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.
No, I was born yesterday. /sarc
But we are literally inundated with this offal everywhere. I would LIKE to have a place to go, where TRIPE isn't tolerated. And the source listed for this article is NOT the WSJ "Best of the Web" it's "the Carolinian."
I'm a boomer, lived through the sixties, read all that socialist crap in my youth. As I posted above, I'll know to avoid you and your posted articles in the future, since according to what I've read from your posting history, it's the norm for you to post these kind of articles, and I don't want to encourage drivel by giving it the hits, you know?
(steps in, tips hat) I believe it is a good thing that such articles are posted here on FR, so that we might read the psychotic rantings coming from the other side. Personally, I find it rather entertaining to see these left wingnuts slowly lose their grip on reality and slide into madness.
"Know thine enemy" is still good advice, even after all the centuries that have passed since the phrase was first penned. Granted, the poster may have erred in omitting the BARF ALERT, but it's hardly worth invoking the all-powerful ZOT over.
Respectfully,
Draka
(slight curtsey)
Well, thanks. I can't agree, though. I genuinely hate seeing that stuff here, and I already know my enemy.
No offense intended.
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.
Actually, since the two parties are at opposite ends of the scale, the democrats then would be the party of patriotism
and piety disguised as fear and hatred?
I don't think so,they are the party of fear and hatred,
disguised as hatred and fear.
Dead Arabs.......Bwhahahahah!
He needs counciling with the dis-functional family that he probably came from, along with help from his leftist Journalism professors.
Correct. The phoniness of that joke struck me right away. Obvious made up. Maybe Killian should join SeeBS.
I enjoyed this article until the little snot-nosed commie puke admitted he doesn't have the guts to off himself. What a shame.
What kind of a nut is this guy?
A Clone of the nut who is now "running"!!!
We could send them gift certificates for Kool-Aid*.
*Cyanide sold seperately.
Would he know how to tie the knot? Better pre-tie it.
On the other hand, let them wonder why Kerry gets creamed, why they voted for such a loser. Maybe they'll do some real world study, not college study, some real work, pay some taxes, grow some, and come to understand what's really going on. And turn conservative.
guvment schools' feminized men...
Pray for W and Our Troops
Why wait, Joe?
Not likely ... unless, that is, Rev. Billy Jeff commands it.
how utterly pathetic.
the boy lives his life according to who's in office.
If Gore were in office, I'd be pissed then, what the heck, live my life.
puke.
"kee-capped"
Somebody needs an editor.
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