[Vision2020] Commentary from Today's (11/28/2004) Lewiston Morning Tribune

[Tom Hansen]

With a special thanks to Jim Fisher, Editor for the Lewiston Morning
tribune.  His commentary speaks volumes in favor of the ways things ought to
be.

 

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Commentary: Jim Fisher ... A word about those calls for laying off the prez

 

I have a one-word response to those hereabouts who are calling for everyone
to stop yammering against the president and, in view of his electoral
victory, fall in line behind him. 

 

Nuts. 

 

And I am not responding that way because many of those same people failed to
follow their own advice after Bill Clinton was elected with bigger
majorities than President Bush compiled. Although the way some of them
referred to our 42nd chief executive was pretty colorful, in a derisive way,
I always figured that was their right as Americans. 

 

Actually, it's more than that. Even if I were not paid to shoot my mouth
off, I would consider it my duty to do so. I consider it that because I --
not the president -- am the American sovereign. 

 

As the sovereign in a government of the people and by the people, I am
obliged to let that government know what it is I want, even if that is not
what a majority of my fellow sovereigns want. 

 

It turns out, though, that despite Bush's victory, what I want and what a
majority wants is often the same thing. 

 

According to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, for example, nearly
two-thirds of us -- including 51 percent of Republicans -- say it is more
important to reduce the government's budget deficits than to cut taxes. 

 

Bush intends to do the reverse. 

 

The poll published Tuesday also found that a majority of Americans want
abortion to remain legal, either as it is now or with tighter restrictions. 

 

Many of us, especially including the president's socially conservative base,
expect Bush to take any step he can to outlaw abortion. The most obvious of
those steps of course is to put abortion opponents on the U.S. Supreme
Court, which made legal abortion the law of the land. 

 

Most Americans also oppose amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex
marriages. They support either marriage or legally recognized domestic
partnerships for homosexuals. 

 

Bush campaigned in support of the amendment. 

 

We American sovereigns are of two minds about proposals to change Social
Security. The poll found 45 percent saying the private investment accounts
Bush favors are a bad idea, and 49 percent expressing approval of them. 

 

A bare majority, 51 percent, said however that Bush is unlikely to "make
sure Social Security benefits are there for people like me." 

 

As a baby boomer, I am less concerned about that for myself than for others.
I don't intend to rely on Social Security payments for the bulk of my
retirement income. I figured out how to get a private investment account
without the government's help. But people of my age will remain in the
traditional program. And although I don't see how the government will afford
the payments for the demographic bulge of which I am part, our voting
strength will make it uncomfortable for those who try to deprive us of them.
Remember, those private accounts that are supposed to be the program's
salvation must be financed on top of, not instead of, the benefits for which
I am scheduled. 

 

A large majority, 66 percent, also agrees with me that big business has too
much influence over this administration. Although voters still elected Bush,
that is a number that the president would be unwise to ignore. 

 

One final point on which more people agree with me, 48 percent to 40
percent, is that four more years of a Bush presidency will divide the county
more than unite it. 

 

That brings me back to my initial point. I am all for meeting people with
opposite views in the middle. Compromise is often the best result of any
policy divide. But the campaign promise Bush broke most flamboyantly in his
first four years was his vow to unite us. 

 

Shortly after claiming victory in an election as close to tied as any, Bush
ran to the right and stayed there. When he did that, he lost any chance he
might have had to line me up behind him, and he shows no sign of changing
it. 

 

So here I stand in my own private Bastogne. I might be encircled by Bush
voters, but to those who demand submission from this American sovereign, I
offer the response above. And if any, like the German officers in Belgium
Dec. 16, 1944, don't know whether that is affirmative or negative, I repeat
the explanation a witness at the time said they were given: 

 

"If you don't know what 'Nuts' means, in plain English it is the same as 'Go
to hell.' "

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