Going Down with the Ship of State
Sat Mar 03, 2007 at 12:05:29 AM PDT
There are two ways to influence decisions, right? Besides giving advice... The carrot and the stick. Our government needs to use both here and abroad to further our goals and purposes. The problem is that Bush and Cheney are currently wrecking our capabilities in both areas. We have a budget and a military that are in a two-way stampede to being way, way waaaayyyyyy overextended.
Before you wrinkle your brow and say, "Yeah, duh!" consider this: rather than collateral damage, this may be the intentional process of the Bush White House. What, after all, would further the Neoconservative dream further than a broken, drifting Washington, DC in the midst of an increasingly hostile world... with the citizens willing to sign our tax paying souls over in blood to any major corporation willing to rake us over the coals. We're all so on-the-ropes from the difficulties of the past 6 years it's been impossible to muster the focus to stop the hemmorhaging, especially since its principal architects are committed to it, with all the powers of the Executive Branch behind them.
Forget drowning the government in the bathtub when they're done with it. It'll probably commit suicide in its own tears.
Speaking of drowning, remember Rush Limbaugh choking on his own vomit after the last election cycle? It was quite instructive to see the most avid mouthpiece of the Republican agenda admit to the sheer mental fatigue caused by constantly swallowing and regurgitating the party line, like a macabre sideshow bulemic. Most of the right-wing pundi-puppets don't quite know what to make of the "Full speed ahead" approach, so they've chained themselves to the mast and are shrieking shriller and shriller epithets at anyone who disagrees with them. Remember the choruses of "we should have known betters" that followed the total absence of WMD's in Iraq? Maybe the MSM isn't discussing the White House's obvious egregious abuses of power because they've been taught to sit on their hands like little schoolkids. Not joining in the Hallelujia Chorus isn't journalism, it's perverse, almost laughable.
As we lose the ability to run this country effectively, I believe we are heading into a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. The crises we face will justify further extension of our military, either in existing theaters or elsewhere, which will necessitate greater debt. The obvious distaste of pursuing alternate diplomatic solutions combined with the impenetrable revenue models the White House favors will inevitably reinforce this ball of tangled rhetoric as it mows its way through the nation's collective psyche.
And I think that is what they really want. Classic sleight of hand. When the dust clears, we will have a new governmental model in place. Taxes will come from the workers, who will support the upper class in their ivory towers as they run the country. Those taxes will primarily flow to private companies contracted to do the government's business. The military will continue on its path to becoming a hybrid/cyborg of DoD and mercenary forces. And our citizens' belief in our government will have undergone a metamorphic process that is blending cynicism and distrust into our very fiber in a way Nixon couldn't even imagine.
Bush and Cheney and Co. have already shown that they have no intention of allowing anyone else help chart a course for our country. Nor will they let anyone peek at their plans, or know who they talk to, or what they discuss, or even hang onto a shred of decency for being a lowly congressperson, reporter, or God help you, a citizen or resident. Many wild rumors have swirled, alleging the White House has an apocalyptic agenda, or that it is merely the front for a bargain-basement corporate invitation-only clearing house. If you merge the two concepts, the two blurry images slide together and form the clear picture of... Piratical psychopaths who are steering this country on the rocks in order to throw the world's biggest salvage sale. The Neocons don't like government. They don't like large amounts of cash that they can't grab, they don't like people making important decisions that they can't countermand, they don't like resources they can't just walk right in and take, and they don't like answering to anybody, much less the great and varied community of American voters. This government of ours is a strong and durable instrument crafted by generations of caring individuals for the benefit of all. This administration wants to break open our society's strongest defenses, like pushing Humpty Dumpty off a wall, so all the king's horses and men can get down on their knees and suck up his life's blood. Sounds gruesome, but with my semi-dangerous job, there's a little bit of my blood (and a lot of sweat) on the tax money I send to Washington each year. And there are some who pay much more dearly. Maybe the neoconservatives believe they can damage the astonishing instrument that guides and protects us just enough that it all won't come crashing down on all of us. They may be right. But it's a mighty dangerous game they're at.
By the way, people have been fairly quick to grant Cheney fair reasons not to run for POTUS... He's too Machiavellian, He has a bad heart... (in several ways), he never even intended to run for veep, he's too grim faced...
Well maybe he'll just be done by 2008, and he can just sit back and enjoy the spoils of war. He's an effective guy, do you think 8 years doesn't give him enough time?
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