News from the War

I can remember a time when the The Daily Show didn’t bother to cover mid-term elections. I can remember a time (2002, an absolutely evil year if ever there was one) when I didn’t bother to vote in them.
So much has happened since. It’s hard to believe things move so fast. Already its August and November is staring us in the face. The ground troops are mobilized and frothing. The money machine is humming along quite nicely. The Democrats are outspending Republican’s by a fair and definite margin. What’s more, a “liberal,” anti-war Democrat has defeated a warmongering, “centrist” (that is, conservative) in that national heart of hearts, their stalwart of strongholds, the good state of Connecticut.
By now, if you have the package of premium TV channels I still insist on calling “cable”, you’ve heard of Ned Lamont. Had he not defeated former Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Liberman I (and most of you, I imagine) would regard him with little more than a shrug. “Ho-hum,” I’d think, “another millionaire running for office. And, oh, look at all the funny little ground troops, believing that somehow this will change something. Make things ‘better’.”
The Great Hope of this Indecision 2006—which seems to have become a foregone conclusion inside TV Land’s puditocracy—is that Democrats will capture one, perhaps both, seats of Congress, forcing Our Glorious Leader into a final corner of accountability. Some howl at this possibility, and speak the dreaded I-word, not heard since the reign of our First Black President, Bill Clinton.
As if the Decider will voluntarily give up all the power he has gathered unto himself. As if Uncle Dick will let him. I’m sure the Vice President will shoot him the face before that comes to pass. Why would an Executive branch dedicated to the proposition that the President can do whatever the hell he wants to do whenever he wants to, cede that power in the face of an opposition Legislature? When it has done nothing but snub, glad-hand, and deride that very same Legislature for years? When it has stacked the Judicial in its favor?
Hard as it is for me to believe, there are those who still think Our Glorious Leader (and his Crew) will voluntarily surrender power.
I wonder if these people (you people) have heard: we’re a nation at War. A War that could last forever. Even if Bush does life the crown from off his head he’ll only pass it to another. Dick is too hated, so it’ll have to be Condi. George could be her Vice President, as Bill could—and probably should—be Hillary’s.
That would be a hell of a fight to see. Dubya’s own littel Waterloo. What is to be his triumphant return will send him fleeing, tears in his eyes, a death wish on his lips, from the battlefield.
There. Right there. Did you see it?
“Battlefield.”
That’s the thing about politics. It can be as dangerous a drug as E. It can provide the illusion of actual victory. Vicarious participation in a seemingly life-or-death conflict. The only life-or-death conflict that really matters.
I’m talking about the Eternal Battle Between Good and Evil. The very War Our Glorious Leader believes we are fighting. His absolutism prevents him from understanding that “good” and “evil” are words, subject to interpretation by humans. Big part of the problem, right there. His chosen profession prevents him (and every other politican) from realizing, or even understanding, how I feel about electoral politics.
Party primary’s, in particular, are an especial bore. They are the boring, pre-game shows of the political season. They, and all elections, function on the premise that elections actually matter. That they will really make a difference.
But victories only happen in wars. With a truce holding between Israel and Lebanon—despite the two hundred rockets Hezbollah fired over the border, despite the “bold” statements of Israel’s leaders that basically amount to, “Cease fire? What cease fire?”—there’s only one war left on the planet that we (as a nation) really care about. And it ain’t Afghanistan.
As in years past, American’s find themselves half a planet away from the real war, seduced by the false war at home, the puppet show of Politics.
I know I’m not offering anything original or terribly constructive. My hobbies, for the most part, revolve around destruction. I could never encourage, condone or authorize the use of violence against the government of the United States George W. Bush. That would net me a fast, one-way trip to the sunny side of Cuba. I can only remind you, the People, that there is a surefire way to bring the war home…if that’s what you really want.
Your past records of voter participation say otherwise. As do mine. Hopefully we'll both defy expectations.