No, not the song by Guns n' Roses."The Jungle" the book. It appears that the Bush administration
 wants to take us back to "the Good Old Days" of Upton Sinclair's masterpiece of American social
 commentary at the turn of the last century.
 
 If you're not familiar with "The Jungle," it's the story of an immigrant,  Jurgis Rudkus, and his family
 who come to the US for-you guessed it-a better life. While he didn't expect the streets to be paved in
 gold like the emigration posters said, he didn't expect the criminal unfairness he would encounter, either.
 
 The novel takes place in turn of the century Chicago, where Rudkus goes to work for a meat processing plant.
 He is worked like a wage slave, knee deep in animal blood. The conditions are filthy, dangerous, and when
 he injures himself he finds that he has lost his job. Of course, he has no medical insurance, and there is no
 such thing as social security, Medicaid, etc. He is absolutely destitute, and his life spirals downward
 in unimaginable ways.
 
 During that period, 1% of the people had 99% of the wealth. The Carnegies, Rockefellers, and others in the
 top 1% were making obscene profits-upwards of $100 million a month in today's dollars. They lived in castles,
 summered in Newport, and threw out more food daily than many families would eat in a week.  Meanwhile,
 Jugis Rudkus was taking lard sandwiches to work during, eating them halfway through his 12-hour shift.
 
 When we look at the policies and attitudes of the current Bush administration, we can see that this is where
 they want to take the country-to a time when 1% of the people have 99% of the wealth. Tax windfalls,
 corporate welfare, energy price-gouging.it all fits in the "policy" of the administration. What's amazing is the
 number of GOP voters-most of them two paychecks away from financial ruin-which think that the GOP
 represents them. It's either amazing naiveté, or the greatest propaganda job of all time. Either way, 50 million
 people last year believed that George W. Bush was the friend of the working class.
 
 At the turn of the century, it took a visionary Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, to break up the trusts and
 create more livable conditions and wages for workers. After four years of the current administration, it
 will be time for another Teddy Roosevelt. But don't look for him in the GOP.