I’m surprised that finding out what I’d suspected all along is true isn’t much of a relief. When Bush began to talk about the Axis of Evil, and lobby for a war in Iraq, I had no idea of the depths of his duplicity, but I knew something was wrong. I had no clue how wrong things were. Now that I know, I don’t feel vindicated, I feel horrified.
There are all kinds of incredibly creepy people running our country right now. Bush himself is a party boy who was AWOL from military service, was a bad businessman, who has nothing in his past that would suggest he had the talent or integrity to be president. His chief architect’s history is equally lackluster. Rove was a crooked college politician who specialized in behind the scenes manipulation, getting caught at it several times. Tom Delay’s history is of a college party boy who was a disreputable businessman before becoming a disreputable politician. And so it goes – Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed were college Republicans too with histories that read like the who’s who of white collar con men. The Administration was seeded with people from A.E.I. who were dead set of world domination and Israeli style nuke-em foreign policy. Douglas Feith, John Bolton, Michael Ledeen are particularly dark ideologically paranoid, integrity-challenged sorts from that stink-tank.
The whole lot of them slunk in under the cover of the Christian Right by saying that they would make the issues of abortion and homosexuality seem like what matters most about America. Then along came 911, and instead of rallying the country, they used our grief and outrage to further their attempt to revise what this country is.
How did such a conglomeration of bottom feeders get into power? I think it was by playing to the worst in people – their bigotry. They got the racial and class bigots by supporting privatizing schools, supporting suburban life, and ignoring equal opportunity legislation. The got the Captalist bigots by dropping our environmental programs and lowering taxes on the rich. They got the Corporate bigots by allowing high stakes lobbying to flourish. They got the Christian bigots with faith based initiatives, anti-abortion and anti-gay initiatives, and insipid public piety. They got the Jewish bigots by hating Arabs and supporting Israel. Wherever they could find a place to leverage personal bigotry, they struck. Dirty tricks played directly to bigotry of any kind – McCain’s fictionalized mixed race child! No wonder it’s hard to figure out what they stand for. They stand for anything that will allow them to concentrate their power by appearing to be on the side of anyone’s bigotry. And they played it best with "Libruls." Any traditional Liberal issue was turned into some kind of joke, often with an undisguised contemptuous sneer. They were particularly hateful with the issue of cultural diversity, the most American thing of all. They turned it into a plot to recruit people to homosexuality. They’ve tried to neutralize fifty years of progress in bringing all Americans into the fold.
They’re easy to hate, but even that is being used to their advantage. When traditional Liberals froth at the mouth at what they’ve done to the country, to our Bill of Rights, they delight in painting a picture of ‘foaming mouthed Liberals,’ disregarding the fact that the venom is in response to their actions.
Those of us who grew up in the South in the 40’s and 50’s know the outcome of a society run by bigots. The politicians who stayed in power using bigotry as their lever were uniformly corrupt in our southern communities. And that is the real price of allowing one’s personal bigotry to enter the voting booth. It’s a sure bet that anyone who is gathering your votes by playing to what’s worst in you is going to repay you in kind – with their worst. They are turning your fear into subjugation. And so it’s little surprise that the government of the United States right now is a corrupt government. Corrupt governments are doomed, and sometimes take their countries down with them. So, today we remember Martin Luther King who found an antedote to an intense cultural bigotry a half a century ago. And let’s read Al Gore’s speech from today over and over, and hope it’s just the first in a series from him and from any others who have been afraid to talk for five years…
Were it not for your persuasive recommendation, I might have missed reading the whole of Mr. Gore’s speech (intellectual laziness I suppose) — I thank you.
Who is this silly person anyway?
(“Al Gore’s incessant need to insert himself in the headline of the day is almost as glaring as his lack of understanding of the threats facing America,” Tracey Schmitt, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement.
“While the president works to protect Americans from terrorists, Democrats deliver no solutions of their own, only diatribes laden with inaccuracies and anger,” she said.)
Is it possible that anyone in America will actually buy such pap? Is this the best that the cabal will muster in response to the former Vice President’s thorough, reasoned, convincingly illustrated comments?
I’d bet it is – Cheney will label him a comfort to our enemies and a threat to national security. Frist will accuse him of sour grapes etc etc. All the Attorney General of the United States had to say was that he understood that there may have been some footsie going on during the Clinton administration relative to intelligence gathering. He should be out doing his damn job is what he should be doing. Moreover, if he were interested in doing his job effectively, he could inform himself with about half of the references that Mr. Gore furnished in his remarks…Hamilton, Jefferson and Lincoln might help put the Office of the Attorney General of the United States on track.
What we can expect from the increasingly isolated jackals is obfuscation, ad hominem, and a media choking on a breathtaking production of administration crap. I’m going to go figure out how to get a word or two to Tracey Schmitt about exposing herself in public like that.