Ever since 1991, my three favorite words in the English language have been:  "Former Soviet Union."  I never got tired of hearing the exquisite poetry of those three words combined.  Today, however, there is an even more emotionally moving juxtaposition.  My three favorite words in the English language are now:  "Former President Clinton." 

 

The day after GW was inaugurated and the Clinton Nightmare was finally over, Rebel (yes, my wife's born real name is Rebel Holiday) and I had a Victory Inaugural Chile & Tequila Party at our Washington home.  Co-hosting it with us was California Congressista Dana Rohrabacher.  With excellent tequila (Tequila Nacional produced by my El Paso buddy Sean Henschel) the happy throng toasted GW and Ronald Reagan ("To their health, to their success, and to the confusion of their enemies - foreign and domestic!").  Then, with glasses raised high in relief and exhilaration, we bid  "Goodbye to White Trash in the White House."

 

Dana's assessment of the long Clinton Nightmare was both sobering and optimistic:  "For eight years, America had a traitor for a president.  How many other countries could have withstood that?  Our national security has been compromised in the extreme by a White House that would do anything to preserve its power, including the sale of secret military technology to the Chinese.  It will take all our efforts in Congress working with the Bush Administration to try and repair the damage.  But we will do it.  America has taken an incredible hit - morally, culturally, regarding our national security, and now we can see even economically - yet America remains strong enough and resilient enough to recover and triumph."

 

The task is indeed monumental.  Yet GW is putting in place a government of grown-ups that is capable of accomplishing it.  Here is a potpourri of what I think is coming:

 

* There are only three known clean-burning "super compliance" hyperlow-sulfur coal deposits in the world:  in an inaccessible and undeveloped region in Colombia, in the Grand Escalante-Staircase region in Utah, and in Indonesia owned by a fellow named James Riady.  The bribe Riady paid Clinton to declare a 1.7 million acre Grand Escalante-Staircase National Monument barring thereby exploitation of its 62 billion tons of hyperlow coal will be exposed.  There will be public outrage over Riady low-sulfur coal being shipped from Indonesia through the Panama Canal to fuel Florida power plants (such as 400,000 tons to Tampa Electric).  Interior Secretary Gail Norton will approve development of hyperlow-sulfur coal deposits in Utah.

 

* In 1988, the Supreme Court issued what is called the Beck Decision, stating that union members must give their written consent for their dues to be used for any purpose other than collective bargaining with their employer.  Neither the previous Bush Administration nor the Clinton Administration issued implementing regulations compelling labor unions to comply with the Beck ruling.  Labor Secretary Elaine Chao will, terming the regulations "Paycheck Protection."  There are some 16 million labor union members in the US who currently pay an average of $500 per year in dues to their respective unions.  Only about 20% of dues on average are used for collective bargaining purposes.  Implementing Beck can put the remaining 80% -- 6.4 billion dollars - back into workers' pockets.  This is 6.4 billion dollars that John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO will not have to buy politicians, buy elections, and try and elect Princess Hillary and a Democratic Congress in 2004.

 

* Attorney General John Ashcroft will discover a quick, immediate, and constitutionally bulletproof way to obliterate Roe v. Wade.  The strategy has been developed by the Freedom Research Foundation (of which yours truly is president).  Within 24 months, Roe v. Wade could be legal history, and the Supreme Court taught a severe lesson to never again invent a non-existent right in the "penumbra" of the Constitution.

 

* GW will develop a close working relationship with new Israel President Ariel Sharon.  GW will demand that Arafat and the PLA recognize not just publicly but in practice (such as in textbooks) the existence of Israel as a bona fide nation.  Secretary of State Colin Powell will commit a hitherto fore diplomatic blasphemy and not only talk about but demand movement towards Arab Democracy.  Further, if I were either Saddam Hussein, or one of the mullahs running Iran, I would be very nervous.  Lead poisoning administered by Iraqi and Iranian resistance movements is in their future. 

 

* Soviet - oh, excuse me - Russian President Putin will receive as much help from GW as California Governor Gray Davis, i.e., zippo.  Russia will be treated as the fourth-rate Third World power it truly is until and unless it stops trying to recreate the USSR.

 

* The Bush Administration will take the China threat seriously.  GW and Commerce Secretary Don Evans will promote China's WTO membership - and require them to adhere to its provisions.  US companies will not be discouraged from doing business in China - but don't expect Ex-Im Bank and taxpayer bailouts if they lose their shirts.  In addition to assessing Red China's greatly increased military preparedness and how best to protect Taiwan, what the White House will be most concerned about is the growing fragility of China.  My friend, military geostrategist Enders Wimbush, is giving briefings at the Pentagon on what he calls Fragile China.  For example, China is running out of water.  220 days out of 366 last year, the Yellow River never reached the sea.  Water riots are occurring in dozens of cities in the interior.  Much of what water remains is terribly polluted.  Air pollution in northern cities is by far the worst in the world.  There are upwards of 100 million homeless, 200 million unemployed. The banks are broke bailing out State-Owned Enterprises, and there is little hope of the quickly aging population ever getting pensions.  The list goes on and on.  How the Tienanmen Communists are going to hold onto power, and what they might do in desperation, will be the subject of many a meeting between GW, Powell, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

 

Above all, what we will see now in Washington is a new paradigm, a new behavioral tone, which could be called Class Not Trash.  My friend, psychologist Joel Wade, grew up in a racially diverse area.  He noticed more of a cultural difference within ethnic groups than between them.  Within whites, blacks, asians, and hispanics he saw basically two cultures:  a Responsibility Culture that valued what was earned -- earned income, earned respect, earned friendship - and used reason to make decisions;  and a Victim Culture that valued something for nothing, used coercion or fraud to get what they wanted, and emotion to make decisions.  The former is a culture of class, class not in terms of income or position but of behavior.  The latter is a culture of trash, or no class. 

 

The class/trash distinction thus cuts across races and makes race irrelevant in societal value judgments.  GW and Laura Bush have class, Bill and Hillary Clinton are white trash.  Colin Powell and Michael Jordan have class, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are black trash.  The cultural bottom line for America is that class is in, trash is out.  It will prove to be the greatest legacy of the George W. Bush Presidency.