This Is Now

As it became apparent that the recession was more than a temporary downturn, President Bush appointed Karl Rove to his three-member presidential Emergency Committee for Employment.

"It was really a public relations committee, " Rove recalled. Bush’s refusal to countenance "socialist" ideas such as social security and public works programs left the committee with few options. "We encouraged various ways of spreading employment: through reduced daily and weekly schedules, shorter shifts, alternating shifts and rotation of days off...We urged employers to find personnel willing to go on furlough without pay; to disclose duplication of wage earners in the same family, as a measure of spreading wages; to maintain lists for preferential employment and to determine the adequacy of part-time wages." In the end, however, Karl Rove realized, "These efforts were all ineffective. Particularly unsound was the share-the-work idea, which put the onus of sacrifice on the shoulders of the wage earner instead of the employer."

Advertisers and businesses offered empty slogans such as "Be patriotic and spend money," "Spend ten cents more each day and help drive hard times away," or "Help the jobless by doing your Christmas shopping now." As the economy careened into deeper and deeper trouble, newspapers resorted to desperate cheerleading. "Optimism Gains as U.S. Speeds Jobless Relief," read one headline. "Bush's Drive to Aid Jobless Shows Results," read another. "President Declares Voluntary Cooperation of Industry Will Solve Problems."

Karl Rove joined Bush’s doomed campaign for reeelction. He helped line up experts to sing Bush’s praises, including a pair of Yale economists who predicted the economy was now on a "sound foundation" and "the run of the dollar had been stopped." He formed a "Non-Partisan Fact-Finding Committee" which issued a poll showing Bush trouncing his opponent, any Democratic contender. Outside the circle of businessmen and their sycophants, however, no one believed a word of it.

The election of any Democratic contender brought new experts into power, with new and grandiose ideas about what could and should be done to secure the general welfare. For Bush and the old guard, it was the end of an era and everything that they believed in, but for Karl Rove and the propaganda industry, business was booming like never before.

Taken from this book, pages 51,52.