It's probably not a good idea to begin a diary when one has a hangover on a Saturday morning. One tends to be a bit irritable and somewhat sarcastic.
I just finished reading other entries on DKOS and the theme that rankled me the most was this idea that McCain and Palin are now in the phase where the people they're truly trying to energize is their fabled "base".
Their side reacts in outrage if this bigoted and brain-dead group of idiots is in any way criticized by someone from the Obama campaign.
Well, this hungover elitist has had about enough of this "base" and below I'll detail an idea about where I think they should end up.
It's funny that you don't hear the Obama campaign wanting to tweak their strategy to appeal to only one demographic in this vast and diverse country. The message isn't aimed at just intellectuals, blue collar workers, minorities, gays, doctors, or lawyers. Their platform is designed to be good for American as a whole. If his programs work as designed, the entire country including the Republican base ends up better off. The country becomes less divided, more prosperous, safer in all aspects. We begin once again to care about each other as neighbors are supposed to do.
Obama's "base" is everyone and there's a place within that group for any American willing to give up just a little of their own single issue for the greater good of society. The Founders knew that we would sink or swim as a single entity, a union of divergent interests. Abraham Lincoln was willing to give up a piece of his soul and carry the weight of the blood spilled in the Civil War to keep that dream alive.
However, it's clear to me that the small percentage of Americans that McCain sees as his rabid core supporters will never embrace that sense of neighborhood. Theirs is an authoritarian viewpoint, an us against them, eye for an eye, fire and brimstone march toward the end of days.
I could hold out my typical glass-half-full attitude towards life and keep the belief that eventually these folks will evolve along with the rest of us and join us in the family of man but history simply doesn't bear this out. This same bunch aren't wired like most of us. When faced with clear scientific or historical evidence, when their lives become better as the political barometer shifts away from their narrow ideological viewpoint, when their side gets caught time after time in utter hypocrisy and cruelty, they just go on chanting their mantra of fear, war, and religious fundamentalism. It's almost as if hope and success bring out the worst in them.
They are our Taliban. They are the same group that, if they lived in the 1930's in Germany, would be celebrating the rise of Nazism and the denigration of a section of people blaming all the ills of their society on them.
It's interesting this morning that my revulsion of this group comes at a time when Sarah Palin will be given more positive attention than she deserves in her entire lifetime on SNL while her own authoritarian and fundamentalist past is being exposed more and more. Why there aren't riots in the street about her embrace of the Alaskan secessionist movement is beyond me.
Just maybe though we should look at these things together as my hungover mind has been doing and try to see some light at the end of the tunnel in the possibilities.
The Palins and a bunch of end-dayers in Alaska want to secede from the union. Maybe we should let them with one condition:
The Republican "Base" must go with them. Every single one of them and with them goes their guns, their wars, their hatred, their bigotry, their misogyny, their black and white thinking. They can have the oil and resources. They can level the wilderness there, kill every animal around them, pollute their rivers and streams, invoke their own brand of Sharia laws. They'll be on their own, free from rational governmental intervention, a Libertarian utopia. They'll also be on their own militarily. Every piece of American weaponry and detection device comes out of that land. They will be denied a place in NATO and can never have a voice on the U.N. Security Council. Hell, most of these idiots don't even recognize the U.N. anyway.
Sarah Palin can become their President although they'll probably go for more of a royalty scheme. Price Trip will be next in line. Todd can become the head of their version of the KGB.
Of course we'll lose something out of the exchange. Whatever oil and gas they produce we'll have to buy on the open market just like from any other volatile source. Heck, maybe that'll be just the impetus for us to truly find alternatives. We certainly wouldn't have that rabid voting bloc holding us back. We'll also lose the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness and I'm sure the localized environmental effects could be devastating. That's a terrible price to pay but it may be hugely offset by our country being able to be a strong voice again in the rest of the world for environmental concerns.
My guess is that within a decade pandemonium and collapse of society will sweep the Alaskan Republic or whatever it is they want to call their "Paradise". Theocracies always go bad and the quality of life deteriorates quickly. It certainly isn't a land though that could build itself into a military or economic powerhouse on its own so I'm fairly certain that it would never be a threat to our own country. The severe weather, remoteness, and lack of agriculture works against a place like that.
But something else just could occur. After living away from the the conveniences and community of our great country, a huge dose of buyer's remorse may set in among the inhabitants. As it becomes clear to them that the Rapture isn't going to suck them out of their frigid surroundings, as they realize that when they meet the new boss he's the same as the old boss (a nod to Pete Townshend), when they see their own sect of Christianity fall to the back of the list of power, when their roads and infrastructure fall apart around them, and as an oil-thirsty Russia starts playing hardball on their doorstep, just maybe the light will come on in many of them that they threw away much more than they bargained for.
Well the hangover's lessening and so is the possibility of this fantasy. Obviously, our country could never let Alaska secede nor could we force legitimate citizens out even if many are despicable people. What makes our country great is that we don't operate that way. People are allowed to be shallow, illiterate, and non-caring for their neighbors if they wish as long as they aren't breaking basic laws while they push their vile.
However, it doesn't mean they can't be marginalized and political power stripped from them. It doesn't mean we can't stand up to their bullying and that we must back down when they cry foul over our attempts to shine the light of truth on their hatred.
I still don't know how this election will turn out although I suspect the "throw the bums out" sentiment is strong enough this time to overcome the lies and cheating we're seeing. Regardless of the outcome though this is just the start. Even if the "base" must live amongst us, they must never again be allowed to have the influence we granted them during the past decade. Whenever they shout their insanity, Americans must stand up in huge numbers and put them back in their little bigoted corner to talk to themselves.