The Coming Year

by Don Monkerud

Only fortunetellers, the simple-minded and the politically naive should brave predictions on our political future. Nevertheless, the nation's newspapers and magazines will fill with predictions about politics: the next elections, US success at bringing capitalism to Iraq, the progress of the so-called war on terror, the effort of a right-wing Christian minority to usurp the nation's agenda, and measurements of President Bush's increasing or declining popularity.

Realistically, anything could happen. The country could impeach Bush or declare him emperor and establish a ruling dynasty. Or things could continue much as they are, for as Alphonse Karr, the French novelist, said, "The more things change, the more they remain the same."

Predictions are more difficult to make when so much is hidden from the public and voters ignore lies about WMDs, torture, surveillance of political groups, secret payoffs, and illegal government activities, even when these lies are exposed.

Another difficulty with predictions is that reality isn't neat and dependable. Americans expect a Mr. Big, a Dr. No, the evil and nefarious man behind the scenes who pulls the levers of power. Instead, power is diffuse and multi-faceted. With each change, the players realign, and sides are redrawn. How can one correctly predict anything in such a world?

The fact that facts aren't even facts anymore makes it even harder to predict the future. We live in a politically spin-driven world where an Iraqi theocracy is "democratic", destroying the air, water and soil is "environmental protection", torture is justifiable, and tax cuts for the rich are paid for by cutting food stamps and medical care for the poor.

Lying about sex in the White House is impeachable while killing 100,000 Iraqis induces national pride. Abortion and birth control are sinful, while electrocution and fatal injection are a public duty.

How can one predict the future when Bush's biggest fundraiser, Ken Lay, responsible for the second largest bankruptcy in history, hasn't been brought to justice after four years? Or when Dick Cheney receives an unqualified pension bonus from Halliburton, which is gifted billions in no-bid government contracts? Or when snipers become "sharpshooters," Rush Limbaugh--an illegal drug-abuser--hosts Cheney on right-wing talk radio, and so-called "conservative" congressmen drive the country into bankruptcy? The world is indeed turned on its head.

If one were to hope for any changes in the coming year, it would be for the American people to wake up.

Some argue that they are already awake, but simply have a vicious mean streak; they support the death penalty, remain deeply racist, worship wealth, and prefer religious mythology and hypocrisy to rational decision-making. As long as it is safe to shop, they will ignore the rest of the world.

Terrorism is the justification for Bush's actions as he molds the country in the image of frontier Texas. Americans were frightened into allowing him to make a mess of Iraq, to enrich corporations and the ultra-rich, to ship our jobs overseas, and to let the Pentagon, the FBI and the CIA undermine our civil rights.

Politics will continue unchanged as long as we are happy and can afford to keep our heads buried in the sand. We have our credit cards and home equity loans, our Explorers, Expeditions and Volvos, wide-screen TVs, Mexicans to do our stoop labor, and malls where we can escape into a virtual fantasyland. When we have all this, who needs a future?

Copyright 2005 Don Monkerud, an Aptos, California-based writer who follows cultural, social and political issues, members.cruzio.com/~monkerud/index.html.