On one single page of the newspaper today were headlines about how the United States will rely on Russia to get into space; a plaintive and weak cry from the U.S. that Russia has no "privileged interests" in Central Asia; and how Wachovia is on the verge of collapse.
Does anybody see the common thread here, other than that the stories shared real estate on the front page of my local newspaper? In the past eight years, Bush has driven our country so far into the ground that we will soon qualify for Third World status.
What the headlines really mean: the U.S. is no longer a leader in space, and will soon lose the ability to launch a human into orbit; the U.S. can no longer project its military might into most regions of the world because our armed forces are bogged down and stretched thin fighting the wrong war on terror; and our financial system is collapsing into Banana Republic territory.
Under Bush we have lost our military might, our economic strength, our civil liberties, and our moral authority. We have little else to give up. He has bled us dry, taking the greatest country on earth from the heights of humanity's best to the depths of our worst depravity. Most miraculous in the midst of this humiliation on the world stage is that anybody would consider voting for McCain, let alone McCain/Palin, an administration that would proudly continue the policies that are on the brink of destroying this nation.
Historians will look back on this period in awe. Dozens of careers will be made analyzing the collective madness of American citizens who voted for politicians leading them over a steep cliff. Future psychiatrists will attempt to explain how we voted for leaders who ignored climate change, disdained efforts to promote renewable energy, mocked any concern for the loss of habitat and biological diversity, dismantled the wall separating church and state, trampled our civil rights, instituted torture as government policy, weakened our national security fighting an illegal war, left unprotected our ports, our water supplies, our food supplies and our nuclear and chemical facilities, and gave up our leadership role in space, science and technology.
Try to imagine just for a moment the output from the Republican propaganda machine if a Democratic president made us beholden to Russia, made us go hat in hand, on our knees to the former Soviet Union. This is the country that is rubbing our nose in our own impotence with the blatant invasion of Georgia. Imagine the angst-filled pleas for leadership if a Democratic president destroyed our space program with ineptness and disinterest, such that we will soon no longer be a space-faring nation. In a few short years we will be in the ridiculous and embarrassing position of relying on Russia to get us to the Space Station, just as the antagonism between the two countries calls into question cooperation in space. Bush has debased us in the eyes of the world. After eight years of Republican leadership, we have become a joke, a laughing stock, a toothless tiger worthy of nothing but disdain and disgust. We have fallen far.
The legacy Bush leaves will be his oversight of the most precipitous decline of any empire in human history. And yet somebody can still contemplate voting for McCain, who voted with Bush 90% of the time in his reign of terror. Historians will view us with awe and dismay, for nothing can ultimately explain any support for the very people who have forsaken us and the ideals that made the United States that once-shining beacon on a hill.
This election is not about different philosophies of government, economics, or social values. This election is a choice between sanity and lunacy, between reason and fantasy, between our future and our demise. Obama is the only choice. We must restore our dignity, we must regain our strength, and we must again earn the respect of the world. We must do so now. Everything we hold dear depends on the choice we make in November.
We soon will not be able to launch a man into space. Pathetic.
