November 15, 2012 - WestchesterGuardian.com

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, november 15, 2012Page 21OP-EDIt Took an Election to Find Diogenes Honest ManContinued from page 20Many readers will recall anold Greek tale about a philosophernamed Diogenes, antagonistof Plato and the first cynic, whofamously went about in broaddaylight through the Agora marketplacewith a lantern looking for theproverbial honest man.So for his many ‘wisdoms’,including his various putdowns ofPlato, Diogenes was called a cynic,Greek for a “dog”. And here weare, two-and-a-half millennia later,cynical voters still looking for anhonest man.Even a cynical voter can recognizeboth Joe Biden and BarackObama as unusually honest men,despite their various inabilities.Their problems have includedblocked efforts to add on theirDemocratic administration’s veryimpressive success in foreign anddomestic policy, including thousandsof added non-governmentjobs created, and other efforts tobuild our way out of the historic anddisastrous eight years of Republicangovernance of catastrophic wars andeconomic garbage heap .Those were the result ofintolerably repetitious and oldRepublican philosophy of trickledown economics on the 99% ofAmericans that culminated inthe financial catastrophe of Bush2008. And, lest we forget, thiswas in addition to trillions, [thatis to say, thousands of billions] ofdollars and thousands of Americanlives, plus uncounted thousands ofothers dead in The Middle Eastand Central Asia, as well as theloss of our world reputation as amost decent nation, lost in the twodamned, grotesque Republican warsin Iraq and Afghanistan.This inability to achievewhat needed to be done includedthe failure to find honesty anddecency in an abjectly destructiveRepublican led Congress.Particularly over the last two years,the Republican controlled Congresshad the power and totally blockedkey efforts, and hundreds of otheractions, by the Obama administrationto ‘do the nation’s business.’The Republicans abandoned theiroath of office blindly determinedto take every contrarian action tomount a hypocritical and destructiveRepublican Jihad against theblack president.Republican denials and softsoapself-cleansing attempts in thepresidential and vice-presidentialdebates were clearly disingenuous,or simply dishonest. Down deepthey sow Sharia, Taliban-stylelaws to punish all those of alternativereligious and ethical beliefs onfamily planning and God knowswhat all else. Biden, also with Ryan,a believing Catholic, explained inthe Vice-Presidential debate thathe accepted his church’s teachingfor himself, but would certainlynot agree to force that positionupon others with different beliefsby law, as Republicans publicly andexplicitly intended! Election resultsaround the nation confirmed thatregardless of religious identification,huge numbers of women weredramatically mad and “Not GoingTo Take It Anymore!” Governmentis big enough without cominginto the bedroom, forcing itself onfamily decisions.Can any thinking American,black or white, vote for candidatesof a party that, deep down, holdssuch intents, contrary to the earliestand highest American beliefs infreedom of all religions and otherethical belief systems?Add to that, strike two, inthe Republican’s vigorous votersuppression campaign across thenation, which should also eliminateany support from citizen-votersfor them. It seems clear that theysimply do not believe in democracy,in any election they cannot buy.They struck-out in their thirdattempt against representativedemocracy, in their scorched earth,destructive, obstructionism forthe last several years in Congress.It was Republican Leader MitchMcConnell who announced yearsago his primary objective, againstany general public interest, toprevent any Congressional actionthat might possibly help PresidentObama. He will go down inhistory in the Un-American Hallof Fame with Benedict Arnold,the infamous, hanged traitor of theAmerican Revolution.All this, even before consideringall their grotesque substantivepolicy views and actions: Lesshealthcare, dismissing the environmentand global warming; obsceneand bankrupting wars, reducingpublic education at all levels, andone affirmative policy - the housingpolicy, and a tax system suggestingtheir true basic platform is simplymore billions for billionaires.You might think after thiselection they might tuck theirtroglodyte slimy tail under theirbacksides and retreat back underthe rocks from which they slitherevery generation or two. When willthey learn the old adage attributedto Lincoln, the betrayed builder ofthe Republican Party, “You can foolsome of the people all of the time,and even all of the people some ofthe time, but not all, or even most ofthe people all of the time.The Monarchists are not FarRight; they are but Far Wrong.Bob K. Bogen served as Long-Range Planning Director for theNew York Metropolitan RegionalPlanning Commission, which endedin the South Tower of the World TradeCenter; Planning Director for theNew England Regional Commission;Comprehensive Planning Directorfor the United Nations DevelopmentProgram in Pakistan; BoardChairman of the CommunicationsCoordination Committee for theUnited Nations; and PrincipalRepresentative of Architects /Designers / Planners for SocialResponsibility to the United Nations.OP-EDShould Bush Apologize to the GOP?By STEVEN SARSHIKDespite Party’s BestOstrich Act, AbysmalTenureto Blame forRomney’s Defeat,Lawyer SaysAs the United States prepares toinaugurate Barack Obama for a secondterm in office, many Republicans arestill struggling to understand Gov.Mitt Romney’s defeat.Exit polls on Nov. 6, however,indicated that voters blamed formerPresident George W. Bush for thecountry’s economic troubles, and mostbelieve that Obama’s policies havehelped the recovery.Bush was such a poor presidentthat conservatives no longer botherto defend the previous commanderin chief, says New York attorney andpolitical humorist Steven Sarshik.“It has become conventionalwisdom that Bush messed up so badlythat pundits on both sides tend to glossover the magnitude of his appallinglegacy,” says Sarshik, author of thesatirical novel, “The Apology,” (www.sarshik.com), a fantastical tale thatbegins on the day of Obama’s secondinauguration, when Bush gets himselfinto a jam in Europe.“Conservatives won’t go anywherenear Bush’s eight years, except to tellliberals who blame him for the difficultrecovery to stop living in thepast. I mean … the guy wasn’t eveninvited to the Republican NationalConvention in Tampa,” Sarshik says.“The Democrats mentioned him moreat their convention.”Unfortunately, in political debate,reviewing Bush’s record has become anon-starter, “but that doesn’t mean histenure didn’t happen,” Sarshik says.He reviews some of the Bushpolicy flubs that directly contributed toRomney’s defeat:• A party of extremists: Inorder to compete with this season’sRepublican primary candidates andsatisfy the hordes of Tea Party conservatives,“moderate Mitt” had to takea backseat in favor of pedal-to-themetal,far-right Romney. The partytook a dramatic shift to the far rightas a result of Bush’s expensive, fiscallyirresponsible policies. After the primaries,“flip-flopper” didn’t seem strongenough to describe Romney’s shiftingstances; his proposed policies became“Etch-a-Sketch,” almost to the pointof being Zen-like, Sarshik says. “Often,his answers to questions becameexceedingly abstract, and I think theshifting discouraged independent andundecided voters.”• A clear and simple foreignpolicy narrative: A recent VanityFair exposé shows that Bush wasgiven ample warning of the attacks onAmerican soil before Sept. 11, 2001.While the 43rd president followedup with what still seems to many anon-sequitur war in Iraq, Obamaoversaw the end of that protractedcampaign and killed the man responsiblefor 9-11. Romney’s foreign policyappeared to be a continuation of Bush’scostly approach.• FEMA and the “heck of a job,Brownie” gaffe: “Frankenstorm”Sandy hit the Northeast days beforethe Nov. 6 election, which could havedevastated Obama’s campaign had hehandled it poorly. Instead, his cooperationwith New Jersey Rep. Gov. ChrisChristie was the perfect example ofhow to handle local and state-levelemergencies. During debates, in anattempt to back up small-governmentrhetoric and explain away Bush’spoor handling of Hurricane Katrinadisaster relief, Romney said the FederalEmergency Management Agencyshould be dismantled in favor of statecontrol, and “even better,” be privatized.Steven Sarshik has been a New YorkCity trial lawyer for more than 30 years,handling all sorts of politically chargedcases – much like the fictitious one hepaints in “The Apology.” He is also theauthor of “Wrongful Death,” a novelabout an NYC police shooting.