Been thinking.
We've known for a long time that George Bush et al are not conservatives; at least, not in the pre-2000 senses of that word. We've known they were radicals since, if not before, their response to 9/11. They are definitely radicals.
Think about it. Under six long years of Bush we've seen:
* a
radical reorganization of the American security apparatus (DHS, DNI, stove-piping, NSA, god knows what else)
* a
radical increase in federal government power (PATRIOT Act)
* a
radical increase in military spending
* a
radical change in foreign policy (doctrine of pre-emption, Bolton, etc)
* a
radical change in the day-to-day operations of Congress
* a
radical shift in the Supreme Court
* a
radical increase in govt expenditures, couple with a radical decrease in tax revenues
* a
radical refusal to raise the minimum wage, even as congressional salaries rise, even as the shitty economy is kicking everyone's ass
* a
radical series of abrogations of the Bill of Rights ("free speech zones," anyone?)
* a
radical reversal of environmental policy
* a
radical change in governmental hiring practices (cf. Michael Brown)
* a
radical loathing of intellectuals, experts, scientists--people who could
prove them wrong
* a
radical change in the ballot boxes themselves (Diebold)
* a
radical shift in lobbying practices (K Street/Abramoff/Duke)
* a
radical change in America's image abroad, which until recently was a major part of America's diplomatic power
* a
radical change in education (NCLB)
* a
radical need for secrecy, and a
radical hatred of transparency
* a
radical embrace of torture, gulags, extraordinary rendition, and probably more stuff that will only be revealed 75 years from now
* and how about that
radical shift in gasoline prices?
I could go on, but why?
In short, 9/11 didn't change everything--Bush did.
Bush and his fucking cronies, despite their flag-waving, focus-group'd rhetoric, are counter-revolutionaries. They hate the Bill of Rights and everything it stands for. They hate the Constitution. They hate defenders of the Constitution. They hate anyone who won't nod vigorously at their asinine theories, and try to ruin anyone who even tries to present some sort of note of caution, let alone actually oppose them.
George Bush, and anyone who supports him, did not learn shit from the American Revolution. I say we toss em into Boston Harbor. The hell with them.
We will beat them at the polls, despite the red-faced spittle-flecked fascist pigs like John Gibson, or Bill Kristol, or Rush Limbaugh, or Mike Savage. We will beat them at the ballot box despite the useless, supposedly neutral/objective dunces at the networks who couldn't find their ass with both hands, a map, and a flashlight, continuing to spew bullshit about what drove the Ned Lamont campaign. (If I hear him referred to as "insurgent" one more time I'm throwing my fucking TV out the window.) The media is complicit, by not calling these people what they are: radicals. The media is complicit, by allowing a buffoon like Ann Coulter the imprimatur of reasonableness by virtue of appearing on a "respectable" or "objective" news program. The media is complicit by granting these people an uncritical platform from which they lecture Democrats, or even independents, on the need for civility, comity, bipartisanship, when out the other side of their mouth they scream and holler for MORE DEATH! Nuke Mecca! Blow up the New York Times! Invade Iran! Stamp out Islamofascism! Bush opponents are traitors for whom hanging is too good! So they should be civil at all costs!
We will beat these silly sons-of-bitches, because they are weak. They are cowardly. They give speeches to crowds of soldiers, who are not permitted to boo them off stage.
Hey Dick Cheney. I DARE YOU to give a speech in Central Park. No security cordon. Let the protestors in with their signs. Bring the biggest PA you can muster--you'll need a million watts to drown out the voices of the people you falsely claim to speak for. Come on Rumsfeld. Come on Georgey Porgey. Come on Condi. Come on Santorum, Frist, the lot of you. Get outside your fuckin' royal bubble and talk to the people in the street. Bubba Clinton did it--remember that picture of Monica hugging Bill? It was in the middle of a giant crowd of people. Remember the stories about Bill stopping the motorcade so he could hop out and shake hands? YOU CAN'T. Why? Cause people aren't stupid, and they hate you. They don't think of you as just another blow-dried, Armani-suited public figure. They hold you in utter contempt. Like Nixon. Or Buchanan. You have FUCKED UP everything you've touched, and YOU. WILL. PAY. FOR. EVERYTHING. at the polls.
For 9/11.
For Iraq.
For New Orleans.
For the great, on-going American Revolution (1776-present) that you despise.