Four More Years
Yesterday started out so hopeful. America was going to reject the path of fear and embrace enlightenment. We were going to rejoin the world community. Instead, by midnight here in Kaliphoniyah, the handwriting was on the wall. America is fearful - afraid of terror (and want to keep it in someone else's back yard) and afraid of homosexuals.
I'm pretty gloomy this morning. I think we are about to enter a period of increasing repression. The soldiers in Iraq who voted for Bush will no doubt cheer when their tours of duty there are extended and their benefits are cut. The young people who didn't bother to vote at all will not complain when the draft notice arrives.
Sidney Blumenthal was no less depressed. From his Salon column this morning he says:
Brought along with Bush is a gallery of grotesques in the Senate -- more than one of the new senators advocating capital punishment for abortion, another urging that all gay teachers be fired, yet another revealed as suffering from obvious symptoms of Alzheimer's.
The new majority is more theocratic than Republican, as Republican was previously understood; the defeat of the old moderate Republican Party is far more decisive than the loss by the Democrats. And there are no checks and balances. The terminal illness of Chief Justice William Rehnquist signals new appointments to the Supreme Court that will alter law for more than a generation. Conservative promises to dismantle constitutional law established since the New Deal will be acted upon. Roe vs. Wade will be overturned and abortion outlawed.
Now, without constraints, Bush can pursue the dreams he campaigned for -- the use of U.S. military might to bring God's gift of freedom to the world, with no more "global tests," and at home the enactment of the imperatives of "the right God." The international system of collective security forged in World War II and tempered in the Cold War is a thing of the past. The Democratic Party, despite its best efforts, has failed to rein in the radicalism sweeping the country. The world is in a state of emergency but also irrelevant. The New World, with all its power and might, stepping forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old? Goodbye to all that.
We'll see more outsourcing of jobs, leading to increased unemployment. Tony Blair will be removed from power in Briatain, so that they can rejoin the European Union, which will get stronger, and so will the Euro. Regular Americans will not be able to afford to travel there (but those in the upper brackets - Bush's "haves and have-mores" - will). America will become a nation of serfs and lords. The only product they'll be able to offer the world is the military, for hire to the highest bidder.
But we'll also see the reactinary rise of domestic terrorism. The 49 percent of America that voted against Bush (if not necessarily FOR Kerry) may not roll over in acquiescence.
But hey - the sun came up, and the world around where I live is beautiful. The recent rains have brought a green flush to the land while leaves continue to fall. Tonight I'll go with my wife to a pot luck dinner to listen to my son and his friends tell the group about their experiences visiting our town's sister city in Japan last spring.
So, at least for today, let's try to look at the bright side of life.
words and music by Eric Idle
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.
So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath
Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
(Come on guys, cheer up!)
Always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the bright side of life...
(Worse things happen at sea, you know.)
Always look on the bright side of life...
(I mean - what have you got to lose?)
(You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!)
Always look on the right side of life...
10:53:39 AM 
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