In four short years, President Bush has started an unwinnable war, repealed human rights and environmental laws, decimated our economy and made the United States into a pariah nation. And these are just the highlights of his administration.
The Republicans have never been the friends of minorities. As a minority – and a persecuted one at that – it is remarkable that Armenians continue in large numbers to support the Republican Party. This is obviously the knee-jerk reaction of a once-poor immigrant community that is growing wealthier with each passing generation through hard work and education.
Yet Bush, on every issue that Armenians should be concerned about, is against our interests as a community and as socially concerned human beings. In his first – and hopefully last – term in office, Bush has caused incalculable damage to the environment by repealing countless environmental protection laws; he has set education back by almost single-handedly destroying the Head Start program aimed at giving minority children a fighting chance in a field where tax zoning, private school tuitions and private tutoring give the children of the wealthy and mostly white urban elite a deplorable and almost insurmountable advantage in life. Instead of becoming the "education president," as he once promised, Bush has watched our public schools continue to decay into an almost irreversible mediocrity.
As Armenians, as I have repeated in the past, we must be concerned with issues of social justice: minority and gay rights; social security, union representation, access to strong public education, as well as issues such as full employment and health care. In all these areas Bush has turned a cynical eye and led us down a path to self-destruction as a healthy, viable democracy.
Armenian women should be particularly offended by Bush's attack on them, most particularly his views on reproductive rights. Memories of the days when women received secretive, unsterile, back-office abortions should be enough to convince any woman of the folly of leaving the Republican leadership in power. Last but not least, Bush has managed to introduce religion into daily politics in a way more becoming of a theocracy than a democracy: the separation of Church and State is, after all, one of our founding principles.
It may be easy from the comfort of a Manhattan aerie or a Westchester villa to say: "yes, but my interest is in having low taxes and getting wealthier," but this was not how America became great nor is it how America will continue to prosper. Catering to the top 1 percent of our society, while eliminating the possibility of upward mobility for the poor and middle classes, is a recipe for self-destruction. Giving tax breaks to the wealthy while watching the economy collapse is terrible macro- and microeconomic policy, regardless of one's party affiliation.
In the foreign policy arena, George Bush, a man who has benefited from Andover, Yale and every conceivable advantage in life, has failed most miserably. From not speaking a single foreign language to having barely traveled the world as a starting point, he has managed to turn the United States – once a country that the entire world looked up to – into a pariah hated almost equally by
Europeans, Middle Easterners and others. And no, this was not inevitable. It has occurred because of arrogance, short-sightedness and sheer unbridled stupidity. We invaded Iraq without any coalition support; a year later, we have lost hundreds of American youth – all, by the way, issued from the poor classes – and watched Iraq fall apart. Al Qaeda is still strong, Bin Laden is alive and
nothing has been done to stop terrorism.
On issues closest to Armenians, such as Genocide recognition, not one positive step has been taken. Meanwhile, Bush has not only bombed civilians in Iraq, but he has also idly watched as Sudan descends into another genocide and 700,000 men, women and children currently face a death of the cruelest kind, the same type of murder that sent this generation of Armenian-Americans' grandparents straggling from a hell that we have still barely recovered from. Anyone interested in just how cold a shoulder Bush has turned to Armenian Americans and their interests – on every conceivable issue from foreign aid to Genocide recognition – need only take a look at the report card Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) gave the Bush administration a few weeks ago.
One last note should particularly alarm even the most shortsighted in the Armenian community. Bush is, first and foremost, an oilman. And lest I need remind anyone, Azerbaijian, Armenia's friendliest of neighbors to the east, sits on rather large oil reserves. In spite of prognostications to the contrary, the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline is fast becoming a reality. The day we begin to pump
Azeri oil, who do you believe Bush will support in the Armenian-Azeri conflict?
Perhaps any American president would side with America's perceived self-interests, but a ruthless, ignorant Texan who has made a fortune by cozying up to every despotic Arab oil sheikh in the Middle East will be twice as quick to pull the trigger in Armenia's direction when Azerbaijan calls in its chips at the pool table of international politics.
There is an option. Say no to Bush. Say no to exploiting the poor and the defenseless, to gouging the economy and the environment. Kerry, Bush's democratic opponent, may not be Mahatma Gandhi, but on every issue of importance to Americans and Armenians, he tows a line that is more humane, more economically solid and more viable for a sustainable future.
