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.
Mike Adams, professor at ECU, has been writing about the wackos that are at UNCG. Here's proof.
Oops! Obviously I meant 1996!
I'm feeling ever more confident about the election and I'm planning on dropping by DU on Nov. 3rd to watch the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Right on! I am a conservative with ultra libral, abortion-clinic working parents. I think they wish they had aborted me like they did to my sibling. My sister who is alive never wants kids. I guess my parents posterity will flow through me and be right wing pro-lifers!
It is hopeless. Inability to see reality due to genetic predisposition is not yet cureable.
I have a "last helicopter out of saigon" image of liberals.
Imagine them scrambling for the the last seats on Air France flights before inauguration in 2005. The horrid screams as sex parters seperate so at least one of them will be able to be in france before Bush's second term starts!
Will there even BE a Democrat party in 20 years?
I serious doubt there will be a democrat party.
You crack me up. Thanks for the imagry.
Who is Joe Killian and why does he advocate a Sylvia Plath style approach to politics?
The darkest, most awful part of America speaks out courageously.
Joe needs a little help. That is an excellent point. At every turn these lefties continue to focus on 9-11 and blame it on Republicans and conservatives in a way meant to demonize us and dishonor the dead at best.
Joe's little rant did have one good effect, though. It sent me back to reread the transcript of President Bush's RNC acceptance speech. Now, I'll be puzzling what kind of sick, twisted thinking makes a person like Joe hear those words of encouragement and respect and twists them into one little hate-filled blurb meant to inspire hatred of Bush and his supporters.
We continue to pray for all the victims and their famlies as well.
Uhhh, YEAH!
Like the title wasn't enough of a hint?
Darlin',
You don't have to resort to suicide,
there are lots of folks who would be more than happy to take the work off your hands.
Not likely ... unless, that is, Rev. Billy Jeff commands it.
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Can't pretend to pray if you don't even have a basis of knowledge about those to whom you are praying. God and Jesus are the same, and Mary is the Blessed Mother, not the Holy Mother.
Brain-dead braying. What a hinny.
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