Posted on 09/14/2004 3:41:11 PM PDT by MikalM
I have friends who refused to watch, listen to or even read Bush's speech to the RNC last week -but I just had to see it. I was working that night, so I set my VCR and came home to the tape at around 1 a.m.
It's hard to describe the mixture of nausea and fear that gripped me as I watched this speech. I was offended at the use of the tragedy of 9/11 as political leverage - but, in a strange way, it was almost a relief. The Republicans have finally fully embraced the position they've been hinting at for months: "A vote for Kerry is a vote to dig up 9/11's victims, spit in their hearts and stomp on their brains."
This all turns my stomach - but what scares me is how effective this tact has been. Who would have dreamed that attacking the war record of a Vietnam hero who protested upon his return, trotting out the most moderate members of your party while adopting a right wing platform and all but ignoring the country's economic crisis would actually work? But - here we are, running neck and neck with a little less than two months left to go.
If I were Bill Clinton, I'd take to a hospital bed and recover for a month too.
Of course, the greatest strength of the Bush campaign is the weakness of the Kerry campaign. Yesterday I watched Kerry stumping on C-Span and noticed the dead silence when he came to an obvious laugh line. He can't seem to communicate to the audience when they're supposed to laugh, and though he's trying his damnedest to be charming his every smile looks exhausted, shy and desperate. The consequence: though he's making good arguments, calling the president on his record and presenting his own plan for the country, we're still made to feel as though he's not quite sure of himself, even not quite behind his own campaign.
Bush on the other hand is ignoring the economy, embracing his arrogance, spouting ideological catchphrases without anything to back it all up - but he does it in that charming, rakish frat boy sort of way. You almost want to pinch his cheeks and say, "You scamp! I want to boot your sorry ass out of office for dividing this country, costing us 1,000 lives in Iraq and trying to make us all march lockstep in your parade of Born Again Christians - but you're just so cute!"
I feel this way about our College Republicans sometimes. Even when they say things that disgust me, I can't quite believe they're serious. Recently one of them said to me, when I asked if he hated the moderates dominating the convention: "Well, they may not pass all the acid tests of being a republican, but they all agree on the most important thing: they don't mind the sight of dead Arabs."
This is the kind of awful, racist joke that you can imagine Bush sharing with Cheney as they watch Arnold and Rudy take the stage. But the awful truth is that it isn't a joke - it's the darkest and most awful part of this man reaching out to the darkest, most awful part of America. It's a campaign built on fear and hatred disguised as patriotism and piety - and I'm scared to death it's going to work.
I read recently that more than million people the world over take their lives every year - more than are murdered or killed in wars. The latest World Health Organization figures suggest a suicide takes place every forty seconds, somewhere in the world.
And so it's not hard to imagine that on November 3rd, if the election can be called by then, there might be a sort of grim mass exodus from this sad planet should Bush pull this election out. My generation may be particularly vulnerable to the urge to lay back in a warm bath and open up their veins as chants of "Four More Years" echo horribly from every 24 hour cable news station.
I remember the awful, kee-capped feeling on the day Al Gore finally conceded in 2000. What else could he do? Still - there was a feeling that we'd all, as a generation, had our first turn at bat and struck out. Or, rather, that a bad call had sent us back to the bench for four long years. We couldn't have imagined, then, how badly the game would go - or how much would be at stake when we next stepped to the plate.
But, though I finally have my own bathroom this year, you won't find me dead in my tub on November 3rd, no matter what happens. I'm casting my vote for Kerry, whether or not he makes me go weak at the knees. I'm praying to God, Jesus, the Holy Mother and whoever and whatever else is out there that it goes our way this time. But, if it doesn't, I'm going to stick around until we finally oust these bastards. And I'm going to dance in the street, drink till I'm sick and sleep for three days afterward. The thought alone will be enough to keep me going.
"Gosh, why post this?"
A garbage post like this makes you appreciate the links in post no.76.
Oooooooo.....couldn't he have found a REAL university to attend (probably not)?
And, whatever else you do, please DO NOT post from DEMOCRATS UNDERGROUND (or any other such trashy un-American socialist hangout). Free Republic was intended to be a socialist free zone. We've gone to a heck of a lot of trouble to make it that way. Why in the world would you think we would be interested in having their trash posted here?
I agree with that. So, now that you know that, why DO you post all these barf articles?
Looks like the boy done worried hisself BALD...!
Humor and/or know thine enemy. If it doesn't belong, hit abuse. It will be pulled. I'm a guest here and presume NOTHING about what is permitted or not, appropriate or not.
If I'm wrong, may a mod or member of management please let me know.
No, please Joe Killian, please do kill yourself.
I'm not going to hit abuse. I'm asking the poster why he does this. He's no "newbie"--I checked back a way on his posting history, and I find a number of liberal articles posted here by him. No barf alert? Why not?
What a freakin' moron.
NOTE TO SELF: Add this smart citizen to growing list of people to receive Neener Attacks on Nov. 3.
Of course, the greatest strength of the Bush campaign is the weakness of the Kerry campaign.
Uh, the greatest strength of the Bush campaign is the weakness and utter moral squalor of the democratic party.
Hell, Kerry is the candidate only because he was the last man standing when Dean tanked. No other reason, just that.
Kerry didn't go thru the age-old vetting process that is the natural result of a thinking, functioning party.
To show what can happen to your child if left unsupervised for 4 years in a leftist indoctrination facility?
That might make a good tag line if it fits.
looks like you got it.
Mass suicide of Rats when Bush wins? Gee, is that a promise?
[...Snip...}trying to make us all march lockstep in your parade of Born Again Christians
This man is an ANTI-CHRITITE. His and his party's Anti-Chritism bigotry just makes me sick.
This is why people are leaving that Intolorant Democrat party in drove and why GW is going to win big in November.
The way things are going that's gonna be about 30 or 40 years. LOL! Now go change your crying towel you wimpering simp.
Joe, the word is "tack" or "tactic" -- I don't know which one you meant, but it sure wasn't "tact".
I actually got it from Jim Taranto's "Best of the Web" WSJ daily news review -- hardly a "socialist" source.
Does the phrase "Know your enemy" mean anything to you?
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