Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiRepublicans are going down.
Let me say that again ('cause it feels so good): Republicans are going down. Hard.
A tsunami this way cometh, and it's got GOP loaded in its GPS.
Apart from the fact that the Democrats are about to nominate a black candidate in a still racist white country, there could hardly be a more perfect storm of Republican-focused discontent imaginable in 2008. And Obama's color may actually turn out to be a neutral factor, or even a net gain. African Americans are going to come out in droves to vote for him, possibly even putting certain Jim Crow states, such as North Carolina, into play for the Democrats for the first time since the civil rights movement. Moreover, young people are going to turn out and vote in huge numbers this year, and it won't be John McCain who is the glimmer in their eyes. And then there are the angry people -- which is just about all of the rest of us -- who are going to be voting in big numbers as well. They may not necessarily be voting for Obama, but they will be gleefully voting against anything on the ballot stupid enough to have an R after its name (and there will be one helluva lot less of those, by the way, in 2010 than in 2008).
This is the year in which Republicans are going to come to join the rest of us in their levels of affection for George W. Bush. They are the only constituency whom he hasn't yet taken over a cliff, but that will change on November 4th. Bush won't be on the ballot. He will be the ballot. Every angry American (hey, only a record-breaking 82 percent of us think the country's on the wrong track) will be thinking about how much gas costs, about how their expenses are going up, their income is stuck in neutral and their job is headed for India. They'll be thinking about two wars turned into twin debacles, and the lies associated with them. They'll be thinking about the dead bodies, the stink of torture, the tortured reputation of their country, and the people who made all of that possible. They'll be thinking about the mountain of national debt their kids are gonna have to pay back, plus interest, so that the fantastically wealthy in this country could matriculate into becoming obscenely wealthy. They'll be thinking about environmental destruction. They'll be thinking about arrogance and incompetence and corruption. They're gonna want somebody to pay, and -- worst of all for the party of Rove and Cheney and Bush -- they're not really afraid anymore.
As if things weren't bad enough for the GOP we got a glimpse of their coming horror show on the Tuesday night of the last primary. Could there possibly have been a greater contrast between the prime-time performances of Barack Obama and John McCain? There was Obama, every inch the eloquent statesman, the perfect fit for the crises of his time. And there was McCain, more wooden than a cigar store Indian, less authentic than a sit-com laugh track, unable to even read a speech without sounding like a shrill robot with serious software glitches. Oh, Baby. That's what I'm talkin' about. Bring. It. On.
Forget what the polls are now saying about the closeness of the race. Obama is going to clean McCain's clock, both in the electoral and popular votes. The guy is finished, and I couldn't be happier that it is George W. Bush who is taking him down a second time, and destroying forever his life's aspiration. After what Bush and Rove did to him in 2000, McCain should have left the GOP, dragging his dignity along behind him. That he stayed, and that he then participated in the nightmare for democracy that was the Republican convention of 2004, going to bat for a punk like Bush and dissing Michael Moore over a movie McCain hadn't even bothered to watch, sealed his fate forever. Mr. Maverick laid down with the nastiest dogs this side of 1930s Berlin, and it is only right and proper that he will be buried choking in fleas.
Another of the wonderful ironies of the Great GOP Implosion of 2008 is that in so many ways, they were victims of their own success. These guys don't know anything about how to govern, and they couldn't be less interested. Remember that old expression about New Dealers who came to Washington to do good, and also wound up doing well? Well, these guys came to rape, and also wound up pillaging. Nobody in America outside of Greenwich, Connecticut or Orange County, California has any interest in having that kind of government. We've seen it in Zimbabwe, and it isn't pretty. Which is why it was always amazing that these gluttons could keep winning elections. But that's where they were so good. Nobody can do marketing miracles like the GOP. Historians will have so much to say about our time, decades and centuries from now, but surely they will be most stunned by the simple fact alone that a thing like George W. Bush could have twice been propelled into the White House, out of 300 million possible choices. That's the power of quality marketing, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Anyhow, November 4th is going to be a serious party in a whole lot of households across the entire planet, but November 5th is in many ways going to be even more amusing. For, along with getting clobbered in the race for the White House, the Republicans are going to get smashed all across the ballot, from the US Senate all the way down to local dogcatcher races. They are going to be shell-shocked zombies. The walking wounded. Poster-children for PTSD. And, they are neither going to know what to do about it, nor will they have any particularly attractive options from which to choose.
Many Republicans are going to quit the party in the weeks and months following. For those who remain, these will be really dark days. I see four possible futures for the GOP after November 4th, when 1932 comes round again in 2008.
Many of the looniest of the regressive right will insist that their problem was that they simply weren't conservative enough! The rest of us here in the reality-based world should cross every finger, toe and any other bodily appendage we can, in the hopes that these folks win the fratricidal war inside the party. Yeah, man, that's what America wants! Not less of the thirteenth century, but more! More war! More bankruptcy! More lies! More recession! More deficits! More economic predation! More environmental destruction! More trashing of the national reputation! More Constitution shredding! More democracy debasing! More corruption! More sexism, racism, xenophobia and homophobia! More polarization and rancor in our politics! More imperial presidency accountable to no one! More drowned cities! More incompetence! More Bushes! (Yo, Jeb -- what up, dude?) Of course! What could Republicans ever have been thinking? The problem with conservatives is that they didn't realize until too late that America is actually more conservative than Bush, Scalia, DeLay and the rest.
Ha-ha, right? But this is actually precisely the thinking of many of the party's true believers. America is angry at us because we didn't cut spending on popular programs like Medicare and thereby diluted the Republican "brand." I'm not kidding. This is actually the dominant line inside the party now, as they begin already to scramble ahead of the earthquake they know is coming. And why not? What else are they going to do? Are they going to say, "We're getting clobbered by furious voters because we were flat-out wrong on everything imaginable"? Not many of them are existentially brave enough to admit to that, and the rest of us should be thankful for that fact. For the longer that this is the prevailing wisdom inside the party, the better its chances for long-term irrelevance, or perhaps something even more deserving and delightful. If the GOP hard-liners move the party further to the right, one quite conceivable future is that it will go the way of the Federalists or the Whigs and disappear, spending eternity you-know-where, sipping some very, very hot tea with Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet and a host of other nice folks.
A second possibility, if the hardliners win the day, is that the party splits. No way are the Olympia Snowes or Arnold Schwarzeneggers of this world sticking around to test the theoretical question of how deeply despised one party can become. They know what comes next if they do. Can you say 'Lincoln Chaffee?' This would be a moment pregnant with the possibility of GOP 'moderates' calving off to form a center-right party, probably fiscally conservative and socially moderate -- the perfect match for a lot of self-centered Baby Boomers who want it all. No doubt certain DLC-type Democrats would be attracted to just such a party (Lieberman could run for president again!), perhaps even enough to join up. If it got some traction, we would enter a period in which America had three major parties from amongst which voters could choose. But the country's history, not to mention its winner-take-all, district (i.e., non-proportional) electoral system strongly suggests that such a condition would not long last. My guess, if we're not getting too far out in front of ourselves here, is that, of the two, it would be the right-wing, rump GOP that would ultimately perish under those conditions, though it is certainly no picnic launching a new major party in America. Last time that happened successfully was over 150 years ago.
The reason I suspect that the GOP might well tack to the right after its November spanking is because over there lies the party's fundamental raison d'être, and that has been the case for a generation now, ever since the Reaganoids finally succeeded in chasing out the Rockefellerites in the 1980s. This party is today nothing whatsoever other than a vehicle for corporate predation. It pretends to give a shit about abortion or affirmative action to get votes. It pretends to be pious to sucker preacher-programmed Jesus Freaks into voting for it. It pretends to care about national security because a good fright always comes in handy on election day (and also because there's loads of fat, no-bid contracts to be had from the corpulent military-industrial complex). In fact, though, it doesn't care about any of those things.
Indeed, in truth it is a misnomer to even consider the GOP to be American in any real sense of the normal meaning of that term. Ironically, the party of xenophobia and so-called national security has long been little more than a wholly-owned subsidiary of corporations whose locations and tentacles are completely global, and whose only real interest is in importing wealth to shareholders and management, while exporting risk elsewhere. If that means evaporating American jobs by the hundreds of thousands and sending them off to Mexico, China or India -- while getting a tax break for doing so -- so be it. Those folks in Beijing sure know how to crack the heads of union organizers hard, and how to keep wages soft. Not only that, but a little economic insecurity can have a very salubrious effect on those uppity American human resources -- er, employees -- as well. In a very real sense, the only allegiance to America that the owners of the GOP ever manifest is when the country takes on a two-dimensional, green form. Yeah, exactly. It's all about the Benjamins.
What that means is that a moderate, non-corporate GOP is of about as much use to the owners of the party as is sobriety to Britney Spears. Just as a sober Britney Spears is no Britney Spears at all, so a Republican Party that represents the interests of non-elite Americans is less than worthless to the über-wealthy who control the thing. What would be the point of that? Who cares about public service? The national interest? That's for chumps! Better to just get it over with and fold the thing up.
But the politicians are a different breed. With rare exception, any given Republican politician is simply practicing the world's oldest profession under separate cover. Which means they're no more attached to their professed ideology than a hooker is likely to fall in love with the fifteenth sweaty john of the night. They just want to win. A guy like Norm Coleman is an instructive example. When he was at Hofstra University, where I teach, in the late 1960s, he was a long-haired anti-war protestor. Then he cleaned up his act and became a moderate Democratic politician. Sensing the direction the wind was blowing, he switched parties to become a Republican and, horribly, now sits in Paul Wellstone's seat representing Minnesota in the Senate. Six years ago he was all right-wing when that crap was selling like hotcakes, but now he's furiously trying to move back to the center and win re-election in a centrist state. Al Franken is going to destroy him in November, and we'll probably be lucky enough not to hear much from this horrid thing again in the future, but don't be surprised if he becomes a Democrat again.
So, maybe the GOP politicians, as opposed to party's the corporate owners, decide to tack back to the center. After all, this is precisely what the party looked like as late as the 1970s. Back then, the center-right wing (which even included one or two real liberals) was by far and away the dominant tendency in the party, and the Goldwaterites of the far-right were considered to be the cranks that they truly were, about as welcome as a fart in church, but not nearly as funny. Of course, back in the 1970s, using the words 'Ronald Reagan' and 'president' in the same sentence could instantly earn any stand-up comedian howls of laughter. Those days are obviously gone, but they may not be so far from returning. Indeed, this is probably what the McCain candidacy now represents, though pre-November 4th he must still genuflect deeply in the direction of the rapacious right -- whether of the corporate, imperialist or religious stripe.
It is possible that the party could eak out an existence in this form over the coming awful times ahead, reconstituting itself back in its old, pre-Reagan form. The problem it will have, even if it can pull this off, is that it will carry lots of baggage. Obama is going to be a popular president, at least initially, and the anger for the GOP is not going anywhere fast. Moreover, he's smart enough to keep reminding people of the bad old days, and the Republicans are stupid enough to do the same, so the GOP is going to be drowning in roosting chickens for quite some time. Moreover, they will have the same problem in mirror image -- even assuming they can manage to go this route -- that Democrats have had these last decades. That is, the Republicans would likely become Democratic Lite, and why vote for that when you can get the real deal? All of which, of course, is predicated on the notion that the GOP can be unified, and can move from the far right to the center-right, marginalizing the storm trooper kooks of the former group. Good luck with that. Indeed, good luck even finding such moderate Republicans anymore around which to build a new (old) party.
The fourth, and I think most likely, scenario is that the GOP traverses the same path as did its brethren in the UK's Conservative Party. These nasty blokes followed Maggie Thatcher and her hapless semi-acolyte, John Major, first to popularity and then off the cliff into a decade of ridicule and bitter loathing from the British public. The Tories have essentially been completely floundering since 1997 (really, since 1990), dabbling in different policy gambits here and there, dumping leader after losing leader, right up to the present time.
The party hasn't really come together in all that time, nor is David Cameron, its present leader, any sort of amazing politician. I doubt that the British voting public can even identify much about what the Conservative Party stands for to this day. Except for one thing. Whatever they are, they are not the current Labour Party government. And that party, and that government, have become increasingly unpopular. Meanwhile, there sit the Conservatives, just hanging on the sidelines, winning public support simply by default. They're the party that isn't the Labour Party. And, according to the polls, they're vastly more popular now than Gordon Brown's Labour Party, which is essentially a hangover from the legacy of Tony Blair who got too smarmy and too Iraq-obsessed for most British voters, much like John Major inherited all the negativity and none of the charismatic excitement (for some people, at least) of Thatcher.
The America version of that scenario would look like this: Obama wins, he becomes a Tony Blair-type figure who combines (too) smooth rhetoric with a lack of real policy substance, along with perhaps a monumental screw-up the equivalent of Blair hitching his wagon to an imbecile like George W. Bush and his imperial adventure sold on lies. Or perhaps Obama's great, but his Democratic successor isn't, and ultimately there is a scandal or two. I don't think Obama will be a nothing-burger, and I don't think he would do something as stupid as Blair did. I do worry, though, that he might not be bold enough to address the multiple crises he will inherit.
In any case, two decades from now, the public could be in the same place the British were after eighteen years of Tory insanity. Or that American voters were after twenty years of Democratic rule ending with an unpopular Harry Truman presiding over an unpopular war in Korea. Meaning that Republicans, if they could hang on that long, could resurrect themselves at that point as simply the party that isn't the Democratic Party.
This is all very speculative, of course. But the point is to envision where the GOP might go from here, and what are the probabilities of any of these four scenarios.
My guess is that you can't bury these guys forever, and that, anyhow, the new Republican Party that emerges after their near-death experience in 2008 will be much more moderate than the crazed one of the Reagan-through-W era (and how could it not be?).
All of that would be a major improvement on the horror story we've all lived through these last decades, though of course, even better would be to slay the beast once and for all.
Meanwhile, whatever happens, progressives are about to live through the Woodstock of schadenfreude.
Enjoy the ride. Boy, have we ever earned it.
David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions to his articles (dmg@regressiveantidote.net), but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to respond. More of his work can be found at his website, www.regressiveantidote.net.
59 Comments so far
Show AllI have enjoyed Professor Green's articles in the past.... BUT.... they are way too long. I don't have time to read mini-books. I wish he could find a way to make his points in less print..
http://johnmcpain.blogspot.com
Good Read.Thx.
Here's my thought..
If either party was a fair and just party,they would welcome a third party.Why not?! What are they afraid of.?
There is merit to David Michael Green's piece.
The point is that the Republicans, traditionally the party of limited government and fiscal restraint, have jettisoned most of their principles as a short-term expedient to retaining and keeping power. They're so far out on a limb, there is a likelihood of the branch cracking and the party crashing to the ground. A number of years ago, the Progressive Conservatives in Canada shattered and were stunned when it happened.
Ross Perot in '92 had a chance to fashion a third-party along center-right principles. What he had to do was declare that he was against Affirmitive Action (to isolate the liberals in the Democratic Party) and was pro-choice (to isolate the conservative Christians in the Republican Party) and then pick off moderates in both sides with his economic program and begin building at the grass roots level. Mind you, I didn't vote for Perot -- I thought he was loony. I'm simply illustrating how it could have been done then.
A similar effort could be made now, though it would involve more steps, due to the complexity of the war. The added maneuver would require advocating a strong defense (of the borders and the constitution) while renouncing interventionist military action that led to Iraq. Tricky, yes, but it possibly could buy off enough on both sides to achieve a working coalition.
All that being said, the introduction of a third major party would introduce a new layer of chaos to the American political system. Prior to Clinton/Bush/Perot in 1992, the two most significant three-way races led to the elections of Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, both of which led to major upheavels.
rtdrury,
Sounds like a swell idea, however, you're assuming that the progressive leaning professionals are all high quality in their field. The dentist I work for is experienced, talented, knowledgible, ethical in the delivery of his work, practical and fair to his patients. That's why I am there. Personality wise, he can be a real pain in the butt sometimes. His superficiality doesn't allow him to see his own shortcomings as he criticizes others for the same traits. His wife is a "loose cannon" type and has him by the short hairs. They are quite a pair! But in 34 years of dental offices, they are not so unusual, just in the top 5% of the outrageous.
I have put myself in therapy twice, trying to figure myself and the world out. It was a lot of work, but I got to know myself pretty well. However, I am a bit of a neurotic, perhaps even because of the looking inside so much. Many have accused me of thinking too much....oh well....
I do get your point of preferring to spend money on goods and services with those who have a developed sense of stewardship of the earth, social justice, righting wrongs, protecting the public from all kinds of nefarious sorts and unsafe practices. God bless those that do this work.
It's going to take a whole lot of work and a long time to get the country back to any semblance of progress. I knew when GWBush was elected, we were going to loose 200 years of advances. I didn't realize how really awful and bad it was going to be.
mas1946, I'd like to see a directory of professional services (and business in general) provided by people with progressive political orientation. I would surely choose those to do business with when possible. Please build a directory ASAP. Thanks.
David Green is jumping way way ahead of himself without any thought to what might happen in the next few years.. or even in the "October surprise" as some of you have pointed out.
Arch Stanton June 14th, 2008 2:52 am
"Is or is not Barack Obama an imperialist"
Now that is the right question to ask. Look at where he grew up: Indonesia and Hawaii. The former received independence in 1945 I think. The latter is in many ways a Pacific colony of the United States. Hopefully he understands sovereignty and will be an anti-imperialist president. In addition, he grew up understanding what it meant to be black in different social contexts, so hopefully he will bring the viewpoint of the oppressed, the viewpoint of the subaltern to the White House. The key word of course is 'hope'... no way of knowing for sure...
excellent commentary by Prof. Green. I hope his vision comes to pass. However, I am concerned that bush and his coterie of criminals will somehow evade their deserved fate by attacking Iran and provoking retaliation that they can then use as justification to "suspend" the election. Bush/Cheney have committed so many crimes for which they could be prosecuted that they must fear that the sort of election tsunami Prof. Green envisions could give the dems sufficient majorities in both houses to actually prosecute them after they leave office, and the popular pressure to carry it out.
I have thought for some time that the only way that we could redeem ourselves in the eyes of the world for the crimes committed in our name by these bloodthirsty idiots would be to impeach them. I am in Indonesia now and have discovered that there is enthusiastic support for Obama, down to the level of peasant farmers. If we do have an election and Obama wins, at least our standing in the world will improve.
Hey Little Brother! Whenever I read your posts I wonder if your "handle" is in reference to Big Brother or to best pal of Viggo Mortensen? Or?
Thanks for the compliment. Please give me a list of your "benighted wingnuts." I always like what Gore Vidal has to say, but I think he is regarded by some as a bit of a wingnut, or maybe that's just eccentricity?
Anyway, see you around...Marianne
Well-written, mas1946!
Your description of "simplemindedness" isn't just limited to benighted wingnuts, alas! Stay tuned... 8)
Hi all,
This is the email comment I wrote to the author of this piece:
Damn good writing and many good, clear possibilities speculated in regards to the horrors of the last 2 decades also clearly described. You sound so positive about the coming trouncing of the Republican party. I wish I could share your POV on that.
I'm a career dental assistant in California and my employer is a staunch (rabid) Republican who is not at all shy about pontificating the various short sighted views of that party. It is plain that his superficial opinions are a result of a simplemindedness that is all too characteristic of a great many of our citizens,... who indeed vote. I often am embarrassed to hear him repeat such drivel to patients, who don't share his opinions and often look to me with bewilderment in their eyes. Simplemindedness is a blessing of sorts. It allows one to speak self righteously, as if one has all the right answers, therefore no more need of reading, searching for more information on a subject or problem. In his simplemindedness, he doesn't realize he's as screwed as the rest of us, even though he continues to think he is part of the "elites". It is both laughable and pathetic. His wife thinks George W. Bush is cute in a mischievous way. Horrifying!
My point is that there are many, many citizens that are of this ilk. Even though they have college educations, they are not able to think critically, nor wish to expend energy reading and researching the crises of our times and then doing something about correcting the problems or improving life in our USA. They wouldn't think of reading articles or opinions from another country. Why should they? Those people are not as good as we Americans. They blindly believe what they are told from our media, especially FOX news....end of story.
After what happened in the last two presidential elections, I cannot have faith that there will be a "great turnaround." It remains to be seen. I am one of those who thinks it's worse than we can even discern at this time. I am afraid of the Machiavellian moves being plotted at this very moment.
The creeps can't even be impeached, for chrissake! I want them criminally prosecuted and those that enabled them as accessories.
I do hope for the best, however. I think we've suffered unnecessarily for long enough.
I can't believe most of the above comments. George W. Bush is a certified sociopath and people are dubious of Barack Obama? Are you that inured to disappointment?
Arch Stanton: You asked "Is or is not Barack Obama an imperialist?"
After what the Bushies have done in Iraq and the alienation of countries worldwide, where do you get any inkling Obama would mean more of the same?
As for the rest of you skeptics, have the last seven years made you so shocked, so cowed, so bullied, so repulsed, so outraged and so numb that you're in a beatened, muddled torpor? Think. We can stop taking the soma pretty soon. It may not be perfect but come November we have a real chance for change. FOR THE BETTER!
I think what sealed McCain's fate is his endorsement of torture after spending six years or so in a POW camp himself. At least in my mind it did. He will obviously do or say anything to win what he should never have and that is the presidency of the United States. The man talks out of both sides of his face. He is indeed more of the same.
opeluboy June 13th, 2008 9:45 pm
"Green is overly optimistic about the imminent demise of the GOP, but hell, it was enjoyable just thinking about it."
Yeah, euphoric optimism! Let's try to hang on to it for a while longer....it feels so good!
Arch Stanton June 14th, 2008 2:52 am
A question for all you Obama lovers:
"Is or is not Barack Obama an imperialist"
No one knows exactly what Obama is yet. He hassn't answered any questions yet. So far he has used his training as an attorney to make people think he has answered a few,
If you analyse his speeches, especially his best, the great speech on race and it was a great speech, he didn't answer a single question. Not one.
It would be a huge mistake to "write off" the Republicans, they won't be leaving the scene anytime soon. Wishing for something isn't reality :)
There are 29 or 30 percent of the country that think Bush is doing just fine. McCain will get their vote. Probably 20-40 percent of white america will never vote for a mixed race person. It wasn't to long ago when Wallace ran as a third party candidate and got lots of votes. Some voters of his are still alive and stupid. McCain gets their votes. Some vote Republican on tax issues only.... you get my drift. McCain only needs a very small percentage of undecided to win. The large majority who are hurt by the regressive policies of the republicans have in the past not voted. Holding down the vote is part of the BUSH/Reagun/Rowe strategy. Only a record turnout will overcome the red base because they psychologically cannot vote any other way. See John deans books.
A question for all you Obama lovers:
Is or is not Barack Obama an imperialist?
good posts mostly as always and isn't this comment line the best thing goin? Gettin to know you folks a bit and seems almost cozy.....beats poker huh.
When the situation becomes hopeless, when the end is near, Then is When you stop and smell the flowers, hear the bees, breathe deep cause We Lived and Enjoyed and you gotta love it....Om Mani Padme Om.
Of course Green is crazed with optimism, but isn't that the best medicine?
It's good to dream, better to work. Work for impeachment now, vote in November.
I am proudly not going to vote! Voting only works when the system isn't broken. It's over folks put a fork in USA causes she's done! Maybe twenty years ago we could have saved her but she's a rotting hunk of cancerous flesh. Let her go to hell for what I care. Let another country take over because were going the way of Great Britain and none to soon!
Green is overly optimistic about the imminent demise of the GOP, but hell, it was enjoyable just thinking about it.
Proof positive of why MOST (and I do mean most as in more than 60%) of america is thoroughly numb and dumb may be found right on this site.
Many of the previous commentors should take the time to read (and then read between the lines) the following article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/13/9596/.
Fascism dies primarily by its own hand usually by over-reaching due simply to greed (and greed only survives through more greed and thus the greedy turn on themselves with each member knowing s/he will have to be the greediest in order to survive) which leads to abuse with the outcome of all out total abuse among the fascists themselves. Fascism can have only ONE top dog.
The author of this piece, David Michael Green, writes "Historians will have so much to say about our time, decades and centuries from now...".
As if !
Centuries ? Give me a fuckin' break.
Decades ? We wish.
Within a decade our spaceship will be a piece of dust in the cosmos. The "bread" is disappearing and the "circus" now includes every human bean.
american fascism took a brutal beating in 1934 and this will not be allowed to happen again. The scorched earth policies of times past will not hold an drop of water to our forthcoming shitstorm and for good measure our water will be so polluted that when used in an attempt to halt the flames it will brust into flames adding to our conflagration.
Read the following article {http://www.belacquajones.blogspot.com/2008/06/lead-us-o-leader-we-fall-as-you-fall.html} for another realistic view of our right around the corner future (in which any good idea and/or technical improvement [termed hope by those who believe in either some sort of dog or the "goodness" of humanity] will be abused and used as stepping stones to more opportunities to expand our greed.
All this in my lifetime. Am I pleased that procreation was not on my schedule ?
Thanks for making my golden years more exciting.
Oh, also, thanks for all the fish.
Don't forget that the ultra-rich don't lose, as long as the contest is fought using guns, lawyers, money, or votes.
From time to time, however, they do succumb to torches, pitchforks, and guillotines.
"Forget what the polls are now saying about the closeness of the race. Obama is going to clean McCain's clock, both in the electoral and popular votes."
Michael Moore told us that the polls were way off in 2004, and that Kerry was going to clean Bush's clock. Obama is not going to win without at least a respectable showing among blue-collar whites in the swing states and winning back the Clinton supporters who were alienated during the primaries. He has a good chance of winning, but he's got work to do.
"Indeed, in truth it is a misnomer to even consider the GOP to be American in any real sense of the normal meaning of that term."
"If the GOP hard-liners move the party further to the right, one quite conceivable future is that it will go the way of the Federalists or the Whigs and disappear, spending eternity you-know-where, sipping some very, very hot tea with Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet and a host of other nice folks."
"Mr. Maverick laid down with the nastiest dogs this side of 1930s Berlin, and it is only right and proper that he will be buried choking in fleas."
Wow. This stuff is just as shrill and nasty as what you hear from Rove and his buddies. This sounds more like lust for the power that the Republicans have rather than a desire to bring a progressive agenda to our country.
In January I started calling for a united Democratic party. If Hillary had withdrawn then, because she wanted to (and became a hero), instead on now, because she had to (and became a zero), there wouldn't be those still-mad Hillary people that Daniel David mentioned. The Dimocrats wouldn't have wasted 5 months of America's precious time attacking each other. The avalanche of change would be 5 months further along.
-end of rant-
Give Mr. Green some credit, he's trying to be the change. If the mind-set of America becomes the drowning of the Rethuglican party in November then any chances of them cheating their way to victory becomes less likely.
He neglects, though, that many Republicans (and others) put the blame for problems on the Dimocrat-led (now there's an oxymoron) Congress.
Don't give the Dims a free ride. It's time to Sweep out the House, starting with Nancy Pelosi. Support Cindy Sheehan.
A few Independents in Congress could have power beyond mere numbers.
Exactly. This election will be no different than any other since I first started voting in 1972. The candidate of the Corporate Party is going to win. The two party system and their elections are the reality show for the masses. Voting for the Democratic or Republican wing of the Corporate Party guarantees that the Corporate candidate wins. When will they ever learn?
Blah . . . Blah . . . . Blah
He forgot the only scenario that might work.
Voting other than a Democrat or Republican.
You start with real change by changing the one thing that you can change. Then the rest will follow. Voting the lesser of two evils . . . Yes I mean Obama or McCain, will only keep Washington DC in the grip of the corporations and moneyed interests.
If you doubt me than how else can you explain the money that has been spent on just the primaries.
The money trail folks follow the money trail and I'll show you a true politician . . . .
This fantasy is for those that still allow the Washington Politicians to tell them what they want to hear. They will say anything but do what they are told by the monied interests.
That is reality . . . .
The key to this whole scenario is whether Obama can win by margins large enough that even major voter suppression and Diebold sleight of hand still make the election impossible to steal. Personally, I agree with Green's assessment that when the fall 2008 campaign becomes a one-on-one horse race (just envision an Obama/McCain debate!), Barack's stock will soar while the GOP brand plummets, even as the GOP smear machine runs full blast.
If it looks like it's going to be a Dem blow out, that's when the risk of another October surprise - a US attack on Iran, or another 911 style terrorist incident on American soil - will be the greatest.
But let's concentrate first on the political events that we can influence, not on doomsday fears largely beyond our immediate control.
It's the war, and the wartime economy, stupid.
Bill from Saginaw
Mr Green's surname must have gone to his head.
His hyper mania is the same perfumed vomit the congressional Democraps started regurgitating after the 2006 elections, when they needed an excuse for not using their newgained power to begin challenging the Bush/ neocon agenda.
For 2 years I've listened to Democrap insiders tell me to 'be patient' about impeachment and war funding and a host of other issues --
'...because reform' is coming in 2008' --- when according to these same Democrap insiders, national elections will 'gut the reactionary power base in America like nothing you've ever seen...'
But who with half a brain can believe this bullroar when neither Obama or congressional candidates are campaigning on deep reforms issues and, to boot, polls show almost half the country's voters still favoring McBush?
Just so nobody calls me a cynic -- ya, I'm hoping the Big Wash will happen and I'm doing what I can, offline, to work in a positive spirit.
But also, just so nobody calls me a deluded fool: do I think it'll really happen? No, I don't. Because there's no real groundwork being laid to make it happen.
If the Republican media could manage to pick the Democratic "front runners" for us, as they figured those two would be sure to give them the most advantage, it may well be that they can take yet another election. Repugs are very good at getting their way, by any means possible, so we better not take a Democratic victory for granted.
America's problems go far beyond Obama and McCain, Liberal and Conservative, or Republican and Democratic. That's why the outcome of the upcoming election is less important than it might otherwise seem.
Don't get me wrong, I will rejoice to see the Dems take the White House and both houses of Congress (hopefully with very progressive office holders and veto-proof majoritries).
I would also like to see the Dems capture sufficinet majorities in the various State assemblies of the country to be able to draw more honest voting districts (in conjunction with the 2010 census). Also, a couple young progressive Supreme Court justices to be confirmed would be nice too.
But that still doesn't solve or most fundamental problems in the Uniteds States. This is a mysogynistic, racist, violent, self-indulgently spoiled, brat of a culture and civilization.
For the sake of our own luxurious convienience and lust for "stuff" we are (Democratic, Republican, liberal, conservative, male, female, black, white, yellow, red, and brown, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Bhuddist, Hindu, and non-sectarian)perfectly willing to kill, destroy, rape, and pillage the rest of this earth and its people.
Like the Borg on the Star Trek TV series, we are capable of being stunned, blasted apart, and left for dead only to rise up in a slightly changed and more lethal and violent resurrection than before. Like the Borg, America's slogan is: "You will be assimilated, resistence is futile"
By the way Mr. Green, how is it that Senator Obama could possibly be nominated if this country is even in the ball park of the racism you claim?
This is just pathetic.
"Democrats are about to nominate a black candidate in a still racist white country,"
Horse Feathers! David Michael Green is one of those far left folks that need to see racism in every corner. Its not there and its time to move on from this kind of stilted thinking.
The first thing that Obama will do if elected will be what Bill Clinton did. Obama will rehab the Republican Party image by carrying out much of their platform.
It always amazes me how liberals seem to forget that the 2 corporate parties govern in alliance with each other. Duh...
Well, as far as I'm concerned, one major out of touch elite party down, one to go. What should we do first when we get our democracy?
Whether we vote them out, impeach them out, citizens arrest them, or extradite them to the Hague... I agree their time is DONE.
Republicans are a bunch of bad apples... and the public can't stomach the stench anymore. We will prosecute traitors.
I remember my euphoria when Bill Clinton was elected. It soon turned to disgust as he embraced the precious "middle" and became an articulate advocate of harsh pro-plutocrat, high financier policies while pretending to "feel your pain".
Obama may be just another Bill Clinton or he may be a real force for the working class. The problem is this: Democrats are owned lock, stock and barrel by the same corporate/bank interests as the Republicans. If that is not the case then why has there been no outrage and no revolutionary ACTION to overturn the volumes of pro-wealthy legislation that crushes the working people of this country?
30% credit card rates, no pension protection, no fair wages and no job or income protection? Along with crippling military spending in a world with no major military threats to the U.S. the Democrats go along with the madness.
REALLY UGLY: THE FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY if the past is any predictor, and it is. I will have to hear concrete and radical policy changes and see REAL ACTION before I trust them to be any better. Impeachment is off the table we know, and so is real reform for the people so long as Democrats are in the pockets of their rich Republican allies.
We have been here before.
This election year should be a slam dunk for Obama to roll all over Grandpa Simpson, eh, I mean McCain. Unfortunately, the Corporate owned press will stick their noses in the election and play up Obama's weaknesses and mistakes and downplay McCain's insane policies. All this to make it a closer horse race, for the sake of keeping people tuned in and their advertising dollars rolling in.
Remember a couple years back when the Dems finally took Congress back from the Repubs, all you heard on the news before the elections were the Repubs talking points that the Dems don't have a plan once they get in office. Only after the Dems won the elections did you hear about the First 100 Day plan or whatever it was called, where they were going to raise minimum wage, etc. Sure, their plan was a cobbled together, but you didn't hear peep in the media about it until after the Dems won.
Look for more of the same this fall...
DMG out in the dangerous weeds, again, as usual. THE ELECTION IS NOT WON FOR LIBERALS, NOT BY A MILE.
Hillary people are still mad. And church people still think McCain is more a war hero than a quarter-century beer dealer. Diebold machines and other voting rigs are everywhere. We haven't even seen Bush's fall surprise.
The last thing we need is someone telling us to stay home and pop the champagne corks. We need to be working our butts off at the grass roots.
I take Professor Green's article as a best-case scenario, and won't nitpick it as such.
I'm especially pleased, though, that Green made the Obama-Tony Blair parallel. It only occurred to me recently, and I've begun to see it expressed on the blogs.
It's not a complimentary or fortuitous comparison, alas! But there are similarities in their characters and the trajectory of their careers, including their professed spirituality.
I'm not predicting that Obama will come to be an equally monstrous, blood-soaked war criminal. But it's an ominous parallel.
I am a Libertarian, against both halves of the Republicrat movement?
blah blah blah... republicans bad... democrats good... that's such bull. BOTH parties are equally evil. The democrats are just a little more stealthy about it.
Bull Conner was a democrat.
Bye RIPublican Party.
Let's see. They've got deep pockets, media control, voting machines, wrote the book on dirty tricks and own the supreme court. Hmmm, how should I place my bet? Don't think I'd write the obit just yet.
He's not dreaming so much as he is describing a cycle of events that result from certain actions such as those the right and far right have engaged in these past 20-30 years. The right have gotten away with their narrow minded and terminal behaviors because so many have failed to pay much attention. It is just that now their actions are and have been so outrageous it is nearly impossible for them not to be noticed. It is not easy to turn away and ignore a train wreck. Especially when its the train you're riding.
The two party system is akin to two lanes of a highway headed North. The bridge is out and you have to get to the promised land...no matter how often you switch from left lane to right you will not go get there any faster. Both lanes lead to the same place and neither has any intention of repairing the bridge. The driver just deludes himself into believing that other lane will get him there faster.
The smart driver will get off that road and find an alternative.
jesusofjonesboro,
They have the military as well
I think that you're right that the Republicans will lose big time on many levels. There is no thought given here to the fact that the Dems are also lackeys of the corporations. Democratic control, as witnessed by their control of Congress since the 2006 elections, will mean nothing for progress in this country. After four or eight years of wallowing in the muck, people will still be mad and will switch right back to the Republicans to save them. Americans are just that damn stupid and the two-party system is that entrenched.
"Forget what the polls are now saying about the closeness of the race."
Dude, you're not getting it - it's called laying in the foundation. Big Corp Media is reporting a virtual tie in order to make another GOPathological theft plausible come Nov.
Now is not the time for wishful thinking and silly hopes and dreams and broad, stupid assumptions. "We" must fight from the point of view that it's a battle to the death, not a near-done deal. Schmuck.
I think you are being optimistic, rocket. I'll bet Bull Connor still has a kennel full of those Birmingham attack dogs from the sixties. Instead of having his heels nipped, Obama will be lucky if his throat is not ripped out.
When the last Republican lies (yes, that is the spelling I meant) dying in the road, I'll not bother dragging his stinking carcass to the ditch.
It would be nice to see the conservatives go the way of the dodo bird, but don't hold your breath. These people are evil for sure, but also cunning. The Democrats, unfortunately are useless, so they are not going to present much of a challenge for these battle hardened criminals. Just wait 'til September. The GOP attack dogs are going to be out in full force and will be nipping at Obama's heels.
The axis of evil is divided into three parts.
Corporations - Republicans - Evilgelicals
Sounds like an awfully confident prediction - the Republican trouncing, that is. Let's see ... McCrazy could be the beneficiary of a little electronic election engineering. Or there could be a "terrorist" attack that necessitates indefinite "postponement" of the election (an article right on this site suggests as much http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/13/9596/ ).
In any event, what does it matter which party dominates the political system? They're indistinguishable. They've both got their hands deep in the pockets of corporations and will fight for them, their true constituency, until their last breath.
We went down this false path of hope after the 2006 election, in which the democrats elected to Congress were given a mandate to end the Iraq war. Did they listen to us?
Dave
Yeah, dream on, Mr. Green. Those motherfuckers are far from finished. Cancer doesn't go away just because you want it to.
Hmmm. I wouldn't start counting my chickens just yet because the Republicans still have that voting-machine advantage going for them.
On of the funniest stories I've seen in the past few months on theonion.com was their article about Diebold accidentally releasing the results of the 2008 election.
Seriously, the Neocons will do anything for power. Anything.
jj
Dream on, brother.