Posted on 09/15/2004 10:46:48 AM PDT by COURAGE
Carolinian - Opinions
Issue: 9/14/04
OUT OF MY HEAD: Everything to Live For '04
By Joe Killian
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.
My question is "Why wait, Joe?"
I hope they aren't getting my hopes up again.
What a pip this fellow is.
Bowel disorder me thinks.
Death is the only cure for the mental illness of Liberalism.
"The latest World Health Organization figures suggest a suicide takes place every forty seconds, somewhere in the world."
Somewhere in the world, someone commits suicide every forty seconds. They must be found and stopped!
Two Words: Darwin Awards.
What an absolute crybaby.
-"And I'm going to dance in the street, drink till I'm sick and sleep for three days afterward."-
He probably does that for every special occasion, like Tuesdays.
I'll ask again - why do these lefties' musings always sound like they're written by a rude teenage boy?
Somehow, I think God just shakes His head at this kind of 'prayer'.
Damn! Just when I'd gotten my hopes up.
This guy needs to get his head out of his a$$. He just cannot see that the Arabs want to kill him too. They don't just go after Republicans. Kerry won't protect him. Bush will.
I'll run the bath water!!!!
I know what you mean, Joe. He'd already run out of lawyers to hire and military absentee ballots to throw out, not to mention his attempt to have secret reviews of the ballots thwarted by those wascally Wepubwicans. What else could he do?
Oddly enough, this mass exodus of democrat voters from "this sad planet" will NOT change the number of democrat voters in the next election.
During this lovely bath ... could you put your head UNDER for about ten minutes?
...just like any "charming, rakish frat boy" would do.
All conclusory statement posing as premises.
Oh, and Joe, the word isn't tact - not in that context. Tack or tactic, perhaps.
Hey Joe: If it helps, I've got plenty of straight razors and a bathtub you can use. I'll even chant 40 MORE YEARS while you do it - JUST DO IT!!!
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