July 1, 2003
Another bit of vileness.
In his article "Bush's fundraising 'effortless'," Kos points out this Guardian story about Bush "raising" some $20 million in two weeks.
Compare Bush to Howard Dean, who raised $7.5 million in three months. Dean's contributions came not from $2,000-per-plate "fundraisers," but from people like me (who until this point had never contributed to a political candidate) contributing an average of roughly $75. Bush collects huge amounts from a handful of his ultrarich cronies, while Dean depends on ordinary folks to contribute what they can. Worse, Bush himself "spends no time on it," according to a Gephardt aide quoted in the article. "He gets on a plane, shows up for 15 minutes, and leaves. And each of these [Democratic] candidates spends volumes of time on the phone asking for money."
I suppose that this isn't so surprising. Certainly Bush has given the wealthy everything they have ever wanted from the federal government, and more besides. He has made it so that the wealthy continue to accumulate larger and larger piles of cash while the poor and middle class get screwed. I don't think that Bush and the rest of the Republicans are even making a pretense that they represent the "common man" any longer. They represent the wealthy and the privileged, not the people of this country who have to work for a living.
While I don't think that any of the Democratic hopefuls is by any stretch of the imagination a saint, I know for certain that I have more in common with Dean, or Gephardt, or even Kerry with his Heinz-fortune-inheriting wife, than I do with anyone on the Bush side of things. All I have to do to realize this is to look at their campaigns. Leiberman will have raised maybe $4 million this quarter? Dean is in the lead with $7.5 million? Both a small fraction of the millions with which Bush will be gifted by Election Day.
Bush represents the worst kind of privileged elite; born with a silver spoon in his mouth, arrogant with the expectation that life owes him everything he asks for without the least bit of effort. He is the idiot son of an obscenely wealthy family and has never known a hint of want in his life. That he receives these millions while at the same time kids are dying in Iraq at his behest, while he is doing his best to dismantle programs upon which millions of Americans depend for their health and living, while he lies to those to whom he is ultimately responsible (that is, us), this is vile, contemptible and despicable.
Make no mistake: They will be condemned, both Bush and those who support him. If not soon, by the American public, then later, by our posterity. Let us all see that we are not deservedly condemned as well.