OUT OF MY HEAD: Everything to Live For '04 (Bush Victory = Mass Suicide?)

The Carolinian ^ | 9/14/04 | Joe Killian

[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.

[JohnnyZ]

But - here we are, running neck and neck with a little less than two months left to go.

ROFL -- neck and neck -- you wish!

[ableChair]

He's mentally ill.

[hoagy62]

I'm praying to God, Jesus, the Holy Mother and whoever and whatever else is out there that it goes our way this time.

Pray to God? You forget...Liberals don't believe in God!!

My goodness...first, a local lefty weekly paper (Seattle Weekly) suggests in an editorial that there'll be a mass exodus to Anywhere But Here with a Bush victory, and now mass suicides???

I'll tell you what they're afraid of: the possibility of a draft if Bush wins. Those anti-American nitwits can't stand the thought of DISCIPLINE in their lives (and the Army will provide that, trust me), and they're willing to emigrate to make sure they don't get any.

Fine! Leave! Take your silly ideals with you! America will be greater without you!

(Sorry...can you tell I'm just a little miffed at this?)

[OldFriend]

I'd say out of his head is about right.

[Dr.Deth]

Written any memos lately, "Killian"?

[Billthedrill]

A vote for Kerry is a vote to dig up 9/11's victims, spit in their hearts and stomp on their brains...

So, uh, Joe, who said that? Oh, right, nobody did. Who said anything like that? Uh, nobody, right? Who imagines he heard something like that? To be honest, nobody, not even you, Joe. Who can't do anything more than misrepresent his opponents because he's too ignorant and partisan to try to understand them?

That'd be you, Joe.

[Cultural Jihad]

Hey, Joe! Congrats on finally getting your own bathroom this year! Write to us when you decide to aim for loftier goals!

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


MikalM


College Republicans ... 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."


Gee Wiz, and I thought I had already graduated from college in 1989 ...



Patton@Bastogne
Free Republic Member since 1998.



General George S. Patton Jr. Website




.

[compman]

I for one will gladly put up $500 for the first lib that wants a flight to France. One way BTW!!.

[Let's Roll]

By his own admission, Kerry's staunchest supporters are incredibly unstable ... or do I read too much into this babbling?

[ArrogantBustard]

Great googly moogly! What sort of pissant drama-queen moron is this character? We put up with eight years of xlinton ... the least these buttheads can do in reparation for that outrage is put up with eight years of President Bush.

[meyer]

"A vote for Kerry is a vote to dig up 9/11's victims, spit in their hearts and stomp on their brains."

A little piece of reality apparently presents the author with some difficulty. Kerry spit in the face of thousands of fighting US military, and hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese. Why would anybody think that he wouldn't do the same here?

[Tamzee]

[right way right]

Send him some rope.

[ArrogantBustard]

Joe Killian is a senior at UNCG majoring in Political Science and English.

There's the problem. The very existence of "Political Science" as a major field of university study is a sign of deep-seated social pathology.

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

The College Briefing

Campus-Watch

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

No Indoctrination.org

AcademicBias.com: "BRAINWASHING 101" -A Film by Evan Coyne Maloney

ACADEMIC BIAS.COM

UNIVERSITY SECRETS: Your Guide to Surviving A College Education

THE SHADOW UNIVERSITY: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses

[meyer]

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.

Problem is, they'll still vote democrat.

Honestly, depression can be treated, but liberalism is terminal.

[Rakkasan1]

looks like he really earned his "F" in both degrees.

"I remember the awful, kee-capped feeling on the day Al Gore finally conceded in 2000." -
apparently Killian Red hasn't see ALgore lately-he still
hasn't conceded.

[P.O.E.]

Bad case of the cramps?

[GSlob]

"Can't trust those Killians."
I'd take an exception to "Red Killian" brand of beer. One could trust it (in moderation, of course) as long as it is fresh.