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Clinton said it was the first time "the most conservative and ideological wing of the Republican Party had both the executive and the legislative branch." (Reuters) |
WASHINGTON — Former US President Bill Clinton has opened his salvoes at the "ideological and right-wing" policies of the Bush administration and the ruling Republican party, as a new poll put the Republican party's approval ratings are at an all-time low only three weeks ahead of mid-term congressional elections.
"Ideological, divisive, demonizing, distracting politics, they may be very good for an election, particularly when people feel unsettled and insecure, but they don't do much to advance the common good," Clinton said at Georgetown University on Wednesday, October 18, reported Reuters.
Clinton, who served as president from 1993 to 2001, said the growing strength in recent decades of the "ideological, right-wing" elements had been realized in Bush's administration and the Republican-led Congress.
"The ideological, right-wing element of the Republican Party has been building strength, partly in reaction to things that happened 40 years ago — Barry Goldwater's defeat, the excess of the '60s, Ronald Reagan's election," he stressed.
"But this is the first time when on a consistent basis the most conservative and ideological wing of the Republican Party had both the executive and the legislative branch," said Clinton.
"They believe the country is best served by the maximum concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the right people -- right in both senses."
Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright has recently scolded Bush for invoking religion into his foreign policies.
She said that the certainty of Bush’s beliefs is the problem because there is no alternative resolution in the time of crisis.
Evangelical Christians, the fastest-growing faith-based group in the US, are having a growing impact on America's political landscape.
Evangelicals, who are wedded with Republicans to a set of beliefs and share common grounds on issues like the Iraq war and revolutionary theory, played a pivotal role in tilting the scales in Bush's favor in the last presidential election.
"Common Good"
Clinton, whose wife former first lady and New York Democratic Sen. Hillary, is eyeing a 2008 White House run, pressed for a politics that respected differences and disagreements without condemnation.
"This sort of politics, striving for the common good, for me stands in stark contrast to both the political and governing philosophy of the leadership in Washington today and for the last six years," he regretted.
Clinton, whose presidency from 1993 to 2001 was marked by pitched battles with Republican congressional leaders, said there was nothing wrong with a hard-nosed fight over philosophy or issues.
"It's not that we want a bland, mushy meaningless politics. We like our debate," he said. "But we want it to be connected somehow to the real lives of real people."
Clinton has teamed recently with former Republican President George Bush, the current president's father, on relief efforts for victims of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
The former president also slammed the administration's drive of demonizing opponents.
"They favor unilateralism whenever possible and cooperation when it's unavoidable," he added.
Clinton asserted that the philosophy did not serve the country well.
"If you've got an ideology, you've already got your mind made up. You know all the answers and that makes evidence irrelevant and arguments a waste of time."
Plummeting Ratings
Less than three weeks ahead of the November elections, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed that the Republican party's approval ratings were at an all-time low, with approval of the Republican-led Congress at its lowest point in 14 years.
Forty-seven percent of people surveyed said that they were less in favor of keeping Republicans in control of Congress, compared to only 14 percent in favor of.
Asked who they planned to vote for in the congressional election, only 37 percent of those polled said Republicans and 52 percent said Democrats.
Only 16 percent of respondents approve the job Congress is doing, the lowest level since 1992.
Bush had a job approval rating of 38 percent, down 1 percentage from a previous NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll earlier this month.
The low ratings were blamed on the Iraq war and Bob Woodward's new book on the Bush administration's handling of the war as well as the recent sex scandal of Republican senator Mark Foley.
Democrats were taking the lead in opinion polls with their agenda "A New Direction for America."
The Democrats plan to overturn everything Bush and the Republicans have done since 2001, pushing for a phased withdrawal from Iraq.
On terror-combat, the Democrats press for rebuilding the country's state-of-the-art military and doubling the size of Special Forces to destroy Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
They also call for limiting the unprecedented investigative, prosecutorial and surveillance methods introduced by the Bush administration on claims of terror combat.
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