I keep thinking to myself, "is this a dream?"
I keep thinking that I'm going to wake up in the morning, turn on the TV to some cable channel littered with Election '08 coverage and hear John McCain tell the entire country that his selection of Governor Sarah Palin was a big joke. A late April Fool's prank designed to distract the American people from the imporant issues. I keep thinking that he'll reveal the real choice and that person would be...Joe Lieberman? Or, maybe, Tom Ridge. Or, maybe, Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Someone to give members of the Christian right much deserved sleepless nights.
Sadly, though, I wake up and turn to my local station and find, yet more and more individuals obsessed with the repugnant Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.
Honestly, did anyone believe that Senator John McCain would conduct himself worthy of his status as a war hero?
No, of course not. John McCain is your typical Republican politician. And like all other typical Republican politicans before him, he has found a way to divert attention from the most pressing issues of the day by appealing to an electorate who feel that the best way to send a message to Washington is to stop the Liberal elites from perverting the United States with their culture.
Goddamn! It's such a brilliant move. But, it's also a recipe for disaster that effects all of us, including the ignorant and primitive that puts these men into office.
Don't underestimate Governor Palin.
Sure, she might be a religious nut, who wants to ban books, wants schools to teach creationism, kill polar bears, and doesn't know much about anything, let alone how to a state or a city, but she has one special talent.
The ability to rally anyone who feels that the "liberal elite" is the sole problem in this country.
Nevermind a President who took us into war under false pretenses.
Nevermind a President who has unbelivable disdain for the Constitution.
Nevermind a President who has yet to capture the individual who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Nevermind a President who sat by and watch as New Orleans washed away.
Nevermind....
Well, I could go on, but why bother. Anyone who immerses themselves in
critical thinking knows what the last 8 years has been like. And those people will not be stupid enough to vote Republican.
But those who follow the McCain-Palin ticket will.
Sad, but true.
The Republican National Convention was deviod of any ideas on how to fix this country, but it was sure filled with insults and resentment.
Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and the latest flavor of the month, Sarah Palin rallied their base to the tune of the same old song that has grown tiresome for years. Yet, the Right-Wing don't seem to be
bored with it at all.
This is what gets their juices flowing. Resentment.
Going back to 1968, Richard Nixon designed a playbook for Republican success for the next 40 years by appealing to the dark side of the American conscience. It revolved around cultural resentment. Anger over the changes that were happening around the country at that time. And like
members of the media today still scratching their heads over the Palin pick, people were confused over Nixon's selection of then Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew, but Nixon knew what the hell he was doing. Nixon found his soulmate. His attack dog. The human megaphone for the Silent Majority. And Agnew paid off very well. With his smug and racist statement of "If you've seen one city slum you've seen them all," he became a hero to those who blamed the decline of America on the leftists, and Hippies.
Rewind 40 years to the Republican National Convention and Richard Nixon still lives on.
Christ, who wrote Sarah Palin's attack on Obama's record as a Community
organizer? William Safire? Pat Buchanan? Jesus, I believe Spiro Agnew crawled from under his grave and spend that day writing Palin's speech. Because sure sounding like something Agnew would've spewed from his hateful mouth.
The odd thing that still puzzles me as that while members of the GOP fashion themselves as foot soldiers in Reagan's Revolution, their anger and resentment is more align to Nixon's revolution of 1968.
Hell, at least give old man Reagan some credit. He might've been a traitor (see Iran Contra) and a buffoon but least he projected an aura of optimism. The people I saw at the RNC were just hateful, resentful and just plain ignorant. It's as if they hated to be alive. Alive to see the humiliation that has befallen the GOP.
And sadly, ignorant always comes out on top. No matter how much you try to appeal to the goodness in every American, the ignorant voter will select a bastard. Someone who appeals to the werewolf inside all of us. Barack Obama has one thing: He's trying to create a new type of politics in this country. Yet, he has one disadvantage. He isn't doing everything and anything, including throwing in the kitchen sink or going for the "Tonya Harding" option to win the Presidency. Folks who are throwing their support behind McCain and Palin enjoy that shit. If you ain't trying, then you ain't worth the time.
The legacy of Richard Nixon still lives with all of us. No matter how much we enjoyed seeing his fall from grace, the fact that he developed a formula that has fractured the country is something to be disheartened by. The Culture Wars began under Nixon and until we remove that cancer from the body politic of this country, we will never get anything accomplished. We will still be fighting over cultural issues rather than economic issues like Health care and afforable aid for College.
Should McCain and Palin win on November 4 ( which is a possiblity that we don't relish) we know how it's going to end for those two.
The formula that Nixon-Agnew created gave them two victories but in the end nothing came good out of it. Agnew resigned the vice-presidency due to his indictment of bribery charges stemming from his time as Governor of Maryland and Nixon resigned the Presidency the next year. And of course the country remained divided than ever.
Nothing comes good out of appealing to the dark side of the American conscience. Mr. McCain has sold his soul to a bunch of wicked indivduals who want to send this country further down the toilet. To the dark ages! More war and more religious fundamentalism. By doing this, he has already sealed his fate. Obviously he would be a one-term President but knowing already that McCain and Palin clearly don't know about all the issues, or don't seem to care, it's quite certain that this tag team will be a colassial failure. Even more so than Bush. Furthermore, with no one on the horizon in the GOP, McCain and Palin might be the last bastions of hope for the Republican party.
Unless we stop them now.