The Final Distraction: McCain/Palin Worse Than Bush

We all know McCain has sold his soul to win. Big mistake: the Democrats are taking the GOP bait, especially on Palin. She is the ultimate distraction. If we're not careful she'll be the final distraction. The perfect new celebrity -- Sarah Barracuda -- to capture the message in the 24-hour spin orgy, all the while attacking Obama as an elite celebrity. Any narrative that focuses on her -- any -- is a win for Republicans, carrying an undercurrent of race wars, gender wars, class wars. All ending with a debate on God and a return visit to Rev. Wright.

Palin is a gateway drug to a back-alley brawl Obama can't win. A Joseph Conrad-produced reality show/sitcom with Palin replacing Roseanne Barr fighting for the little guy with sass and sex. Wonderful.

Watch McCain repeat "maverick" 300 times a day, like a mantra, 'til Election Day. Republicans and hockey moms against corruption and Lear jets. Orwell for second graders: distraction and chaos, phony scandals and bullshit patriotics from the crew that would install an inexperienced neophyte -- not even put through the crucible of the national stage -- a heartbeat away from the greatest nuclear arsenal the world has ever known, and not blink. Darkest reptilian politics that speak to the ultimate calcified cynicism of Republicans.

Democrats need to ignore her -- unless she speaks about policy -- maybe she can explain and solve the collapsing world markets -- and keep the focus relentlessly on the disastrous results of Bush/McCain/Republican rule. They need to remind voters of the disasters of the last seven-plus years. Specifically. And as people have been saying, we need to be mad as well as inspired.

John McCain is the Republican Party as much as Bush -- we need to be constantly reminded of the policies (and, yes, the crimes) that are threatening this country from within.

Obama must hit Republicans ten times harder. Let's hear about war profiteering, taxpayer-funded mercenary armies and privatizing core functions of state, habeas corpus and warrantless wiretapping and presidential signing statements, and Katrina and justice department politicization, and phony intel and Abu Ghraib, rendition and torture.

If the Democratic leadership wants to disregard its base and continue to disregard the rule of law, they deserve to lose...and will. Let's hope the Obama campaign doesn't come to this conclusion 10 days out. He needs to articulate his vision of the future, but he also needs to articulate a version of reality. The fiercest urgency is needed now.

But some other fundamentals seem to be lost in the frenzy. McCain is no maverick, but it is worth understanding why the rabid right wing is cheering his call for government "reform" and to change "how government works at every level."

McCain won't just be more of the same -- it will be worse than Bush-Cheney -- using the disasters of the past eight years and the actual crises we face to double down on the American Enterprise/Heritage Foundation vision of government that desires, as Grover Norquist said, to shrink government until "we can drown it in a bathtub."

I would recommend a return visit to the groundbreaking Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

McCain, who said he knows nothing about economics, will surely hand over the reins to the Friedmanites and neoconservatives who have sent the country on a path to ruin. Anyone looking at his team could tell you that. Palin and the interests she represents are even further to the right.

Now, no one in their right mind -- including reasonable independents and Republicans -- wants to double down on neocon ideology, but here comes the "maverick" and his economic advisers to use the crises we face to implement more "change" and "reform" to the system by privatizing everything in sight. Is this what the American people want? When they are aware of it, the answer is always no. It's the same bullshit re-branded.

It may happen in a shock therapy in the first 100 days, or financial chaos may force them to wait until things stabilize, but sooner or later they will follow their fundamentalist creed. Ruin the government you are purporting to run and turn it over to privatization frenzy, creating a shadow government of private corporate rule. That's the whole idea.

So let's brand bust this maverick gibberish but understand the coded language that belies their true mission... we should take them at the true meaning of their words.

Not just more of the same -- worse than the same. Times of crisis are great opportunities to implement the radical agendas we usually reject.

That's also the idea.

McCain and the neocon ideologues won't "reform" government, they will gut government and privatize everything in sight in the name of responding to the crises they helped engineer through Bush and Cheney. Their view of government is the reverse of the Hippocratic Oath: do harm and then when the patient is sick, give the wrong medicine, watch him die, and sell off the body parts.

They will destroy the Department of Energy, HUD and anything else they can get their hands on. With this crew, all you need to do is destroy government, privatize it and get out of the way, and then a magic utopia appears. Well, actually it doesn't, but a lot of connected people get rich, and in the privatized war business, blood money flows and a fuck of a lot of innocent people die. The numbers and the misery are staggering. The legacy of Bush/McCain is a legacy of shame. Any man that stood with this criminal administration should be forced to answer for it.

The Republicans have been ruinous and most of it stems from an ideology that leaves the government in ruins. McCain has been on board hook, line and sinker. He voted with Bush over 90% of the time. End of story.

It is fundamentally corrupt and dishonest to call it reform when leaders want to cripple government, then hand it over to private industry, usually subsidized by taxpayers, but for other people's profits. More like contempt for government.

Red meat for dummies... a horror show for the rest of us.

Obama needs to explain to the country what this will cost us in real terms -- however many billions a day in Iraq and what that could buy, repair, fix, and allow in human terms -- ask us if can we afford it, and Obama must -- to use imagery the neocons can understand -- knock them down, put his boots on their throats, and never let up.

Comments

[bdd]

Is Obama listening???

[smurphette]

John, I hear you 100% but guess what our voices get lost in the vaccum we call MSM. However I'am not scared, because everyday each of us wake and go on our daily routines,there's not a time we don't realize that it takes a little bit more and more just to stay above the water. No I'am not afraid of how the media is trying to call us all out and play on our fears and prejudices I think every time they continue with their daily bashing over the head race baiting in this historic election season, they remind most of us what is truly at stake here. No I'am not afraid of the total divisive policitical posturing done by the MSM on behalf of the Republican Party. I'am tired of being tired and waking up everyday to go on with my daily routine,not knowing if today will be the day I learn my mortgage holder has filed for bankrupcy and I no longer have a home to call my own. So today I woke up not to tried of being tried and went on my way with my daily routine knowing that in a few short weeks OUR VOICES WILL BE HEARD!


Obama/Biden 08

[Pupadup4oBama]

I dunno John, I think all this attention on her is not a bad thing...she is being VERY closely scrutinized, much like Obama was during the primaries - this is our vetting of her...she needs it because she is a complete unknown.
People are paying attention and it's OBVIOUSLY getting to McSame. He ADMITTED that the pig with lipstick comment was not about Palin, but even more than that he keeps attacking, lying and trying to defend himself....a person who attacks feels threatened.
As tough as the neocons are acting - I think they are really losing it.
I do agree that this couple (and I call them couple because I really think that he would like to bed her) is scary....VERY scary and way worse than Bush. Yes, we have to be careful...but again, I think they are slowly losing it and getting sloppy.

[Questinia]

But Sarah pales in comparison to the economy. The truth will come out. Profits are privatized and losses are publicized. Enough people need to wake up from the trance of distraction, the trance of the past eight years and trauma sustained by our nation. We can't be mesmerized anymore by Svengali neocons.

[bdd]

Is Obama listening???????

[DreaminBig]

Thank you...thank you....thank you! I have been having "Shock Doctrine" nightmares since the RNC convention. The writing is on the wall and it is up to each of us to help our fellow Americans to wake up!! I have personally purchased several copies of Naomi's book and sent it to my family members. There will always be those who just won't see but if each of us can reach just one person, we will be ahead of the game. Get out there everyone!! Make your voices heard. And just for the record, I am one American woman who does NOT respect, NOT like and NOT trust Ms. Palin.

[vietveter]

As usual, right on point,

thank you

[dve2z]

In 1999, even before Bush got elected, I was watching his visit to a hospital, him exuding the "compassionate conservatism", kissing babies and so on. That was enough for me to write in email to my father, "Bush is an absolute fake jerk, and a*****e.". Oh boy didn't I turn to be right?

but Palin is much much worse than Bush. Bush is a fake Christian, like he is fake everything. But Palin is a true, fanatic believer. She is of Ahmadinejad caliber.
She believes in Last Days and the holy war.

McCain is on personal crusade to get even with Bush and prove he would have been better in 2000. In 2000, could be. Not now.

this is my first election, and I follow it very closely. McCain/Palin is an absurd ticket. It is surreal. More wars, more oil, less jobs is exactly what America should stop doing as soon as possible. Has anyone in GOP actually cares for the country?

[dve2z]

naive me "Has anyone in GOP actually cares for the country?"

I just watched Naomi Klein's interview with John. It looks like not only war is a continuation of diplomacy by other means, but it also continuation of corporate business.

I thought of Robocop movies - is that where we are heading?

[PDXKevin]

You need to send this to Plouffe's personal e-mail ASAP, John.

[Indie2008]

"McCain / Palin worse than Bush?" Oh, you betcha

[Dichotomy]

So very well said and your comments really get to the bottom of how serious this all is, lipstick aside.

I have every confidence Barack Obama will rise to this challenge and persevere. Why would anyone voluntarily take on the task that lies before him as next President? God bless him.

[PioneerKing]

Stop tip toeing around and call the republicans and the McCain/Palin campaign for what they are.

These people are racist, bigots, anti-Semites and anti-Catholic. They are divisive and repugnant.

McCain/Palin and the republicans, said throughout their convention speeches this was a cultural war and about personalities.

McCain/Palin and the republican agents of intolerance and dixiecrats are just showing America who they really are, what they have been masking since their southern strategy was first implemented decades ago.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/governor-palins-reading-l_b_126478.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/10/palin-quoted-anti-semite_n_125429.html