by Jeremy Toulouse
Daily Lobo Columnist
Vermont Sen. James Jeffords’ defection from the Republican Party highlights the selfishness of the Bush administration.
The Republican Party now faces a dilemma that could break its infamous reputation of running a tight ship that always votes the party line. The party must decide whether making money is more important than caring for our future.
Sen. Jeffords’ decision has prompted the party to finally take a second look at its policies.
The dilemma is also based on different terms that describe political behavior and the political environment. The terms conservative, moderate and liberal are useless in describing the political agenda of the Bush administration. Selfish and socially responsible are the terms that should be applied to the different sides of the current political environment.
Several arguments can be made to illustrate that conservatives are selfish, illustrating why Sen. Jeffords left the party.
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Those behind the Bush energy policy are selfish. We should not drill for oil in a protected habitat when we already have enough oil. We also have other technologies that make internal combustion engines that guzzle this oil obsolete. Why shouldn’t we utilize alternate fuel sources and forms of transportation? If we did, they would become realities at a minor expense.
The truth of the matter is that certain corporations are holding on to their old piece of the pie. The tight grasp by these corporations is what raises the cost of alternatives. Is purposeful environmental degradation selfish or conservative?
The motives behind Bush’s tax plan also are selfish. Many of the wealthier individuals in this country pay a lot of taxes. Many of these wealthy individuals also have accountants that find tax loopholes, create tax shelters and move funds around to avoid taxes. If they paid what they owe, our government would have enough money to provide the programs that we entrusted it to provide.
If all our laws were enforced properly, if all our social programs were successful and if everything was regulated adequately, I could see a need for a tax cut. Our laws are not enforced properly, and we have too many poor people to say that our social programs are effective. We also have too many corporate leaders and individuals who do as they please to believe that regulations are followed adequately. Therefore, government needs the money that we pay to it. Is refunding needed taxes selfish or conservative?
Another side of the tax cut debate is that not many people believe the theory of trickle-down economics works. Instead of buying more things, most people end up buying more expensive and better versions of the same thing. Many wealthy people do this already. Therefore, the idea of boosting the wavering economy by giving the wealthy back money that they are not going to spend seems ludicrous.
The few hundred dollars that most of us are going to get this summer is most likely going to pay off bills and other necessities that are not going to do much for the economy either.
Is our economy in a crisis, or is it a made-up dream of Bush’s to justify layoffs, decreased expansion, lower wages and a tax cut? Alan Greenspan said that nothing is wrong with the economy. Who do you believe, Mr. Greenspan, who has been an expert on the subject for a long time, or President Bush, who wasted hundreds of millions of dollars to get elected president? I believe Greenspan.
The selfish right wingers of the national political environment say that they are conservative, and think that by labeling themselves this way, their prerogatives might seem “safe.” While liberal, automatically wins the description of meaning, “change.” These connotations are wrong.
All of us need to open our eyes to what is happening and how these people are using all our futures as collateral to make more money now. Selfish or socially responsible, it is our future, not just theirs. If we all act with others in mind, we may just advance as a society, but if we allow others to push their narrow-minded, self-centered, special interests, we will all the lose in the end.
Therefore, if Sen. Jeffords can make an unselfish and socially responsible decision to fight for all our rights, I think we should applaud his decision and follow him.
Jeremy Toulouse is a senior political science major at UNM. His columns appear twice a month during the summer.
