Rules

I've thought a lot about the strain of Republicans that we oppose -- the Cheney/Rove axis that threatens both the systems and ideals that make up America. They play the rules like the worst sort of lawyers, bending them into pretzels when convenient and breaking them whenever they can get away with it, but holding their opponents to the most minute definitions whenever it can provide them an advantage. (See Clinton, William J.) And the basic definition of this sort of Republican is simple. For them, there are no rules.

To be sure, there are guidelines. Win at all costs. Never let the marks see past your image. Spin can beat any truth if you're shameless enough and persistent enough. No slander is too foul, as long as it works. (See Kerry, John F.) Loyalty is the only important trait for office holders. Hypocrisy is a virtue. "Orwellian" is an ideal, not an insult. And finally, if you do lose, never admit you lost, pretend it never happened, and immediately go back on the attack, preferably on another flank. When it comes to the "lost" issue, there's always tomorrow.

It's easy -- too easy -- to give in to anger or despair when faced with this sort of villainy. It's like being ruled by the Legion of Doom (but I'll get to that in another post :-). They must be stopped. They must be beaten. They must be driven from power, discredited, and the memory of their administration recorded solely as a lesson for future generations of the ways evil can hide behind an innocuous face.

Yet we must adhere to a higher standard than the pseudo-cons. Most of us disagree with their actual ideology, true, but that's not what makes them so poisonous. It's their lies, incompetence, cronyism, and worst of all, their sheer willingness to turn American against American. Nothing is too low for them if Rove can use it to squeeze a few more votes out, whether in the House of Representatives or among regular people.

They used the attacks on September 11, 2001 -- the single most unifying event in American history since Pearl Harbor, its one silver lining -- and used it to club their political rivals over the head. They started an unnecessary war for a variety of reasons, but one of them was for the exact same purpose. And now, with an entire city under water and massive amounts of the deepest of red states left in disarray thanks almost entirely to their incompetence in the one area they claimed as their sole bailiwick, they decry the "blame game" while playing it for all they're worth.

J'accuse!

It is our duty as Americans to cry out at this injustice. We must speak out, resist to the best of our ability, this obscenity. I firmly believe it makes the most sense, strategically and morally, to proclaim their mendacity, greed and heartlessness at every opportunity. Find decent people and run them against the vermin that walk like men (See Hackett, Paul). Decent Republicans, I'm looking at you, too -- Democrats of conscience are working to take back our party, and yours is in greater need of you.

What we cannot, must not do, however, is allow ourselves to stoop to their level. Will it make any real difference if liberals or moderates return to power if back room deals and political payback define our governance? What good will restoring balance to government finances if health care and welfare become Democrats' ways of rewarding our friends and punishing our enemies? It may be possible to bring down Bush with a lie, or an irrelevance (yeah, the bathroom note is fun, but can you imagine impeaching him over it, even if he were to lie to Congress about it?), but what would that turn us into?

The subtitle of this blog is "proud supporter of the reality-based community" because I believe that reality is far more malleable than most believe. (I find it most ironic that the "Vulcans" of the modern Republican party have done more to undermine the concept with their hubris than the flakiest New Ager ever could.) I've seen/read The Matrix, What the Bleep Do We Know, Stranger in a Strange Land, and a variety of books on the implications of quantum physics to what we think of as a hard and unyielding universe. As a result, I have a healthy respect for those who see rules with a skeptical eye, and those who break them with style can be quite noble. After all, I look forward to a day when humanity can twist the 'rules' of reality itself into proverbial knots, making of it what we will -- who am I to denigrate the honorable rogues among us?

The thing is, honor is the key. Even if we overturn every law of physics and make a game of existence itself, there must still be some codified limits to behavior for people to get along together. If anything, rules of honor and decency are far more important than mere laws, whether of government or physics. These are the rules for which the Rovians have so much contempt, and the ones we must hold on to in spite of their outrageous flaunting of them if our victory is to mean anything.
--
(/) Roland X
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fail. Think of it...always." -- Gandhi