THE "THEM DECADE"
In the wake of his razor-thin electoral college "victory" this past week, our Fearless Leader has called for reconciliation and reached out to Kerry voters. In his "victory" speech, he implied that he wanted to end the divisiveness that his campaign thrived on in the election and that his regime used to its own devices for the past four years. In words as ironic as they were laughingly insincere, the Great Divider claimed that he would "do all I can do to deserve your trust."
I am a great believer in fighting the battle and then settling with the result. As ugly as it was four years ago when the Bushies on the Supreme Court stole a legitimate and badly needed recount from the people of Florida - and therefore the election from all the American people – Al Gore was gracious and went beyond the call of duty to help settle the issue and get everyone to move on. It was something that Bush and his radical band in Congress would not have done in a million years, were the shoe on the other foot. So, in the spirit of moving forward and setting the right mood for the country and the world in these Interesting and Dangerous Times, I am proud to answer the president’s call in no uncertain terms:
Shove it.
I choose these words carefully, considering but rejecting several other two-word responses that simply would not suit this forum, which is, after all, a family-oriented Blog (right, Mom?). But since Teresa Heinz Kerry impulsively brought that particular phrase into the political nomenclature, I believe it gets the job done: Mildly vulgar for its desired effect and expression of disgust and direct enough to make it clear where I stand and where I think all of us who fought our hearts out against Bush and his minions should stand. There is no reason to even pretend to have anything to do with this empty-suited fraud, whose surrogates and staff spent the last year slowly stealing the election process from the American people – a significant majority of whom wanted him out – by a daily bombardment of lies, diversions and tricks designed to do anything but engage in a true discussion of the issues and an examination of his own pitiful record.
And, I tell you, these people never quit. Immediately after Kerry’s moving concession to the inevitable after his lawyers examined the situation in Ohio, the Bush Surrogates began spinning our reaction to the disappointing results of the election. We are elitists, they say on the radio, cable and wingnut newspaper and internet columns. It is said that we look down our noses at the unwashed rubes who fall for the Bush line of bullshit.
Certainly, there is a feeling of disbelief that Bush, such an obvious boob and failure as president and as a person, could get votes from anybody for anything. But I am not the kind of person who believes that people get the government they deserve. Some people are just more susceptible to the manipulations of shameless politicians than others. This doesn’t mean they are stupid. It means that they are not paying the same sort of attention to certain things as we are, or, rather, they are paying attention to different things when it comes to their government.
Ergo, my Rock Music Analogy: I used to wonder how the hell millions of people could buy records and go to concerts by the likes of REO Speedwagon, Journey, Styx, Kansas, etc. This was in the mid-70s, when I worked in a record store and actually got free tickets to see these wretched bands play and listened to all their dreck, shoved into my ears by consultants and bad radio programmers. Growing up as I did with the sweet soul music of Aretha, Smokey, James, the Temps and the Supremes (brought home by my older sisters in college); discovering the magic of the Beatles, the Stone and the Animals by myself; and getting downright emotional and intellectual with Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and the like, I knew music pretty good and intellectually challenging music was very important to me in my 20s. I turned it up loud, thought about it, wrote about it, and tried to emulate it in my own humble musical creations.
In those days (and those days only), the meaning of life through music was reflected by the great rock-and-roll writers at Rolling Stone, Creem and the Village Voice. A clever turn of phrase by Steely Dan, a searing guitar riff by Young or Springsteen and the revolutionary fervor of the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Ramones were not only musical events. They spoke to something not only in the rock culture; the music was also a positive force for change, understanding and joy in the wider society.
It took a while to figure out those people spending all that money and spending all that time head-banging to those other lousy bands, though. But, watching a group of teenage girls and another group of guys on the floor of an REO concert – it dawned on me. These people didn’t care about lyrics meaning anything and had no interest in or appreciation for the Big Statement. They wanted their guitars loud, but predictable and safe. The music wasn’t their life – it was the soundtrack of their life. The point of going to the concert was not to experience the Event, like a Who concert. The point of going to the show was to hang with their friends, maybe find new ones, maybe get close to someone. Their music was different because they wanted different things from it.
It’s the same, I think, with Bush and the targeted "heartland" voters. For the Democrats and other Kerry supporters who put forth such a great effort this year, the election was about Big Issues: war and peace, the deficit, the economy, health care, good government and – yes, mostly – about the horrendous reality of Bush as president. It was about what was best for their lives, the lives of their neighbors and for the less fortunate, who have fallen through the wide cracks of Bush’s crumbling social sidewalk.
For those who eventually voted for Bush, even if they didn’t like him, it wasn’t that they didn’t necessarily understand the issues we were concerned with, they just didn’t care in the same way. The issues we pushed weren’t completely ignored – they just weren’t on the radar screens of the part of the electorate targeted by Rove/Bush. It was the absurdly-sainted Ronald Reagan who first gave Americans explicit permission to care about only themselves and to ignore all those people who were looking for a handout and using their food stamps to buy steaks and vodka. It was all about your Morning in America, and all the rest who couldn’t see the beautiful dawn could go hang.
The attacks of 9/11 proved the perfect solution for the problem of Bush’s first eight lame months in office. Master manipulator Karl Rove immediately recognized the political implications of the attacks; getting Bush to call it a "war" (a wartime president!), immediately squashing voices of dissent ("be careful what you say"), throwing thousands of brown-skinned immigrants in prison without charges or legal access and severely limiting well-settled constitutional liberties. And, as the bumbling Bush stumbled through record job losses and deficits and darted off to a ridiculous Stupid War in Iraq, Rove and the other Bushies maintained the Fear that would keep the self-centered part of the electorate with them throughout, even in the face of irrefutable proof that Bush and his reckless shenanigans had actually left them less safe.
Thus, the success of Rove’s campaign, resulting in Bush’s first real election as President, just three years after the beginning of the Fear. If the ‘70s were coined the "Me Decade" by Tom Wolfe due to unprecedented self-involvement and navel contemplation, the ‘00s (pronounced "the aughts") are the "Them Decade". "They" (terrorists) will strike again if we do not remain "resolute". "They" (gays) are trying to marry each other and move in next door. "They" (pro-choice supporters) want to kill viable partially-born babies. "They" (researchers) want to take thousands of precious fertilized eggs and kill them for their stem cells to help Christopher Reeve. "They" (Brady Bill advocates) are coming to saw your guns in half. "They" (ACLU, etc.) want to keep Christ out of courthouses and schools and are coming for your bibles next. Etc.
With all this hyped-up Fear out there, it didn’t take much to portray Kerry as a cause or an inadequate fighter against all those things of which we were told to be afraid. He says he would keep us safer by a smarter war on terror and better international relations? Haw. What is he, French? He says he’s against gay marriage but wants to give the states the right to choose? Why can’t he make up his mind? Didn’t you see him goose-hunting in Ohio? God, that was pathetic; anyone can see he really wants to ban the gun he was carrying. And so on.
With the Fear and Anti-Kerry messages blasting 24/7 out of the radios and cable boxes throughout the country, it’s a wonder how Kerry got so tantalizingly close to being elected. And as long as the right-wing has such an enormous hold on the messages that are broadcast through their giant megaphones and until we get some vehicle that makes just as much noise, the fix will always be in for the wrong team. The political discourse of the country is so incredibly poisoned by the tireless and cynical efforts of the Wingnut Jihad, that it will take years, if not decades, just to have a rational conversation about the course of our country.
In the meantime, Junior Bush rules for four more years. A sadder result could not be imagined. We are becoming a Third World country, ruled by oligarches as the rich get richer and the poor poorer, sliding into the despair of a growing underclass with their own rules, law enforcement, barter system, etc. Those of us who care are left to search ourselves for the energy to keep up the fight, to limit the damage, to storm the castle, someday. Those who have bought the Fear look at the darkening sky and pray for the grace to survive the rains and pray to Bush to facilitate the lie of Rapture.
11:29:39 PM 
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