November 3, 2004 To the citizens of the world: America is not united. We, one half of the American people, are shocked and angered by the re-election of George W. Bush as our president. We are immensely disappointed. Yet our resolve remains steadfast. This is a new day. Our half of America -- we who oppose Bush -- has woken up. We now know that we have more in common with many other citizens of the globe than with the other half of our country who cast votes for Bush. We realise now that we are unified with others across the planet in a world-wide battle for thoughtfulness, critical thinking, human rights, and protection of our common planetary resources. We are clear now that the other half of our nation supports an American brand of fundamentalism, which preaches a gospel of fear and hate founded on ignorance. This gospel disregards the humanity of innocent citizens of other nations; it marginalizes the poor and preaches intolerance for the ³different² within our own nation. America is not united. This is a new day for our half of America. We have realized that the other half of our country is not guided by reason. The other half knew Bush lied to us about Iraq. They knew that Bush has burdened our economy with insurmountable debt. They knew that Bush's party intimidated voters. They knew that Bush is destroying our environment. They knew that Bush might lead us into other unprovoked and endless wars. Still they voted for Bush. Exiting the polls, they explained that Bush stood for ³moral values,² that he is ³a man of God.² But half of America voted against him. World citizens: know that America is not united. Our nation was founded upon principles of reason, not fundamentalist ideology. We have reached a turning point. We are alienated from many of our fellow Americans. We are citizens of the world. Understand that we have put our souls into the defeat of Bush -- and remember us as we continue to strive to create a better America. Our half of America will not rest until reason and humanity prevail. Sincerely, One half of the citizens of the United States ------------------------------ Nixon all over again ---------------------------- If you are an undecided voter, caught between the cult of conservatism and what you know in your heart is right, let me offer yet another good reason George Bush and Dick Cheney should not serve a second term. If they do, it will be Nixon all over again. President Nixon had just settled in for the beginning of his second term when the Watergate scandal overtook him. With his criminal conduct in evidence and the Senate ready to impeach, Nixon was left with little choice but to resign the presidency with two full years left in his term. There is an avalanche of litigation and investigation coming down the pike towards the Bush administration and, just as in Nixon's time, it will be arriving on the White House doorstep shortly after the election, in what would be the first year of a second Bush term. The grievances are diverse, the investigations both civil and criminal, and the allegations far more serious than Watergate. Let's begin with the firstborn of Bush administration scandals: Dick Cheney's secret energy policy task force. Pursued through the courts by both liberal and conservative public justice groups, Mr. Cheney seems willing to go to any lengths to hide his secret guest list from the American people. It's a little game I like to call "Hide-the-Saudis." Next we have the bait-and-switch with the Republican albatross healthcare bill. Proponents of the bill floated a cost of $400 billion during the national debate. Immediately after the bill passed, the Bush administration announced that the actual cost would be $534 billion. Dick Cheney's Halliburton is at the center of a veritable lotus flower of civil and criminal investigations. Halliburton has defrauded the American taxpayers through its no-bid contracts, overcharging the Pentagon for everything from gasoline to mashed potatoes. The company just paid a $7.5 million settlement over fraudulent accounting practices during Cheney's tenure as CEO. Investigations are pending into the gaming of intelligence vis-a-vis Iraq. Though the culpability issue regarding false and misleading intelligence has been postponed this election year, more embarrassment and discredit for the Bush administration are forthcoming. Next up is Plame-gate: the outing of a CIA operative. There is nothing ambiguous about the law here. The premeditated exposure of a US intelligence operative is a felony crime against the United States of America. Someone in the Bush administration committed this crime. We are going to find out who, and they are going to prison. Finally there is Torture-gate: this little issue of who in the Bush administration authorized the use of torture and sexual humiliation at American detention facilities. We can expect an impartial investigation to implicate Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft at the least, while a recently leaked memo suggests someone in the West Wing knew exactly what was going on. Torture-gate may or may not be the scandal that forces Bush out of office, but it certainly is the scandal that has hopelessly corrupted the moral credibility of his administration. These and countless other legal, ethical and criminal investigations await the Bush-Cheney team, should we be foolhardy enough to allow it a second term. These politicians are not above the law, despite their arrogant assertion to the contrary. When the law finally catches up with them, George Bush and Dick Cheney will likely go down in public disgrace -- just like Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew before them. Can you say "President Dennis Hastert?" I didn't think so. ------------------------ Is conservatism becoming a cult? -------------------------- I am concerned about conservatism. Something is askew with America's right wing. A once venerable institution of morally-guided rational thinkers has been hijacked by a cabal of morally-misguided religious extremists. The results are beginning to look less like a political movement and more like a religious-political cult. Is conservatism evolving into a cult? The similarities between conservative psychology and cult psychology can be quite startling. Conservatives have created a separate school system for their children, staffed with avowed conservative teachers and administrators, where the children can be isolated from cultural diversity and taught to conform to a strict conservative mindset. Cults do the same thing. They know that indoctrination into the cult's values must begin at the earliest possible age. It is important for any successful cult to keep its members isolated, to prevent their exposure to ideas and opinions that contradict the cult's teachings. This attribute of cults is well established among conservatives. The leaders have told the followers that the traditional media cannot be trusted; it is too "liberal" -- and the only sources to be trusted are media outlets staffed exclusively by 'cult' members and owned and operated by 'cult' leaders. Creating a mindless follower requires many hours of indoctrination daily. Among conservative adults, we find this cult function disguised under the name "talk radio." Grown men and women across this country will spend hours every day listening to some partisan mouthpiece telling them what the news is, how to interpret it, what to be angry about, who to blame for their problems, and who to vote for. In the language of cults, such a process of ritual daily indoctrination is called brainwashing. Religious conservatism in America today bears some uncomfortable similarities to radical Islam. The psychology at work is essentially the same. Radical clerics start by establishing private "religious" schools, where they can teach intolerance and political extremism behind the sheep's clothing of moral and religious piety. Adults are required to listen to many hours of continuing indoctrination daily, instructed to reject "infidel" opinions and teachings, and comforted by repeated assurances that Allah is on their side. The harnessing of an individual's sense of religious duty to serve a secular political agenda is exploitative and immoral. Yet the practice is common with both radical Islamists and American conservatives. In both cases, followers are told they must support extreme right-wing political positions as an act of religious obedience. How can we denounce Muslim extremists for doing this, when so many American religious extremists are doing the exact same thing? After growing up in ideologically-controlled schools and listening to thousands of hours of ideologically-controlled media, the hapless follower -- be he radical Islamist or conservative Republican -- has lost his grip on objective reality, abandoned his faculties of critical independent thinking, and endorses the radical agenda of his beloved leaders like a mindless automaton. Diversity is discouraged, dissent is not tolerated, a healthy debate was never an option. Conservatism rules its territory as much by intimidation as persuasion. The punishment meted out to those who contradict the cult's teachings can be ugly indeed. Believe me. It sure would be nice to see America get back to a sane, reasoned and rational conservatism, instead of this paranoid, irrational and decidedly cultish conservatism we see today. With Big Brother watching us and Fox News on every telescreen, one has to wonder if George Orwell, like so many creative visionaries, was simply twenty years ahead of his time.