How George Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country - Book Report/Review Example

Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy ''''''Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in his work, 'Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy', has attempted to delve deep into the actual nature of the Bush governance by exposing its true nature and its reluctance towards growing crisis of global environmental issues. The author, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, is occupying the position of senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. In addition to this, he has also been selected as the "chief prosecuting attorney of the Riverkeeper and also the acting president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. In the arena of U.S environmentalist activism the author is a quite recognized name. Despite environmental issues are becoming subjects of great worry for the scientists, environmental scholars and common people but the Bush government has not shown any special attention to those issues. The Bush presidency has only been concerned about expanding the corporate effectiveness and capitalist aggression at the same time. Through is book, 'Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy', the author has actually pointed out the grave mistakes done by the government. Mistakes or explicit negligence that has been reflected by the government has been identified by the author as a crime against the environment and humanity as well. ''''''Several environmental scientists across the globe have argued that government is not the only reason for the increasing rate of environmental crisis across the nation but people are equally responsible also as they have been equally indifferent towards the impending danger regarding the environmental factors. However, such observation is not very true and it can asserted from the fact as the Bush government came to power depending over the promise that it would make the environmental situation better for people. Common citizens of the United States of America are quite aware and concerned about the increasing rate of environmental polluting elements in the atmosphere. They have always sought for such a government that would provide them with the opportunity to fight against this global crisis that is not only related to the nation but the whole world as well. In this context we can cite back to the year 2000 when George W. Bush appeared into the scenario of American politics as one of the strongest claimant for the position of U.S. President as a Republican. At that point of time he assured people that after his selection as a president he would undertake all types of necessary steps to solve the environmental issues. He also claimed that it would be his one the most primary concerns to bring sufficient reduction to the rate of carbon dioxide emission from the power plants across the nation. The situation changed almost since the time he has received his seat as a president. Only after three months from the time of his selection as a president, he clearly expressed in a written format that he has no intention of reducing the rate of carbon dioxide emission from the power plants. He came up with the argument as the defense of his action that carbon dioxide has not been declared as an environmental polluting material by the Clean Air Act. In addition he also argued that "regulating CO2 would force power generators to shift from coal to natural gas, and in light of the California energy crisis, would be burdened." (Linstroth and Bell, 20) After few days, reluctance of President Bush became more explicit as he denied representation of U.S. in the Kyoto Conference regarding the growing rate of environmental pollution and responsibility of respective countries. In his denial he clearly started that he would not encourage any such steps that can harm economic progress of the nation. However, almost after a year though the Bush administration introduced the policy of reducing greenhouse gas effect up to 18% in the next ten years but it was not a spontaneous action from the government. Such step was generated manly due to the pressure from civilians as well as environmental activists across the country. ''''''This information clearly expresses the fact that George W. Bush actually played a game to win the support of civilians for ensuring his journey towards his office as a president. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has put a great deal of emphasis over the fact that President Bush's approach was basically treacherous against the people as well as against the global environment. This approach has become most prominent from the very title of the book: "Crime against Nature'." The author has also argued about the fact that main aim of the Bush government was actually to encourage the capitalist aggression and through that process the government also aimed at its self-empowerment process. According to the author the Bush administration actually used the policy of corporate favoritism as an effective tool to generate such power in their favor so that it becomes almost unchallenged. It was quite successful in its attempt but at the same time such power mongering, in the long run, has started exhibiting its wrong impact over common people on diverse aspects, including, general condition of public health, and the system of democracy as well as aspects related to the concern of national security. As the Bush administration was solely concerned about ensuring its personalized power and profit making purpose, consequently it has put environmental issues related to the safety of the nation under a great deal of danger. The author feels during the tenure of the Bush administration the government excelled in nothing but brining development in capitalist aggressiveness, corporate development and degrading the average quality of life in the whole country. At the same time he has vehemently criticized those scientists who have supported the government in their attempt to deceive the common people with the representation of wrong statistics and scientific data: "...scientists working for our government or its willingness to deceive the American public. Manipulating data leads to one pesky problem:..." (Kennedy, Jr., 87) At the same time he has also requested those scientists not to support the governance system that is keen on deceiving the people of the nation and in order to do so the author has urged that people are needed to yield to the humanitarian aspects. Statistical representation has played an important part for the establishment of the truth behind his argument. He has shown that the adoption of the policy of corporate favoritism enhanced by the government has been encouraged even going beyond the scope of public scrutiny. The government was well aware about the fact that quite a few numbers of factories across the nation were using certain most harmful of the chemicals, capable of emanating severe pollutants but no step has been taken from the government to lessen the amount of pollutants from those factories. In addition to this the government has also attempted to suppress all those data that would express the fact of corporate favoritism of the government. To justify its position to people the government has also attempted to threaten the concerned officials as well as civil servants so that they are stopped from disclosing information about the actual situation. One starting report has been presented in his book that the Bush administration used to facilitate several energy plants of the nation through the method of providing subsidies or great deal of tax reduction. At the same time he has also pointed out the fact that more than 15,000 chemical and nuclear plants across the nation were in the need of proper security as those were identified as the main targets of terrorist attacks but the government failed to provide those plants with sufficient protection. ''''''Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in his book, 'Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy' has, on one hand represented some of the starling facts about reluctance of Bush administration associated with environment related issues but at the same time he has also tried to find out the actual politics behind such approach from the government. Kennedy feels that the main reason behind such corporate favoritism from the Bush government is definitely hunger for attaining more power but at the same time the money mongering mind set of the government cannot be denied too. Bush administration understood is quite clearly corporate favoritism means encouraging the policy of corporate aggression. More the government will support corporate houses more it will be supporting capitalism and in reverse way it implies flow of more money in the hands of the government. The author has opined that the Bush government actually aimed at collecting an unprecedented high rate of money so that it can orient its political and election campaigns in a very distinguished manner. Kennedy, with the intention of justifying his observation has cited example from Bush's activism as well as environmental awareness that during his stay as the governor of Texas, he also adopted the policy of corporate cronyism in that state. Though he was well aware about the situation that the Houston area of Texas is one of the most environmentally affected areas in the whole country and people also suffer to a great extent due to the prevailing health problems caused by environmental issues. However, in this context it is important to mention that every year more than 430 citizens expire due to pollution related health problem. These scaring facts were not beyond the scope of knowledge of the government but Bush as a governor did not take any step towards solving such problems. The main aim of the author has been reflected from the book. Kennedy's sole intention is to protect the environment but at the same time he has assured that it will not possible unless all the people are joining hand together. According to his opinion, the issue of environmental protection must be regarded as the factor of common civic perception. In this context he has commented that he does not consider himself as an environmentalist; rather he recognizes him as a free-marketer, "Every one of our federal environmental laws is intended to restore true free market capitalism so that the price of bringing a product to market reflects the costs that it imposes on the public." (Kennedy, 191) ''''''The Bush government has always responded to the attacks of the critics and environmentalists behind the defense of enhancing employment and ensuring growth of the U.S. economy. It has always been the strongest argument of the Bush administration against the attacks of critics that the government is resolute to solve any kind of problem related to economic condition of the country. Unless the problems related to economy of the nation are solved no other problems can find a proper solution has been the most general argument of the governing system. However, looking at the real situation it does not seem that the Bush government strove for general interest of the people. Sole motive of the government was to ensure as much as corporate funding for the party. It is during the final part of the Bush governance the recession period of the nation commenced and that is still continuing even in the recent times. The government has repeatedly claimed that during its tenure rate of employment of the nation has increased to a great level but in actual situation we see that there has not been much alteration in the total scenario. The youth part of the U.S. society faced a great crisis period during the time of the Bush administration regarding employment. However, all these data shows that no matter how much the George W. Bush and his party claim that the administration has revolutionized the total scenario of the nation but in actuality this administration failed in most of the areas that they were assigned to develop. On the other hand, if we look at the environmental issues we find that Bush administration was least competent in handing the problems related to this matter. In the name of employment enhancement and developing the economic development of the country, the administration was actually providing boost to such organization that were putting a great deal of challenge to the general health standard of the common people. Such was the support of the government that some of the leading corporations of the country clearly refused to maintain the basic parameters of maintaining the minimum level of pollution controlling. At the same time it must also be admitted that in the name of industrialization and economic development governance of a nation cannot come up with such steps that would compromise over the factor of standard of human health of the citizens. However, the status of the Bush administration becomes even more derogating in the eyes of the common people as it took help of all sorts of dishonest means to hide their true intention. Under a democratic environment steps taken by an administration that speaks about supremacy of democracy cannot be supported and at the same time it also reveals the true nature of democratic philosophy, followed by the government. Looking at the matter from a different angle we explore a different dimension altogether. ''''''Democracy is the system that speaks about the government by the people, of the people and for the people. Thus, common people are the centre of attention from the government and the common people are only responsible for selecting the right government that is suitable for them. During his election campaigning in the year 2000 George W. Bush claimed that he would take care of the environmental issues and at the same time assured people that he would also ensure that the problems related to environmental crisis is solved. When it came to practical implication of such policies, as the President of the United States of America he took a completely different angle of approach. These are some of the approaches that expose the true nature of the Bush administration. In a democratic environment the most important assignment for a government is to fulfill the basic demands of the people. The Constitution of U.S. guarantees people of the nation that right to life and right to enjoy a healthy environment are basic requirements of a person and a government must ensure that these basic rights are fulfilled. The Bush government's passivity regarding environmental issues actually expressed clearly that the government does not believe in the democratic set up of a nation. Though the Bush administration has claimed that they care for the people and about their rights, but it has actually paid the least importance to the basic requirement of the people and in this regard they have failed to fulfill their purpose as a governing body of a nation properly. Such observation further receives stronger foundation as we see that the government was a great supporter of capitalism. Now, capitalism is such an economic ideology that only concerns about assimilation of more capital in the hands of a group of people. Consequently, it introduces inequality in the society and violates the fundamental rights of the common people. Clear reflection of the approach has become clear as we see that the important issues like public health and general hygiene have been ignored. Though the rate of death due to environmental causes has increased in the U.S society but people the government has not adopted any prompt action to solve the situation. It is more striking to see that the government has not paid much attention to the fact of lose of human life and on the other hand it actually provided a great deal of time in order to defend its actions. Once we observe all these aspects, immediately we understand that Bush administration was more concerned about securing its position and monetary foundation first rather than providing proper protection to the general people against the onslaughts of the environmental crisis. In this context David Limbaugh in his book Bankrupt has observed that Kennedy is absolutely right as he has cited the elements of similarities between Bush governance and the tyrannical temptation of Hitler to rule over the whole world. (Limbaugh, 246) ''''''In the conclusion it can be said that the support of the Bush government to the corporate people and supreme influence of the corporate leaders over the system of the governance of the nation actually imply that there has been a great devaluation in the field of moral values among the American people. Inclination of common people towards the glamour of the industry and inclination of the government towards is money can be specified as the corporate greed and corrosive effect of thi9s corporate greed is actually gnawing the whole society from inside. Spread of capitalist aggression in the only aim of the corporate sector and it has nothing to do with humane approaches. People must realize at the first place they must provide highest importance to the humane values and under no circumstances such approaches can be altered. Industrial progress and economic development both are very necessary for a nation but never at the cost of the lives of the citizens. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in his book, 'Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy' has attempted to deal with the whole situation from a humanistic ground as he believes that human lives are most important. Environmental problems are associated with the factor of existence of a human being. Thus, going beyond the limits of political and social trivialities, people must think in terms of humane aspects and ensure the triumph of life over hostile situations. ' ' ' Works Cited 1. Bell, Ryan and Linstroth, Tommy, Local Action: The New Paradigm in Climate Change Policy, UPNE, 2007 2. Kennedy, Jr., Robert, F., Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy, Harper-Collins Publishers Inc., 2004 3. Limbaugh, David, Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic Party, Regnery Publishing, 2007 Read More

 

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