The United States: Bush's record

Following the success of Serge Halimi’s article in our October issue «
What's the matter with West Virginia? », we are sending you a new
article by Serge Halimi assessing the Bush years.

The rest of the article is on our website (http://www.mondediplo.com),
introducing a glittering array of articles from Le Monde diplomatique
on US themes.

We hope you will enjoy them..
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ELECTION 2004 SPECIAL

The United States: Bush's record


By Serge Halimi

Despite the usual voter apathy of Americans, the turnout on
2 november is expected to exceed European levels (1). Will
that be because of 9/11 and George Bush's response to it -
the provocative policies coming out of the White House;
the enthusiasm with which, on the pretext of reacting to the
attacks on New York and Washington, it proposed
a "preventive" war against Iraq? When the neoliberals
realised
that there was nothing to fear about the coercing power
of the state - provided that they did the coercing -
the political process was validated further. The electoral
waverers, the lukewarm, the blasé, all quickly went to ground.

This is as much a referendum on the current administration
as an election. Bush has two rare, if not unique,
distinctions: he was elected even though he received fewer
votes than his opponent and he is the son of a former
president. His enthronement was less democratic than
dynastic. The election result conferred no particular
mandate on him, and certainly no endorsement for a terrible
leap to the right, an imperial inflection of the international
order or the militarisation of American society and
foreign policy.

The Democrats - for whose victory many European politicians
and commentators hope so that once again they can say
"We are all Americans" (2) - prefer to attribute this
transformation of the political landscape of the United
States to some "vast rightwing conspiracy" involving the
media and the Supreme Court. But that ignores the way that
President Clinton left behind him a party in disarray,
without any clear plan and in a minority in the House of
Representatives, the Senate and in the states.

The Republicans have the security of knowing that they hold
the White House, Congress and the governorships of
California, Texas, New York and Florida. But they want more.
They want it all and they want to keep it for a long time.
A few more reactionary judges in the Supreme Court would allow
them to secure their conservative revolution and roll back
forever what little remains of the progressive achievements
of the 20th century. Civil liberties would be an issue:
the Supreme Court - although it was responsible for Bush's
election - felt obliged to remind him this July that "a
state of war is not a blank cheque for the president" and
that "history and common sense teach us that an unchecked
system of detention carries the potential to become a means
for oppression and abuse of others". The neoliberal and
authoritarian ambitions of the Republicans are transparent;
but there was no rightwing plot to force both John Kerry and
John Edwards to vote in favour of the USA Patriot Act and
support the war in Iraq. Do either of them have any regrets?
They go on claiming they do not.


To read the rest of the article visit:
http://mondediplo.com/2004/10/00bush


Read also on Le Monde diplomatique website :

What's the matter with West Virginia?
by Serge Halimi (October 2004)
http://mondediplo.com/2004/10/02usa

The America that will vote for Bush,
by Tom Frank (February 2004)
http://mondediplo.com/2004/02/04usa

John Kerry, the enlightened hawk,
by Michael Klare (July 2004)
http://mondediplo.com/2004/07/02kerry

United States: unfree press,
by Eric Klinenberg (April 2004)
http://mondediplo.com/2004/04/13medias

To read more articles and a list of selected websites:

http://mondediplo.com/2004/10/00bush

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