The country’s in a retro kind of mood. So forget about affordable health care, privacy and security – and get ready to party like it’s 1899.

Like many Americans, I was relieved to hear John Ashcroft proclaim that “the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved.” Let me be the first to congratulate the outgoing attorney general for winning the war on terror. That must be why the Transportation Security Authority is inviting airports to abandon the federal screening program that we put into place after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and go back to using the private security firms that worked so well for us three Septembers ago. One of the main reasons for the change: “Long lines,” airport PR flack Tara Hamilton said. Don’t tell Darryl Worley, but it looks like someone has forgotten already.

With 45 million Americans already uninsured, the Bush administration recently proposed eliminating the health care tax credit for employers. With no incentive to provide health care for their employees, what company is going to pay? It’s immoral to give the wealthy a tax cut and balance it on the backs of the poor. It is much more expensive for individuals to purchase individual plans than it is for a company to buy a group plan, but that’s good news for insurance providers. Of course, some people say health care is just another commodity to be purchased, like a DVD player or a Lincoln Navigator. The problem with that mindset is that it’s a demonstratable public good for every member of society to have access to cheap, quality health care. Fewer sick individuals means fewer missed work days, greater economic productivity and as a bonus, there’s less of a chance the guy in front of you in the restaurant line will give you TB. We tried the other approach before – it was called the 19th century and it wasn’t pretty.

Also on the chopping block are financial privacy protections. Richard Nixon was famous for using the IRS as a weapon to harass and terrorize his political enemies. Sensing the groovy retro mood of the nation, Republicans slipped a provision into a 3,000-page spending bill in the middle of the night last week that would allow Senate Committee Chairmen to have access to the tax returns of private individuals. Fortunately, the Democrats caught it before the vote.

I think it needs to be said that the small group of Republicans running roughshod over the laws and safeguards that we’ve put into place aren’t really Republicans at all – they’re anarchists in Republican clothing. Indeed, prominent conservative Jacobins are hailing these new policies as the vanguard of a new “conservative revolution,” if there can be such a thing. Can a political party have a revolution when they’re the ones who’ve been in power? As citizens of a country founded in rebellion, many Americans find the powerful symbolic language of revolution immensely appealing. Many people find meaning in identifying with causes greater than themselves. The revolutionary spirit is a healthy thing for democracy in general, but the members of the clique in control of our government are no revolutionaries.

They’re regressive.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.