Don't worry, I understand all too well what you're saying.
But the way I see it, they were down to picking necrotic scabs to bleed one last time this election.
I mean, think about it ... it's not just the way they pumped up Kerry to yank the chains of vets or brought Roe v. Wade back for another round (even though last election the President's Mom, even, was floating the idea of pulling up the pro-life plank entirely). What gets me -- and you know what's coming -- is the way they even made it sound like Kerry was "for" ESCR and Bush (who gets personal credit for legitimizing with taxpayer funds the process!) was against it!!
How soon we forget the text of his first televised address to the nation.
Bottom line ... like I said, I don't have anyone to vote "FOR" in this election and maybe it's wrong of me to go the "strict constitutionalist" route and reach back to the Founding Fathers to write my note of Excused Absence on Election Day ... but the politics isn't what set me off on this thread.
What set me off on this thread is the blow to my solar plexus that was GLEE over this tape's threats in any way "playing into our hands" just because a couple of the most despicable of the Actors who masqerade as journalists these days "look sad" about it.
It's a gut-wrenching thing, Cold Heat. Never should a people be so under the gun or desperate or ... I don't know how best to put it ... but there's just something Wrong about thinking this is a "good" thing for even a moment.
It's like having your folks die in a plane crash and figuring they'd be happy that -- what with the Pain and Suffering and all -- they made you Millionaires with their last ten seconds of life on earth.
Some things just can't and should never be rationalized as Good else we have no objective reality anymore.
If pragmatism hadn't existed -- and it didn't -- they have had to invent it -- and they did -- so that the West could destroy itself from within.
Mark my words.
It does strike me as rather odd that OBL would emerge from deep cover in order to endorse John Kerry. He knows the vast majority of Americans hate him. Moreover, he didn't even threaten to blow anything up (based on what I heard on the radio). What's his (or his masters) game...? This one deserves some serious thought.
I'm nut sure I understand all that you are saying, but I think I get your point about seeing the OBL tape as a 'good thing'. It is important, however, to keep in mind that sometimes it takes an ugly wake-up call to remind us of reality - like a near-miss in the car that reminds us to make sure we fasten our seat belt. Unfortuntately, the MSM have chosen to put 'winning' way above what is best for our country and it is understandable that those who are truly concerned about the future would be relieved (yes, even happy) to get an unintended assist from the dregs that is OBL. Hope this helps.
Politics, especially the activist variety that we practice here on FR is in some ways very barbaric and vicious.
The election cycle never stops anymore, and we are immersed in it 24/7.
Even if (God forbid) Kerry wins, we will immediately shift gears and begin the deconstruction of the new admin and everybody connected to it.
But politics to me is a game. Something to play.
It is not something I take too personally. If I did that, I would not be able to play and still retain my humanity.
Perhaps I have become too numbed by what I have witnessed as I follow the political fortunes and misfortunes of the hundreds I have witnessed rise, only to fall as the result of some devious political ploy.
Kerry is the epitome of a modern politician. He has a face, but it is not real. His life has been sanitized to protect him from foes and his words are scripted, meaningful yet say little for fear of saying too much. He is a phony.
Bush, on the other hand appears real, flesh and blood real. He is not constructed or modified for political reasons. He is the kind of guy you have a beer with.
Because of politics, the other side is reviled by his (Bush's) very existence, threatened by his morality, incited to violence over the very thought of another four years in the white House.< They are forced by the nature of the game to accept Kerry as real and true.P> Somewhere, reality and politics became intertwined inexplicably for the left. They can no longer tell the difference between the game and the reality of life. The game is the life to many of them.
I am not like that, and most on this forum are not either.(Most, not all perhaps)
We know where life and the game begin and end. We are still cogent members of the human race.
I can't say that about the left anymore. Not anymore.
The statement I made was one of a emotional political clarity that come from politics, not my humanity. My human personae knows it is not logical nor does it make sense. But the political side of me reads it as a plus for Bush and the game.