Up the Creek, But Will Anyone Care?
"Democracy is the theory that holds that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
- H. L.Mencken -
Indeed. I've always known full well that much of the rest of the country doesn't view the world the same way the urban pacific coast does. I've had my doubts about Kerry from the beginning, and often found myself shaking my head when I've listened to him speechify. Still, he's a thinker on a level George Bush can't concieve. He sees a wide world, not a tableau for the execution of the Monroe Doctrine worldwide. Indeed, we should be so lucky that a large version of the Monroe Doctrine would be all we see.
Given all that, I still don't understand how Bush managed it. In spite of getting us involved in a war that we have no clear way out of, he was elected. In spite of atrocious leadership involving refusing to admit mistakes and dodging responsibility whenever possible, blaming anyone else available (a habit which is found throughout his administration), and treating the world with an overarching arrogance, this amoral, ethically bereft worm got himself back into office. They said he did it on moral issues and the war on terror. Moral issues? Where is the American electorate coming from here? I can't figure it out. I wonder what it will take for people to elect at least a moderate republican to the White House. Will it be Iraq turning into an abattoir of nightmare proportions, the like of which we haven't even approached? Will it take a nucular exchange with North Korea? Will it take a $7 Trillion deficit? Will it take Appalachia turning to a chemical cesspool, acid rain falling in profusion, Wyoming disappearing for the sake of a couple of years worth of natural gas, and the view from Highway 1 being that of oil derricks as far as the eye can see? Will it take American POWs being routinely tortured with no hope of the protection of the Geneva Conevntion? Will it take America as a powerful force for good in the world gone south because of its own imperial hubris?
I am told that this is alarmist thinking, that its only four more years, and George will have to deal with his mess after all. Well, in the last four years his administration has succeeded in reversing much of the last thirty years of progress in environmental protection. He has squandered our money and turned much of the world against us, or at least pushed them away. Congress will be no help to anyone because moderation has disappeared there among the leadership of the majority party. We will have at least two more years, if not four, of democrats being locked out of committee meetings, then being handed bills with almost no time to digest them before the vote. We will have a Supreme Court that will simply do the bidding of the President. None of these people need to worry now. It's Four More Years and if you ain't with us, you're against us! Cultural divisions be damned, that kind of narrow thinking never did anyone any good beyond the next five minutes.
I'd like to be more diplomatic about this and be encouraged by the turnout and all that other crap, but I can't. I am deeply discouraged. We are in big fucking trouble now. We're gonna get it good and hard, right where it hurts in the solar plexus of our civil liberties, our finances, our environment, and our standing around the world. I hope there's something left four years from now that will be worth repairing. I hope my son has something worth growing up in.
My esteemed pal Hip Liz said it best when he wrote in reference to the republican ticket:
"...because they are all scum-sucking putrid bastards that should be boiled in oil."
- H. L.Mencken -
Indeed. I've always known full well that much of the rest of the country doesn't view the world the same way the urban pacific coast does. I've had my doubts about Kerry from the beginning, and often found myself shaking my head when I've listened to him speechify. Still, he's a thinker on a level George Bush can't concieve. He sees a wide world, not a tableau for the execution of the Monroe Doctrine worldwide. Indeed, we should be so lucky that a large version of the Monroe Doctrine would be all we see.
Given all that, I still don't understand how Bush managed it. In spite of getting us involved in a war that we have no clear way out of, he was elected. In spite of atrocious leadership involving refusing to admit mistakes and dodging responsibility whenever possible, blaming anyone else available (a habit which is found throughout his administration), and treating the world with an overarching arrogance, this amoral, ethically bereft worm got himself back into office. They said he did it on moral issues and the war on terror. Moral issues? Where is the American electorate coming from here? I can't figure it out. I wonder what it will take for people to elect at least a moderate republican to the White House. Will it be Iraq turning into an abattoir of nightmare proportions, the like of which we haven't even approached? Will it take a nucular exchange with North Korea? Will it take a $7 Trillion deficit? Will it take Appalachia turning to a chemical cesspool, acid rain falling in profusion, Wyoming disappearing for the sake of a couple of years worth of natural gas, and the view from Highway 1 being that of oil derricks as far as the eye can see? Will it take American POWs being routinely tortured with no hope of the protection of the Geneva Conevntion? Will it take America as a powerful force for good in the world gone south because of its own imperial hubris?
I am told that this is alarmist thinking, that its only four more years, and George will have to deal with his mess after all. Well, in the last four years his administration has succeeded in reversing much of the last thirty years of progress in environmental protection. He has squandered our money and turned much of the world against us, or at least pushed them away. Congress will be no help to anyone because moderation has disappeared there among the leadership of the majority party. We will have at least two more years, if not four, of democrats being locked out of committee meetings, then being handed bills with almost no time to digest them before the vote. We will have a Supreme Court that will simply do the bidding of the President. None of these people need to worry now. It's Four More Years and if you ain't with us, you're against us! Cultural divisions be damned, that kind of narrow thinking never did anyone any good beyond the next five minutes.
I'd like to be more diplomatic about this and be encouraged by the turnout and all that other crap, but I can't. I am deeply discouraged. We are in big fucking trouble now. We're gonna get it good and hard, right where it hurts in the solar plexus of our civil liberties, our finances, our environment, and our standing around the world. I hope there's something left four years from now that will be worth repairing. I hope my son has something worth growing up in.
My esteemed pal Hip Liz said it best when he wrote in reference to the republican ticket:
"...because they are all scum-sucking putrid bastards that should be boiled in oil."
posted by Harry at 9:34 AM
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