Let's assume, for the moment, that Ohio was stolen. (I do.) Let's even assume, for the moment, that after the mountain of Florida ballots are counted, Kerry closes significantly -- still losing, but making it a lot closer. (Obviously, if he wins Florida, everything changes.) Which would mean that Florida, too, was stolen...again.
This does not change the fact that it would take a lot of voter theft for the popular vote to go the other way. More than even I am willing to swallow. It was close, sure. It was a lot closer than George "Mandate" Bush wants to admit, and that's with the advantages of incumbency, war, a huge base of rabid religious fanatics, the Osama surprise, the most powerful spin machine the world has ever known, a compliant media, and enough lies to choke a horse.
He still won.
So America voted for pointless wars and tax cuts for the rich. It voted for gay bashing and Abu Ghraib. It voted for "moral values" when the President has shown all the morality of Machiavelli's Prince. It voted for incompetence in the war on terror and a smoothly-run war on the environment. It voted for crony capitalism and naked greed. It voted for temporary security over essential liberty and got neither. R.I.P. America, 1776 - 2004, it might seem at first glance.
Well, I won't deny it's bad. Our ability to fight back, barring a nightmare like civil war, is dependent on our ability to exercise our basic freedoms, an ability I am seriously dubious about. Nevertheless, there is reason to hope. (I wrote the linked article yesterday. What a difference a day makes.)
First of all, the greatest measure of triumphalism is coming from the theocons, those borderline-psychotics who claim to be the only true Christians while espousing the sort of beliefs that had their Savior throwing tables around in the temple. Let them. I was going to write an article on this, but the Kossacks did such a good job, why repeat the labor?
Reed, you see, wanted to not merely deliver the social conservatives' "values" votes this year, but to ensure that their pivotal role be made noted and respected -- broadcast and trumpeted, loudly and quite publicly. They didn't want to just win; they want credit and plaudits for scoring the decisive touchdown.They've been slow, steady and patient, but sooner or later, the would-be theocrats have to make their move. Though I was wrong on November 2nd, thinking Kerry had the election, it still seems to me that these madmen have finally taken one step too far. They want this election to be their victory, fine. Time to rub the neocons' noses in it. (Is that your daughter they want to burn at the stake, Mr. Cheney? Why, I believe it is.) Time to rub the tax hawks' noses in it. (So what do you do in your spare time, Mr. Norquist?) Time to rub, especially, the (Republican) libertarians' noses in it. They've bordered on irrelevancy in the Republican party for some time now, and they need to see the devil they've sold their souls to.
Awesome. The fact that this election - the first post-9/11 election, with a war in Iraq abroad and a changing economic situation at home - will be remembered by the we-need-it-simplified media as the "values" election, is Reed's great gift to us.
Another reason to hope is that Democrats, along with the rest of the left, is taking a long, deep look at this loss to determine what must be done next. The circular firing squad seems to have come and gone with lightning speed (though I must admit to some schadenfreude at the calls for the heads of Terry MacAuliffe and Bob Shrum) and a "reality-based" attitude prevails. My take: message, message, message. We need a coherent, simple pitch. I'll blog on this soon, since I'm pretty sure I have a winner on this. As a community, however, we have to ditch our fear of oversimplifying and KISS (keep it simple, silly).
Put the two together, and we can say "The Democratic party stands for (fill in the blank). The Republican party stands for theocracy. Which do you want?" Simplistic? Yes. We're talking about one wing of the Republican party, and even many of the religious conservatives are not the Christian equivalent of jihadists. Make them explain it. Make them get into details. Then we can get into serious dialogues and kill 'em with the truth.
The truth is, however overly distilled this formula may be, it is essentially accurate: the real leaders of the Republican Party are either radical religious crusaders themselves, or tremendously beholden to them.
This is a tremendous strength for them in one way, as it provides the party with a fanatically devoted grassroots base that will work its butt off for them. It is a weakness for them as well, however. The thing is, and yes I'm simplifying, there are two types of Bush voters: the ones who know exactly what they're voting for and the ones who don't have a clue.
Bush supporters were, almost across the board, less knowledgeable about their own candidate's stands than we were. In short, they had to lie occasionally and hide constantly to win. This is why Republicans like Bush, Delay, Santorum and their ilk have to fight their battles on the dubious ground of "values," translated as (their vision of) God, Guns, and (hating) Gays. They talk in code to reach their base without scaring away moderates -- and this time, it worked. If we can come up with as basic a formula to express our views, we win -- because all we have to do is get most people to understand what we stand for.
Which brings us back, for the moment, to our basic problem -- these lunatics control all the levers of government for now. The last thing they want us to do is get our message out. Which means we are all in a lot of trouble. It's going to be a long, hard fight. If we can get fair elections and make ourselves clear, however, I firmly believe we can win.
If I hear the echo of jackboots in the streets, yeah, I'm taking my family to Canada. Until then, roll up your sleeves, fellow freedom-lovers. It's going to be a long, hard, ugly fight. This election loss will haunt our country for a generation. Still, the reason our foes are so afraid is that they know time and history are against them. The world is becoming more progressive and tolerant, and those who need hate and fear know their time is almost up. This is their last chance to consolidate what power they have left, and they're grabbing it for all they're worth.
(/) Roland X
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." --Leia Organa, princess, Senator, rebel
No comments:
Post a Comment