Bush Needs to Win
Sun Sep 19, 2004 at 10:16:27 AM PDT
Ok..don't lynch me.
I'm an avid Democrat and have been for 30 years. I fall more in the Kucinich camp than the Kerry camp. I've gotten behind Kerry giving LOTS of money to his campaign, MoveOn and Congressional campaigns.
But as I watch the polls, the electorate and the clowns called the media, I think I've decided that Bush really needs to win this election.
We seem to be a people who don't mobilize based on information. We seem to only really get our act together when there's pain...and lots of it.
Take note of the Vietnam controversy. As the mess in Vietnam turned into a painful American loss, the concensus in America finally, was that we had lost. There was a small minority of individuals with short memories who persisted in a belief that we "lost" only because "politicians" prevented the military from really fighting all out. Besides nuclear options, I've never been quite sure what that exactly meant...but that's their claim and they're sticking with it.
Today, those individuals, plus many more me-to's, have come out of the woodwork rewriting history as Iraq begins to look more and more like Vietnam. We could have won Vietnam, they scream, if we just had the "will". Iraq is their chance to prove the point and Bush is just the stupid stubborn asshole to carry it out.
This delusional state is now permeating the discussion of the Iraq war. Well, we've made some progress because at least we're calling Iraq a "war" instead of a police action. Thanks to administration ineptitude, we don't even have the cover of the U.N. in Iraq. But remember, it's tough to use logic about war because since 911 it's hip to be afraid...nevermind that you're much more likely to be killed in a homicide, most likely by a loved one (1 in 197) than a terrorist (1 in 88,000).
Next, let's turn to the fundamentalist movement in this country. Many have argued that America has lost it's moral soul and that we must be saved. The "Left Behind" (should be called "Right In Your Face") books are selling like hot cakes as the new chic trend is to be "saved". As these voices grow in political strength, their impact on our culture is as inevitable as hip huggers, tube tops and reality shows. People have always tried to find significance outside themselves and this is just another attempt at this. And like all such attempts, it's doomed to failure because the deficits are within. But that can't be discovered until, like most everything in America, these trends run to the ridiculous.
Finally, I want to take a quick gander at young "voters". I put that in quotes because they don't vote. Of course, they could. But they are so generally pampered and Speared that they just can't be bothered to take twenty minutes and go to the polls once every couple of years to express an opinion about how their world should be run. Thus, the decisions are left to the geezers (and the baby boom bulge going through the demographic snake is just growing) who are more comfortable with Lipitor and their investment accounts than hip-hop and hooking-up.
I could go on and on about the environment, global warming, petroleum, campaign finance reform, yaddayaddayadda....These are just three examples of current trends in our country. I'm beginning to think that these trends, as well as many other factors, may have to play out to extremes before these trends can be countered. And any liberal push-back just envigorates those pushing these trends. When deaths and failure in Iraq become so undeniable that someone listens to Sy Hersh....When religious fundamentalism is so cocky (using the term purposely) that the hypocrisy becomes absolutely ridiculous and undeniable to even a dunce....when the young are drafted and having to die for the President's "resolve"....then perhaps people will open their eyes. And a Kerry victory either postpones this inevitability, or it makes it possible to pin it on pointed headed liberals.
I've always contended that it's not the corporate media or lousy political leadership that has us in this fix. It's simply a lack of an alert, informed citizenship. Not that we don't have the capability. But you have to give a shit. And until things get bad enough....not...quite.... enough give a shit.
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