It only takes one pebble to start a landslide

[Call me Deacon Blues]

I used to think of Karl Rove as some kind of evil, Machiavellian genius, sitting up in his West Wing office, plotting the next move in his plan to destroy everything that’s right and good in America. While I have no doubt that the man is evil, the Fat Bastard (see Austin Powers) and the rest of the Republican Party is backing a man and an agenda that is inherently unstable; after almost five years of enduring their smug, sanctimonious lecturing about the splinter in my eye while ignoring the 2x4 in theirs, the wheels are finally starting to come off the right-wing express.



That it’s taken this long I chalk up to two factors: first, the catastrophe of 9/11 gave wings to an administration that was already showing its fecklessness – think about it; when the planes hit the twin towers, George W. Bush had been on vacation for about 40% of the time, his administration was dull and getting duller, and the leader of the free world had been reduced to photo ops reading “My Pet Goat” to a bunch of kindergarteners. Post 9/11, we rallied around the President; that’s what Americans do in time of crisis – we forget our differences and pull together. Unfortunately, we underestimated the depths of Bush’s and the Republican Party’s hypocrisy, to our and the world’s everlasting regret; no patriotic American would take such a terrible tragedy and us it for their own political game, would they?

Of course they would, deceit is their nature. They may accuse us progressives of being hand wringing apologists, and to some extent it’s true, but that’s because we’ve always been people of compassion; sometimes people will take advantage of the most sincere helping hand. The Radical Right, on the other hand, have no compassion whatsoever; they are, after all, the party of the individual – rooted more in Malthus than Keynes or Smith, so in their minds, the ends justify the means. Using the deaths of thousand to advance their goals doesn’t even raise a twitch in their conscious; they’re still doing it – just look at the latest death toll in Iraq. They would have no regrets about starting a war with Syria or Iran in order to stay in power than you or I would have about squashing a mosquito.

The other factor in the resilience of an obviously immoral and incompetent Presidency is the Press. We of the progressive Blogosphere know what’s really going on the world (so do the Freepers – they either ignore it or rationalize it to their liking), but the average Joe has no clue. If the media was other than the gutless cowards and incompetent hacks that they are, if they had any spine or ethics, they would have shone the light of truth and sent the cockroaches in the White House scurrying years ago. As it is, they exist mainly to profit their corporate masters and do the bidding of those in power; they should be exposing treason, not expediting it. Personally, I hope Judith Miller rots in jail.



So now we come to tonight’s big event. George W. Bush will stride to the stage, all puffed up, probably wearing some kind of uniform jacket. You see, he just wants to be one of the guys, never mind that when his time to be a man actually came, he opted out, preferring to get drunk in Alabama than risking his patrician neck in actual combat. He’ll get the predictable reaction from the troops that will almost certainly be sitting behind him; human cannon fodder as a backdrop, what a concept. As he reads his platitudinous speech – news flash folks, no new news – he’ll pause at every applause line, and of course the troops will cheer their commander-in-chief; they’re well trained. He’ll have that “shit-eatin’ grin” (as they say here down south), like a kid who’s so proud that he managed to make it through a day without pissing in his diaper – look mommy, I’m still dry!



But what if – what if, one of those brave soldiers didn’t applaud when he was supposed to? What if more than one of them didn’t applaud? What if they treated him with the disdain that you just know they hold for him in private? What if dozens of them began to “fake cough” (remember the scene in Animal House?), shouting “Bullshit!” and “Liar!” and “Chicken Shit!”? Can you imagine how this little man, this poseur, this sorry excuse for a president would crumble? On national television? His handlers would quickly rush him off, but the damage would have already been done, and there would be nothing that his lapdog media could do about it. They would be forced to show “The Bush Meltdown” over and over; O’Reilly would rave about the “Green Beret Traitors”, Savage would want them court-martialed, and Coulter would want them executed. The public would see through all of it, just like they’re beginning to see through George W. Bush and his propaganda machine. Just like they’re going to see through him tonight.



I can dream, I guess. I won’t be watching tonight, though. I’m going to my county Democratic Party meeting to be with some real patriots; I can’t wait.