Over the past couple of weeks I've managed to have a smile come to my face with some of the stories told about republicans and their antics out in the wide, wide world. We have managed to keep some scandals alive, showing the congress people and the regime and their hand in different pots, we have managed to find amusement in Dick Cheney nearly blowing someone's head off, and most of all, the poll numbers are now reflecting what should have been obvious to most people sometime three years ago or so. It's beginning to look really rough for this group of hooligans, but truth be told, we are in no position to feel smug.
Let us examine the situation as it stands now. The country is pretty pissed off at Bush and regime for the ports deal with Dubai; more details on the Abramoff scandal are coming out, making almost every high powered republican look suspiciously guilty by association; we have some satisfaction in naming Scooter Libby as one of many (someday to be named) conspirators against Valerie Plame; we have a scathing report out on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which makes DHS and FEMA look like a rerun of the Keystone Cops; and we have at least the makings of another 10 or more scandals country and world-wide that have further potential to make this presidency the most degraded, most guilty, most corrupt regime ever faced by the American people. Even Richard Nixon's scandals paled in comparison to some of the current affairs, and Iran-Contra now seems like something plotted by first-graders.
But let's face it, folks--if we think we're done, then we need to quit and never talk politics again. Because it's not over, nor are we even close to any sort of real victory.
It's 2006. This fall, we will be faced with the prospect that a newly elected congress will consist of more Democrats than Republicans. If this happens, yay. If this doesn't happen, we will likely wonder if we are truly out of step with the overall mood of our native country, or we will wonder how blind we really are. But the main thrust of the November elections lies in our own level of complacency: if we stop, even for a moment, from attacking this current regime on anything other than the facts, we will lose, and we will lose permanently.
The Republicans have managed, somehow, to keep their finger on the pulse of our country in a way that we can not or can't understand. They appeal to the people on an emotional level. They take chances that most of us think ludicrous, but which, by some small miracle, works for them. They manage to get deep into the heart of Americans, find their fears and mirror those fears right back to the people, enabling them to manipulate far better than Dr. Frankenstein ever did the Beast.
They did it with Bill Clinton, making a blowjob and single "lie" an impeachable offense. They made it out to appear that the man was a rapist or worse, and that having a sexual rendezvous in the white house was akin to Hitler exterminating the Jews. They did it to Al Gore, by making people think that he was too "brainy", too cerebral, too imposing. They made it seem that electing Gore was going to result in a country of uncaring zombies whose sole goal in life was to make sure that Jesus went unworshipped. They did it to John Kerry, by making his noble sacrifice in Vietnam look like a holiday for a rich man, who accumulated Purple Hearts through false pretenses. They made those who sat out the war--Cheney, Bush, Limbaugh--look positively patriotic by working "at home" to save their country. Yes, folks, Karl Rove is a spin genius, when he can take everything negative about republicans and turn them into stunning jewels of modesty and patriotism.
The Republican party is a unified one. Yes, they are vastly comprised of rich white men, but they are also comprised of scared or intolerant poor people, whose only fear is that someone lower on the social scale than they are will be given more than what they have. There are poor people who don't understand that their own choices are what keeps them poor, or ignorant, or undereducated. They don't realize that the Democrats are the party of inclusion, because they have been taught that Democrats are only out to make our country a "socialized" one, filled with communists, anti-gun protesters, powerful blacks or homosexuals, atheists, agnostics and feminazis. They have been grilled since their birth to believe that Democrats will take everything they own (regardless of how little that is) and give it to someone else. They have been initiated into a club of hatred which has never once failed to keep prejudice alive and well and living in the United States of America.
We are faced with situations far more grave than what we have previously imagined: that hatred and intolerance are currently part of the backbone of our country, and it will take a very long time before we can convince a lot of these people that we aren't the enemy!
It's why Pat Robertson can get away with whatever he wishes to say. It's why this regime has managed to push the edge of the envelope so far out that we are left reeling and confused. It's why a single, non-threatening lie brought impeachment, and scores of outright deceptions brought--nothing.
We also must understand that the nearly three years ahead of us are filled with a great deal of horror, regardless of what happens in November of this year. We seek impeachment of both the President and the Vice-President. Then......what? Do we really think our choices ahead are any better than these two? Here is the current list of successors to the white house in case we are "so lucky" to be able to get rid of Bush and Cheney:
This is a list of the current presidential line of succession, as specified by the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (3 U.S.C. § 19).
Dick Cheney, Vice President
J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives
Ted Stevens, President pro tempore of the Senate
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
John W. Snow, Secretary of the Treasury
Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General
Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior
Mike Johanns, Secretary of Agriculture
Carlos Gutierrez, Secretary of Commerce (ineligible due to birth outside U.S.)
Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor (ineligible due to birth outside U.S.)
Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Norman Y. Mineta, Secretary of Transportation
Samuel W. Bodman, Secretary of Energy
Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education
Jim Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs
This is courtesy of Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_succession_to_the_US_presidencySo....Dennis Hastert? Condi? Ted Stevens? No matter what we do, we're screwed.
I hesitate to say this, but while I know we are right, we must try to figure out what we need to do in order to keep our country intact, and if that means swallowing our truths and pride, than so be it. We have lined our government with crooks, liars and dirty souls, and we can blame no one nut ourselves for letting it come to this. Too often the quote: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” seems to apply--for if we continually spoke up from January, 2001 until now, perhaps we would have faced a less staggering task. The problem was that in those years immediately after the 2000 election, we found ourselves in the uncomfortable position of being silenced by many factors, including trying to be as unlike the Repubs as possible. This made us look weak, and our resolve to find common grounds was more powerful than our distrust of all things Republican. Once 9/11 came and left us in shock, we had no choice but to get behind the regime and stand together against terrorism. Too many events brought our brooding silence to a point where outright dissent was never going to happen. The people of our country were blackmailed emotionally into an untenuous state of confusion and extended fear. Like Pavlov's dogs, when the color turned red, we were scared. Like Pavlov's dogs, we exchanged our pride and honor for security and camaraderie.
So now, while it is tempting to want to point out how right we were--and still are, it is impossible for us to really do so. Because once we feed our sense of outrage, we are faced with far more grim alternatives, which will continue to exist for at least three more years--1055 days until another president can be inaugurated. There is no hope on the horizon that we can change things from the way they are. We must try to turn the negative connotations of being Democrats into positive ones before we can convince a large portion of our citizenship to become part of something resembling a more compassionate force; we must use emotion--as well as reason--to show people that we are not the enemy; we must show our people that the lies which got us to where we are today begin and end with the opposing party; but above all, we must make our country's citizens use self-examination as to why they feel the repubs are somehow better than we are. We must make them question their own levels of charity, of tolerance, of hatred and beliefs. If we can not do that, we are going nowhere. And while we might want to revel in the shining glow of truth and virtue, it isn't going to get other people to change or even get them to trust us any more than they already do--which is not at all.
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