Wallerstein: Mudslide for Bush

Immanuel Wallerstein's latest Commentary (No. 171, Oct. 15, 2005) uses the image of The Mudslide to discuss the problems for Bush. With a mudslide, "Once they've started, almost nothing can be done to stop them". Wallerstein points to the occupation of Iraq "and a political impasse over the constitution however the vote turns out"; plus the rising cost of gas, the rising level of governmental expenditure, the incompetence of the Bush regime over the hurricanes.

There's also the Christian Right's negative reaction to the nomination of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court. He just hasn't appointed someone who it totally onboard for them over abortion. Bush maybe didn't want to face a filibuster opposition in the Senate, which he could no longer be sure of winning. But Wallerstein emphasies Bush's desire for one his own loyalists to deal with cases about his own decisions rather than just abortion.

The Christian right are launching a campaign against Miers. The 2006 elections are coming up and the Republicans are looking nervous. "The fact that Sen. McCain could get a 90-9 vote in the U.S. Senate on an anti-torture proposal that is implicitly very critical of the Bush administration, and was actively opposed by Bush, is a measure of how weak Bush's position has become within his own party"

"Political mudslides are situations in which, no matter what you do, you lose. " And Wallerstein points out that there will be consequences on the U.S. position in the world political arena. "The Iraqi constitutional referendum is another lose-lose situation into which Bush has fallen, and it is too late to pull back. More on that, after we have the exact returns."