Way out on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland thin necks of land snake out towards the Chesapeake Bay. The land gives way to marshes and small islands. Some are connected by roads and bridges built up over the years to connect isolated fishing villages to greater DelMarVa and, if you travel long enough, to the Western Shore (defined locally as everything west of the Chesapeake).
The lower Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia are home to some of the poorest Counties in either state. Long overlooked by developers, it has recently been discovered and property values along the waterfront are soaring and houses are being built on lots that have been empty for generations. Some are being built to code. Others are not. Take a look at this one:
It is a disaster. It might have been cutting corners, poor planning, incompetence or all of the above.
This House reminds me of George W. Bush...
I have been driving by this house for many months. I first saw it as yet another new construction project on the lower shore. And then strong Northeastern winds whipped down the Chesapeake. Now this is a regular event on the Eastern Shore. Between Nor’easters, tropical storms and the occasional hurricane any structure needs to be ready to withstand a sustained wind above the average blow.
This house wasn’t ready.
The Nor’easter blew into the lower shore and this house flew off its foundation and fell apart, nearby houses built between 1890 and 2000 easily survived the storm.
That was months ago and the image of this house has been haunting me.
I do not know why it failed. It could have been cutting corners on construction materials. It could have been cutting corners on the building code. It could have been incompetence by the crew building, or the designer of the house, or both. They could have been building the wrong house for a windy area. It could be that the home owner made a series of bad decisions and that he/she never sought the council of professionals familiar with the unique construction needs of the area. Whatever the reason, I would feel a bit sorry for the folks involved whenever I drove by.
Last Friday I passed the house again. This time my mind was focused the speech George W. Bush gave last week about his plan to escalate and expand his war in Iraq. But it wasn’t only Iraq, it was everything else: New Orleans, the climate crisis, the economy, domestic spying, the endless scandals, the lost opportunities and the coming disaster waiting in the wings. As I thought about it, there were (and will be) countless disasters created by the greed, incompetence and magical thinking of George W. Bush and his group think toadies.
As the horrors of the Bush II years played through my thoughts I looked up and saw the house again:
And this time I saw it a symbol of the Bush II era.
I stopped the car. I got my camera out of the bag and snapped the photo.
This disaster of a house is a metaphor for the Bush administration. Through greed, magical thinking, poor planning and incompetence this house illustrates the fate of every government Department and every decision this team of losers has been in charge of for the last six years.
Some of these Bush II plans have already been hit by the Nor’easter, like Iraq and the Gulf Coast of the USA. Others are just one strong wind away from ruin.
As I thought about his recent Iraq speech, I could visualize Bush as the builder of this failed house. I could almost hear him explaining to a skeptical home owner how everything was going according to plan. Sure there were a few mistakes, but what this house needed now was a few more workers to go in, brace it up, paint a few things and then everything would be just fine.
The Bush Administration is off the foundation of America. It is a disaster. Unfortunately they are still running around with hammers and crowbars. They can do a lot of damage in the remaining two years. And the schmucks who bought into their lies find themselves struggling between acknowledging reality or embracing the dream through new levels of self-deception and magical thinking.
It will not work. Bush is a failure.
Fortunately, the Democrats now control Congress and that gives me hope.
Through hearings and oversight we can find out how the obvious failures of the Bush Administration occurred. We can learn how policies and Federal agencies were positioned to fell off the foundation of reality.
And, with luck, we can discover the many other impending disasters that are only one strong wind away from total failure. We may be able to prevent some of the damage.
As we learn the truth, we should also hold people responsible for the failures through hearings, the Department of Justice and exposing the hidden crimes to the light of day. Perhaps this will lead to Impeachment. If it does, great, but I think any Impeachment effort must grow out of new documentation of the crimes of the Bush Administration. This was the case with Nixon and it will be the case with Bush.
Effective oversight is the important thing. None of the ideas of the Ginrich/DeLay/Bush years have ever been subject to oversight and review. Most of these ideas are rooted in magical thinking. They do not work and they all need to be discredited. It is way past time to expose these right-wing fantasy to the light of reality.
This oversight doesn’t have to start in Congress or in the press (although that is helpful). Many investigations can start here—in the netroots.
As many of you know, I have been tracking the Republican Culture of Corruption for some time now. For almost three years, my Diaries have focused on the growing Jack Abramoff scandal. I think of this scandal as just a core sample taken from a glacier of Republican corruption. If I drilled down a few feet over I might have started with Plamegate, Gannon, Cunningham, Haliburton, Stephen Griles or an endless spread of entry points into the Republican Culture of Corruption.
Fortunately, there are many other researchers in our netroots community exploring other aspects of scandal and failure in the Bush II years. (Take this great Diary, The pending Griles indictment: It's bigger than you think., by mbw as an example of the wonderful work we are doing)..
These stories are rising to the surface and soon there will be a tipping point. The right wing world view, the conservative brand, the Republican brand—all of it—is on the verge of collapse.
This is no time to go soft. It is the time to redouble our efforts. It is time to kick them into the dustbin of history.
We have a country to take back. We have to stop Bush and his group-think Party.
If we do not, then this is our future:
I prefer competence and accountability.
2007 is a year of research, legislation and framing the issues for 2008.
We have made some progress, but we have a Country to take back. And that will require a lot of effort.
Let’s get to work.
Cheers!