Although Kerry seems to have got the better of Bush during the debates, there were few intellectual fireworks and even fewer shifts in public opinion. The three debates reminded me of the three Acts of
Waiting for Godot, the existentialist play by Samuel Beckett. The drama centers around the characters of Vladimir and Estragon and their desperate search for hope in a world that seems increasingly hopeless to them. Godot's main theme comes at the beginning of the play:
Estragon: Nothing to be done.
Vladimir: I'm beginning to come round to that opinion.
It seems that many former Bush supporters are also losing hope. Among the conservative groups that largely supported Bush over Gore in 2000 are the anarcho-capitalists, to use Noam Chomsky's term. Interestingly, this group may be headed towards a Kerry vote or, at least, an abstention during the 2004 elections.
The Bush Betrayal by James Bovard. The message: there's no hope under Bush.
Others agree, but for different reasons. Consider, for example, the Bush administration's use of faulty or misleading science, as documented in Science's Political Bulldog.
A recent article in Le Monde Diplomatique, What's The Matter With West Virginia?, shows that in West Virginia, despite Bush's tax gift to the wealthiest 1 percent, the poor and underprivileged still seem to favor him over Kerry. The message: there's no hope for Kerry.
Robert Sheer outlines the pitfalls of the "undecided" undecided vote in The Dangers of a "What the Heck Vote".
Don't say you weren't warned. Yes, you, that otherwise reasonable centrist voter who might be tempted to cast a "what the heck" vote for George W. Bush. Don't kid yourself that the Cheneys, Ashcrofts and Rumsfelds who molded Bush's thoughts will suddenly moderate their radical vision for remaking the world or dampen their attacks on our treasury and civil liberties. It won't happen: Reward their rampage of the last four years with a new mandate to rule and they will only be emboldened.
Perhaps Steve Young got it right after all. No matter how hopeless things seem, Bush comes up smelling like roses. Check out his tongue-in-cheek piece entitled THIS JUST IN...
Kerry Saves Busload of Blind Orphans...
Bush's Lead Widens!!!,
by Steve Young
Sept. 27, 2004 -- HOLLYWOOD (apj.us) -- In what seems like another in a string of bad luck moves by the hapless Democratic candidate during a standard mundane stump speech in Tuscaloosa, John Kerry shocked the napping crowd by jumping into raging Mississippi River flood waters to pull fifty-five blind orphans and all but one of their seeing-eye dogs out of their sinking buses.
In poll taken by Harris, Gallup and USA Today thirty-five seconds after the rescue, 62% of likely voters found that Kerry's heroism was "too showy."
Republicans were quick to jump on the incident.
"First he doesn't save a busload of blind orphans, then he does," drolled Vice President Dick Cheney. "This guy can't make up his mind."
"A hero?" asked House Majority leader Tom DeLay. "Ask the kid whose dog he chose to leave behind."
A FOX News Opinion Dynamics Poll revealed the 89% of their viewers believe that there was a direct link between blind orphans drowning and Kerry.
"Kerry's an opportunist," claimed a former blind orphan not on the bus. "He's probably planning to become a Supreme Court justice after he serves as president, and knew saving those kids would become a plus during confirmation."
One has to wonder whether this is the future:
Who could have imagined, at the turn of this century, how quickly and completely the American republic would collapse? Historically, the decline and fall of great empires normally takes place over decades, and in the case of Rome, over several centuries. The disintegration of the United States took place in just a few brief years.
While many Americans are convinced that John Kerry is Godot, in a race that by any logical standard should have catapulted Kerry to double digits by now, he still seems trapped in his own inconsistencies. At the Democratic National Convention Kerry told his audience that "hope is on the way". In the run up to the 2004 elections, in a country completely devoid of hope for many under George Bush, Kerry will have to pull off a hat trick to convince people that he is Godot and that "hope is on the way". As things stand, for many voters, the coming election -- like Waiting for Godot -- could end up as an exercise in futility.