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THE LAST REFUGE OF A SCOUNDREL
Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong: James Bryce
The last refuge of a scoundrel is patriotism and it appears that Bush is rapidly approaching that moment.
John Kerry must seize the moment and use the truth to lay bare the lies and deceptions of this administration.
He is in much the same position he was early in the primaries when Dean had the momentum and he was a languishing cause. He changed his staff, mortgaged his house , took the bit in his mouth and spoke the truth ~ electrifying his audiences and carrying the day.
Now, once again, languishing 6 points behind Bush, he has changed his staff, mortgaged his nuanced Senate debating style, taken the bit in his mouth and is beginning to tell the truth ~ which millions of Americans as well as an apprehensive and shocked world have been longing to hear.
Thusday night is Kerry's moment and I believe he will seize it and force Bush to retreat to his last refuge ~ Patriotism.
A vote for Kerry is a vote for Terrorism ~ Are you going to let the Terrorists determine this election like they did in Spain ?
We are already beginning to hear this slow drumbeat but when you combine it with an Orange or Red alert in late October~ it will become the deadly force of irrational fear which could well decide this election. Karl Rove is counting on it !
The world has seen this all before and watches in numbed disbelief .
Who got the standing ovations in New York this week? UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Spain's Jose Zapatero.
Why? They spoke the truth about the global situation: lawlessness is endangering international peace and security, and Iraq is the main example. In short, America is seen as the mother of all outlaws, thanks to the execution of the Bush Doctrine.
Mary Jacoby , Salon , writes " But the election comes first. Will voters respond to Kerry's gritty realism? Or will they prefer Bush's sunny optimism? What role will reality play? With Bush claiming that criticism of his Iraq policies shows disrespect for U.S. troops, the facts can easily be lost in a festival of patriotism. The danger, as Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., recently put it, is that Americans will become deluded with "some grand illusion that we're winning."
Well here this loud and clear ! We are not winning in Iraq and, to the contrary, are slipping into chaos.
Naomi Klein, Harpers, writes; " The great historical irony of the catastrophe unfolding in Iraq is that the shock-therapy reforms that were supposed to create an economic boom that would rebuild the country have instead fueled a resistance that ultimately made reconstruction impossible.....These forces have transformed Year Zero in Iraq into the mirror opposite of what the neocons envisioned: not a corporate utopia but a ghoulish dystopia, where going to a simple business meeting can get you lynched, burned alive, or beheaded ."
Only the cold brutal truth can stop the four horseman of hubris ( Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz ) in their tracks and Kerry must wield it unsparingly ~ if he is to carry the day in November.
Using the truth as his standard he must now campaign as if he's not afraid to lose and trust his righteous anger ~ regardless of the political risks.
For, as Mark Morford cleverly writes ; " After all, sometimes, when playing badminton with the devil, you gotta screw the birdies and lob a couple grenades . "
Allen L Roland
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