Exploiting a Recession

The current administration is a convenient target for anger, the originating causes of our troubled economy given short shrift by restless voters who just want jobs. Still it is hard to fathom, in the face of a projected election tsunami, how a decision to empower a party whose policies wreaked such havoc would invigorate an economic recovery. Anxious voters seem to be inspired by conservatives intoning words like “free markets” and “capitalism” as if subscribing to those concepts could beat back the effects of the wild speculative machinations in our recent past.

A recession caused in large measure by bad actors in the financial world isn’t well understood, and so the country’s troubles provide an excuse for politicians on the right to promote long-held beliefs and policies. It is ironic that the most threatened segment of the electorate is being swept along in a torrent of rage that camouflages underlying problems and allows the same-old, same-old conservative ideologies to emerge as if they were something new. Republicans in shirtsleeves rolled out what they call their “pledge” to cure what ails the economy and tears at our social fabric.

In a return to the thrilling days of yesteryear the pledge would reinstate the spending levels in the last Bush budget, cap discretionary spending and curtail increases in many current programs. The religious right is assured there will be no federal funding for abortions although that isn’t part of any existing government program. All the Bush tax cuts would remain in place without offsets to pay for them, and it isn’t clear if the pledge budgeting process would address satisfactorily the need for increased medical-care funding of veterans’ programs or create jobs.

Basically, Republicans would like to voucher Medicare and veterans’ benefits, privatize them so to speak or “personalize” them as some politicians prefer to say. Oddly, one never hears mention of a plan to pay for the foreign campaigns we are waging with a war tax or rationing. And rarely is it pointed out that cutting taxes in a time of war was more than unusual, it was irresponsible. Yet congressional hawks insist we continue to engage in foreign conflicts until our goals are met, imprecise as those goals may be. General Patraeus has said our struggles are likely to continue for many lifetimes, an unsettling assessment that presages a murky foreign policy future.

In any case most conservatives offer uncritical support for all our military efforts and speechify about the bravery of our troops. Yet they countenance employment of private security forces from profit-making companies like Blackwater, a practice that gives new meaning to the term privatization. Unfettered by the military establishment rules of engagement these high-paid combatants, with salaries many times those of our enlistees, don’t always do us proud. How serious can our commitment be if we pay private-industry employees better than our troops and continue borrowing to finance our war effort? And why should “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” still exist in our military?

In an angry exchange recently Senator McCain told reporters he “knows the military” and there is no policy to seek and dismiss gay members. Possibly no formal policy exists but that is begging the question when evidence suggests otherwise. Air Force Major Mike Almay expressed shock that McCain would say such a thing after his testimony at a Senate hearing where he told senators his private e-mails had been breached resulting in his dismissal. He wasn’t asked nor had he made a public declaration about his sexual predisposition and was clearly the target of a witch hunt, McCain’s irate assertions notwithstanding - - an acerbic old man clinging to old hang-ups.

But what irrational process informs decisions to discharge specialists and decorated heroes because of their sexual orientation? With so few knowledgeable linguists in Middle East languages it is unfathomable, for example, that military leaders have seen fit to expel a valuable resource like personnel with language expertise. Again, how serious can we be about supporting our troops when sexual inhibitions are allowed to color decisions about who will be permitted to serve?

Clearly Republicans hope to obliterate whatever President Obama has been able to achieve and make his administration a distant memory. Hard times have fashioned a monster opportunity for politicians who claim to be deficit hawks and high-minded patriots though they are neither and have simply seized on voter misery and frustration to promote their predictably conventional political agenda.