January 26, 2006

January 26, 2006

Governing, Just That Simple

What's so hard about it, George W. Bush wonders. Everyone makes governing such a big deal, like it's complicated or something. They are the ones who make it complicated, with all those shades of gray and “nuance” stuff. George brushed all that nonsense away and whittled the governing process down to one cure-all for domestic governance and one for foreign policy.

For domestic policy his Swiss Army knife was tax cuts, especially for those who didn't need them. Want to create more jobs? Just cut taxes. Is the dollar losing value? Cut taxes. The stock market shaky? Cut taxes. Americans can't afford health care? Cut taxes. Federal deficits exploding? Cut taxes. Gotta rebuild an entire American city destroyed by a hurricane? Cut taxes.

Governing a nation – just that simple.

Likewise, George W. Bush believes he can solve the world's troubles with a simple, single tool – democracy.

Like Johnny Appleseed, he sprinkles the stuff wherever he thinks he sees trouble. Democracies, George says, are always peaceful nations – never mind the obvious contradiction of such a statement coming from the only nation on earth currently waging two wars in the Middle East and threatening a third. That would be exactly the kind of unnecessarily complicating nuance Bush so dislikes.

Bush says that when people are allowed to vote for their representatives in open and fair elections, all kinds of good things happen. (Again, ignore that man behind the curtain – his deficits, his spying, the dead piled high about his feet.)

Democracy, George cheers, "is on the march.”

Well Yesterday democracy goose-stepped its way into Palestine. The Palestinian people voted in free and open elections, and they turned their fledgling democracy over to terrorists – Hamas.

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 26 -- The radical Islamic group Hamas claimed victory Thursday in voting for the first Palestinian parliament in a decade, saying it won a clear majority of seats and had the right to form the next government claims, although unconfirmed officially, were followed by the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and the rest of his cabinet. Resignation was a formality following parliamentary elections, but Qureia acknowledged that Hamas had likely won a majority in the 132-seat legislature and should be given the opportunity to form the next cabinet. (Full Story)

The Palestinian elections mirror those earlier in Egypt, where that nation's free and open elections led to major gains for Egypt's version of Hamas, The Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile in Iraq, George has been trying to force-feed democracy to the three waring tribes that live don't want to share that land between them, because it's not a real country. The British created it early in the last century, and were about to give them some lessons in democracy, as they did in India. But they never got around to it. Seems the tribes stopped killing one anohter just long enough to chase the Brits out. Now they're trying to chase us out too, so they can go back to kiling one another -- their own simple solution to governance.

When George insisted the Iraqis hold free and open elections and, the majority tribe, the Shiites, dominated the results -- DUH!. The minority Sunnis were not amused. The third tribe, the Kurds are going their own whey (Sorry. I couldn't resist.)

So, you see ... democracy – just that simple.

Simple is, as simple does. And if George is anything, he's a simple fellow. If only governing were as well.

You can almost hear George screaming --- "damn those nuances. Damn them!"

Damn those stupid voters in Palestine. What's wrong with them anyway? We give them the vote and who do with it? Instead of voting to for the guys we like, the utterly corrupt and ineffective, Fatah/PLO, they vote for Palestine's version of the IRA. Imagine that! Who could have? (Not George, that's clear.)

Damn those Iranians. Give them a democracy and the rule of law and they can't put the world's most provably guilty mass murderer on trial.

BAGHDAD: Judges in the trial of Saddam Hussein tried to remove a newly appointed chief judge on Tuesday, a dispute that forced an abrupt postponement of the proceedings and deepened the turmoil in what was supposed to be a landmark in Iraq's political progress. (Full Story)

Ask almost any Iraqi in Baghdad what they should do and he/she will respond without shame or hesitation, “Why bother with a trial. Just hang Saddam.” Iranians, you see, have their own simple governing traditions. The ones we are trying to force on them are too full of ... of.... hmmm, what's the term I'm looking for?... Ah yes, nuances.

Damn those Egyptians. Then last right thing they did was build pyramids. It's been down hill ever since. When George told them they had to get on the democracy bandwagon, or else, they screwed that up too. Of course the Egyptians, the second largest recipient of US money, did as they were told and announced their first free and open elections.

Then things got complicated. When the polls showed that candidates from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood might just win, Egypt's first “free and open” elections became a lot less free or open. What does a fledgling democracy in that Muslim world do when the other side polls higher? Well you start re-simplifying the process -- you forbid them from running, and, if they insist, throw them in jail until after the election.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities released 260 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood detained during a crackdown on the opposition Islamist group during parliamentary elections late last year, the Brotherhood said on Thursday. (Full Story)

Democracy – just that simple.