An irresponsible rich kid wrecks the family car while running a red light and demolishes a store, killing the storekeeper and his family. The parents of the kid try to bail him out, while his siblings and friends stand around and make excuses. The uncontrite kid spews a drunken righteousness for the mess that leaves witnesses wondering, but the family pays for damages--to the car--and returns their favored son to the road again. The store remains wrecked and the legal charges are dropped.
George Bush won in 2004? Great! Let the damages continue to accrue until all of those responsible for keeping the maniac on the road suffer the consequences. Those of us forced to ride along on the neocon joyride will fasten our seatbelts and hope the airbags deploy for the crash we know is coming.
The dollar continues a plunge worthy of the Titanic? Social Security jeopardized? Gas prices continue to rise? War debt shackling future generations? Great!
Not so great, however, for those billions of innocent bystanders loitering along the road, sideswiped by God's self-appointed copilot.
But why should the Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, Reforms or Anarchists be required to bail out the reckless rich boy and his cronies after his first four years of mayhem? Another four years of monumental moral and economic ruination should either signal the death knell for the nation as a republic, or the demise of the Republican Party as a credible political entity.
No need to wring hands or heave great sighs. America, the imaginary beacon of freedom or Constitutional standard-bearer, fell somewhere between the Mexican War and the year 1861 or so. We have had Teapot Domes before and we will have them again. Despots and tinpots aren't confined to banana republics. Every 20 years America suffers a half dozen or so. Now we simply have greedy scoundrels who steal elections, nothing new there.
Sadly, or some would say, justly, the damage we do to others is beginning to bounce back home. Blithely, American voters--20% to 25% of them at least--returned the rich kid to his playroom peopled with unprincipled bullies. The ironic thing--for those who helped continue the reign of our regent, by returning his car keys to the realm--are the families and veterans who will shoulder most of the weight for the coming economic meltdown, while those same sex unions will leave no progeny to pay for the mess.
Ground Zero In The Banana Republic
The night before the election, here in South Florida, I stood in line with a couple thousand other residents of Broward County for the chance to hear Jimmy Buffett in a free, outdoor concert. Of course, I had to sit through an hour of rah-rah speeches by local Democrats rallying their faithful. While standing in line, I mentioned to various Dems that the vote was already decided, and while Kerry might win, Bush'll get the victory. I voted the next day on an Ivotronics machine, manufactured by Bush supporters. Not surprisingly, no one who voted was given a receipt for this transaction, as at an ATM.
The concert, broadcast on C-Span, was held in a baseball park and was secured from acts of terrorism by 28 squad cars (I counted) and about a dozen motorcycles of the local Broward Sheriff's department. One speaker used the term "ground zero" for South Florida, but it was north and west and central Florida that sent Dubya over the top here. America has voted, as they say, and chosen its idol. And predictably, the manufacturers of voting machines pioneered the victory.
The cornpone conman beat the craggy veteran and war critic, proving that it is better to have run from a fight than volunteered for battle and then returned to report the obvious. The chortling you hear from the forums of WorldNetDaily and Military.com from aging vets proves that desertion is preferable in a a candidate than a commander telling the painful truth.
Antiwar.com's Justin Raimondo probably put it best: "Buck Up, You Lefties!" he wrote. Another year or so and we should begin to see those bumper stickers that read, "Don't blame me; I voted for Kerry." Some solace, I realize, to the two or three thousand servicemen who will probably die in Iraq before then--or the several hundred thousand Iraqis.
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