The government we deserve, part 37

"America" by Daniel Chester French. With her right foot on top of the head of Quetzelcoatl, clutching the torch of liberty and her left hand holding a cloak of security over American labor, the statue appears to be just another of so many adorning DC buildings and monuments destined for the dustbin of the marble quarry.

New Year's Eve, 1997, house majority leader Tom DeLay said to a group of businessmen hosting a dinner in his honor, "You are a shining light for what is happening in the Republican Party and you represent everything that is good about what we're trying to do in America in leading the world in a free market system."

But what the hell was he talking about? This was said to a bunch of Mariana Islands sweatshop owners employing thousands of Southeast Asian women working long hours for slave wages, kept in labor camps surrounded by fences capped with barbed wire to keep them in. In their "spare" time, many of these women were encouraged to take second jobs as strippers and prostitutes.

But during their long days, they sewed little "Made in the USA" tags inside our blue jeans. And later in the stores back in the real USA, it made us all feel good to be "buying American".

DeLay's trip affirming 'ultimate capitalism' was arranged by lobbyist Jack Abramoff. And the golf and snorkeling was great and the schmoozing with these businessmen from the darkside rewarded Abramoff and DeLay handsomely.

And as one of the largest sweatshop owners said through a hidden microphone into a hidden tape recorder afterwards, DeLay guaranteed that he need NOT worry about any bill coming to the floor of the House back in the US that would try to reform or improve conditions for the slaves "employed" in his model factory. That factory representing "everything that is good about what we're trying to do in America in leading the world in a free market system."

But that was over eight years ago and Abramoff's been indicted and DeLay's finally gone from the House, to work his *magic* through his many great connections made over years as the archetypal holier-than-thou corruption oozing representative on the take.

So how's DeLay's promised "free market system" doing here today? Well, progressing slowly but nicely, thank you. As we saw this week in the senate another proposal to raise the minimum wage above $5.15 was successfully killed.

The minimum wage now stands at its lowest in fifty years in terms of real dollars. But as Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now!" was quick to point out on yesterday's show, "congress has not rejected all federal pay hikes: last week, House lawmakers voted to increase their salaries by more than Three Thousand Dollars. It was their seventh straight pay raise congress passed for themselves" while the minimum wage has remained frozen at $5.15/hour.

That's rich, but that's the kind of representative government we send to Washington to fight for our interests and rights. "We the people" who's menial wages are suppressed repeatedly at below poverty levels while our representatives continue to enrich their own pay and benefits. It wouldn't be so bad if they really were up there fighting for us, but so much of the bullshit passed by clowns posing as serious actors do the exact opposite. They reduce, restrict, and revoke our rights and security while enriching theirs and those of their real constituents, those back pocket stuffing lobbyists of business and industry. (Remember my recent blog debating how to protect business when someone steals your identity (!) currently being debated in congress!)

Perhaps the shit that goes on in the halls of congress and its back rooms and broom closets and over on K Street behind our backs and under the tables of swanky restaurants and exclusive clubs is the shining beacon of "what is happening in the Republican Party and...everything that is good about what we're trying to do in America," that DeLay proudly boasted of. And lest you think I'm being partisan here, same goes for Democrats as well.

With this kind of government, does anyone else get as excited as I when August rolls around? Is there any kind of collective 'sigh of relief' knowing congress has gone home, and bush is clearing brush for four or five weeks and we can't be screwed some more while everyone's outta town?

I had occasion to speak with a political science instructor at a local college earlier this week. She told me of the apathy of her students. They don't vote and they don't care. They don't connect anything the government does 'up there' with their lives 'down here'. Political science is about as relevant to their lives as the course being taught just across the hall, Economics 101. It was depressing, but perhaps there's encouragement to be taken in the words of president Bush as he was 'doofing' around in Europe this week.

Speaking in Hungary to honor the 50th anniversary of that nation's failed uprising against the Soviet Union he assured, "Liberty can be delayed but it cannot be denied." I know that's irony at its extreme, witnessing as we have, the continued collapse of the United States and its liberties under his rule.

Perhaps by Bush saying "Liberté can be delayed," he was thinking of his republican congress postponing a vote to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act that enfranchised many black voters in the South who had previously been denied their right to vote. Because some republicans say it unfairly singles out seven southern states, plus Arizona and Alaska it "needs work". (Maybe it's seemingly 'unfairness' is because, as some leaders in congress have suggested according to USA Today, "states with documented histories of discrimination may still practice it and have earned the extra scrutiny.")

Whatever. If you are one who holds out Bush's hope for this country that liberté cannot be denied, only delayed, keep the faith. But why to I suspect when Bush said "delayed" I think he was talking about "DeLayed", as in what Tom DeLay's been "trying to do in America in leading the world in a free market system." So far that vision seems intact as it's ongoing march continues to surpass our government's wildest dreams.

And like those young students of political science seem to be saying for all of us, "Who cares?"