And So It Begins

This is it:

Yes, it's true:

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said today she is retiring.

Well, everyone's making predictions. Here is mine:

It's all over the country. You can almost smell it. Coming off people like gas fumes. All it'd take is a match.

The story above -- Astro City's "Dark Age" -- is about an explosive conflict between the superhuman "freaks" (as well as those who believe in them) and the "normal" people who lose faith in them. The story ends with the match being thrown into the gas fumes -- the arrest of the world's most beloved hero for murder. "That's the match."

Justice O'Connor's retirement is ours. Liberal and "conservative" movements are ramping up -- the liberals trying to get Bush to not name a total wingnut, and the religious radicals trying to get a super-wingnut. As the most important swing vote on the bench, most recently highlighted by her split decisions on the church-state cases, the character of Bush's nominee will fundamentally shape the court's decisions for years to come.

Given W's history, I think it's safe to say that he'll go with the hyper-wingnut choice. With his poll numbers plummeting, his second-term agenda in tatters, the war in Iraq increasingly disastrous and Democrats more emboldened than they have been since 1994, he's going to want a victory. In his typical childish manner, he's going to want to "stick to his guns" and show everyone that he's still a "tough guy." I don't know if it'll result in real violence, but W has been steadily increasing the rift between the two sides, and this is his chance to sunder the nation entirely.

So much for the "uniter, not a divider" who was handed the most unifying moment in American history since Pearl Harbor. This is what he wants. This is what Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, and the entire corrupt, evil crowd wants. The real enemy was never bin Laden or even Hussein. It was us -- not just liberals, but the entire "reality-based community" that refused to accept their lies, their hegemony and their One True Way(tm).

I pray I'm wrong, but I doubt it. Unless a miracle happens, this is the end of the America that was, and the beginning of an all-out conflict to determine the future. Whether that future is the dominance of their Orwellian state dream, a renewed embrace of sanity and liberty, or a final sundering that began with an assault on a fort in 1861, remains to be seen.

Suffice to say I'm not hopeful.

(/) Roland X
"You have...forgotten something." --Kosh, Babylon 5