Americans established during the Great Depression and plunge this country into the depths of financial instability. Bush's victory is certainly not a mandate for throwing our oldest and most vulnerable to the sharks of privatization.
If the idea of economic fairness is under fire, then our ideal of reasoned democratic debate is under full-scale attack by GOP leadership in the Senate. Majority leader Bill Frist has threatened to rewrite decades-old parliamentary rules to eliminate the Democrats' ability to filibuster. The Bush boys (and girls) argue that it is not democratic for 41 Senators to be able to block the wishes of 59. They miss the fact, however, that the filibuster has always served as a valuable guard against the tyranny of the majority where important decisions, such as Supreme Court nominations, are concerned. It is a tradition that flatters, not insults, our democracy.
President Bush commented that "the only force powerful enough to stop the rise of tyranny and terror, and replace hatred with hope, is the force of human freedom." Perhaps we should start at home. So long as hundreds of detainees are held without trial or charges in Guantanamo and Americans utilize "coercive techniques" to attempt to extract intelligence, this great nation will not be living up to its ideals. We cannot expect the Iraqi people to respect the rights of minorities in their midst when the GOP pays sorry lip service to such an idea at home. Bush has said that he is proud to be spreading freedom throughout the world; let's see him start respecting freedom at home. President Bush, your move.
