Guest Editorial
A Post-election Memo
An angry and frustrated liberal Democrat vents
By David C. Bellinger
Originally published in Louisiana Weekly, November 11, 2002

As an American citizen and a liberal Democrat I feel as though I have been kicked in my political gut and left breathless as a result of last Tuesday's election.

How President Bush could possibly campaign on making the tax cuts permanent and repealing the so called "death" tax (to the detriment of the Social Security, which he promised not to touch, and Medicare trust funds -- and to the benefit to tax payers earning over $350,000, the truly rich and greedy) -- while:

• deficits stretch from here to the moon and beyond and add billions and billions of dollars in interest payments to the budget for many, many decades to come (a ticking fiscal thermonuclear reaction waiting to happen)
  
• reactionary conservative judges are appointed to the federal bench with the rubber stamp approval of the Republican Senate (which appointments will be making critical decisions thirty years from now
  
• a prescription drug plan formulated by the pharmaceutical industry is pushed while no rational plan for relief from skyrocketing health care cost
  
• to add insult to injury, as President he presides over current cuts to Medicare, advocating nothing that I know of regarding a patients bill of rights, and given the abysmal performance of the economy and financial markets

...is far, far beyond my political comprehension!

How the American people from Colorado to Minnesota to Missouri to Georgia (and I am very much afraid that Sen. Landrieu might lose to Election Commissioner Terrell, a real political airhead if I have ever seen one, in a Dec. 7 runoff in Louisiana) could make and endorsement of President Bush's politics is nothing short of political mind-boggling insanity!!!

Furthermore, now that the Republicans have the power and the authority to carry out and go forth with their agenda; that is, if the Democrats don't "liberally" evoke their ability to filibuster in the Senate, maybe the country will receive a "major" wake up call when, for example, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor retires, which I predict she will do when this current session of the U. S. Supreme Court ends in July, and President Bush appoints another Scalia or Thomas to the court in order to repay his political debt to the religious right, just as he said he would like to do during the 2000 campaign. That means the Roe v. Wade decision is toast and when overturned women will be forced to seek out back alley abortions and add to the 80,000 women who already die annually as a result of living in nations where abortions are banned!

In addition, as a result of Tuesday's election, President Bush's disastrous environmental decisions and energy policies will become more and more a part of our every day lives!!!

Can catsup as a vegetable, winnable nuclear war, recallable nuclear missiles, Elliot Abrams lying to Congress, trees that cause pollution, red baiting the anti-missile program detractors, tax credits and/or exemptions for segregated schools, homeless by choice, falling wages, even higher and then even still higher unemployment rates, Dow-Jones down 22.3% in one day, another HUD scandal, U. S. Information Agency blacklisting of liberal speakers, attacks on OSHA and workplace safety, invading a Caribbean island, assassination manuals, White House astrologer, mining harbors in Venezuela, another S. & L. scandal, another Beirut barracks tragedy, Al Haig in control, silence on AIDS, food stamp reductions, White House shredding of documents, more and more and more tax cuts for the wealthy, no increase in minimum wage, mistakes were made, White House chief of staff convicted for influence pedaling and uses alcoholism as a defense, you don't have to many suspects innocent of a crime, not all people standing in soup lines are really hungry, women don't understand throw-weights, education cuts, the bombing begins in five minutes, $640 Pentagon toilet seats, African-American judicial appointments 1.9%, C. I. A. sponsoring car bombings killing innocent civilians, 139 administration officials either being investigated, indicted, or convicted, selling arms for profit to a terrorist nation, 3x5 cards, flowers being placed on Nazi graves, White House naps, raping valuable national resources as payback for political contributions, presidential pardons for indicted administration officials before turning state's evidence, using spies to spy on American citizens, and selling biological and chemical agents to merciless dictators be far behind?

What a nightmarish scenario!

I will never understand what or how the American people were thinking on Election Day 2002.

May God save America, please!