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.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
first-time reader of this blog and i can't wait to read the previous ones.
to Uhhhh: McCain is against torture ... but then why did he fold when he was up against the administration to ban torture?
and when it's mentioned that the president extended his power during a time of crisis, the conspiracy theorist in me wants to say that maybe there are times of crisis in order to extend power (Project for the New American Century's "Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century", page 51).
Okay, I have been meaning to do this for a while:
I can summarize this article in a few sentences:
I hate Republicans. Republicans want to gut the government. They want to benefit financially from gutting the government. They want to ruin America. And I hate them. Oh, and they are evil.
Thank God (sorry, but I am one of the stupid people who believes in Him) you, John Cusack, didn't write the Gettysburg Address. Sometimes being concise works. I don't think you have the hang of it yet.
Dear Uhhh (an appropriate handle for the above reply)
Half the problem with what we see and hear in the media is based on the desire for "being concise". Some things require more thought and explanation to convey depth of meaning. Repubs like it short and sweet-e.g. drill baby drill. There's concision for you. There's a wll thought out idea.
We need more people to present ideas in detail not in sound bytes.
Try it some time.
Where do you think you are? Redstate or some other nutty rightwing blog? You don't own religion. You don't even own common sense. If you don't like it here- see ya, wouldn't want to be ya. As far as the hating Republicans? Indeed. Definitely. Of course. Yes. That's a big firm (from my VN days, meaning "affirmative"). Have no doubt, yes, there are some of us that absolutely hate and despise Republicans. Is that clear enough for you. We didn't start out feeling this way, they forced us to.
This may sound irrelevant at first, and it's not a plug for John's voice work in the animated feature "Igor" that opens tomorrow, but there's a spooky bit of synchronicity at the end of the film that sent wonderful shivers up and down my spine when I saw it last week (at a preview screening). Tiny bit of a spoiler here:
At the film's conclusion the bad guys have been defeated and Igor has won the day (wow, I didn't see that coming) in a competition held inside a giant arena. The camera rises up into an aerial view looking down at the arena - and talk about coincidences, fireworks/streamers shoot out in celebration from the stanchions atop the structure - JUST FREAKIN' LIKE THE END OF OBAMA'S STADIUM ACCEPTANCE SPEECH!
And oh yeah, the film's pretty good and a lot of fun too.
Dear John, i'm sorry I didn't see your fine article until today. Yours and Sean Penn's are 2 of the best I've read all campaign. Perhaps this is why the Repub's are so afraid of 'celebrities'? If you could be allowed to get out in public to serve as a spokesperson for Obama, it would be wonderful, and you do not have the "stigma" that Sean still carries from some of his past comments.
http://www
My brother was one of the people who got cut at the end of August . . . please read the comments at the end of the article. These are from people in Springfield who know what is going on.
Blogo and Hynes - two democrats at war with each other.
Obama is very much involved in this democrat mess, which leave noone worth voting for in November.
Our biggest problem is that the majority of people are very simple-minded. If McCain uses "maverick" wow, he's awesome. If Obama uses "we are going to have to work hard" and "we will go through a difficult time" the simple-minded/weak are turned off at the thought of more hardship.
People chased after Reagan because he made it all seem so easy. When you've got an unruly teen or a sick infant or a rocky relationship, that's where your energy and focus goes. They can't cope with these huge issues. They want to vote for the person who will make it all go away by just saying he will make it all go away....
McCain/Palin are not very bright people but unfortunately a large amount of voters respond to them viscerally. Imagine an America that will someday divide itself in two. The Repubs can go live over there and the enlightened can live over there... I know... pie in the sky....
I hate to say I agree to some extent with your post that people want a fix-it-all. What ever happened to personal responsibility? What happened to making sure you were okay no matter who is president? But realistically Rep v. the Enlightened, give me a break. And to talk down to the simple-minded people? Insert typical Republican response here: maybe I am too busy clinging to my guns and religion to worry about problems that fall outside of the realm of my intellectual understanding.
If Democrats want a clue to why Republicans are successful in elections (maybe not always so in office), they may want to stop calling small town American people simple minded while they are claiming to be for the working Americans.
If the Republicans care so much about the little guy, why have they voted in favor of oil interests over and over? Why have gas prices continually risen so the average American can barely afford to drive to work?
Uhhhh, you stated in your post: "Insert typical Republican response here: maybe I am too busy clinging to my guns and religion to worry about problems that fall outside of the realm of my intellectual understanding", brought Palin to mind, but then I realized you couldn't be talking about her, as even though there are so many subjects beyond her realm of intellectual understanding or experience, she seems more than willing to try to dominate them anyway. Her lack of knowledge about energy, the economy and foreign policy is astonishing for anyone running for public office, much less second in command of the U.S.
J.C. is on the money with this. His eloquent, thoughtful, and intelligent political contributions on this site are refreshing, and frankly, I would love to see him as a moderator for the debates. I know it's far fetched and will not happen, but if we could get him, John Stewart and Bill Maher together on prime time, you KNOW people would listen.
Even if you don't know that much about politics (the hidden agenda's etc.) it's not hard to figure out how this administration functions. Why wasn't Bush impeached after Katrina? Because everyone was enjoying their flat screen tv's and other little luxuries including me, and they were making gazillions on Wall Street. Now we have the domino effect of their policies, but does that change peoples mind? Incredibly NO! I live in McCain country (accident) and speak to intelligent women over 50 who think Sarah Palin was a good choice. I can't even say anything, my jaw is permanently locked into an open position. Everything is tumbling down around us and they still think it's all good. Just a little rumble that shall pass.. and the abortion thing, oh, yeah, don't worry that will stay the same. Round of golf anyone? I still think McCain, Bush, Rove, Palin are admired by a large group because they are giving them permission to be evil. Lie, deny, manipulate, deceive, distract, those are traits evidently to be admired. The one thing Sarah is doing is giving permission for us women to be lying, conniving bitches...
Haniwow,
I also currently live in McCain country. I'm an intelligent woman over 50 who DOESN'T think Palin is a good choice for our country. I realize not all women are created equal, politically. Palin doesn't equal Hillary Clinton just because she's the same gender. Hopefully, people will not cast a vote for McCain/Palin just because they want to see a woman in the White House or are ticked off because Hillary wasn't chosen as her party's candidate. Sexism can work both ways and voting for someone just because they're a woman isn't any better than NOT voting for someone just because they're a woman.
Sen. Clinton's women supporters, aka, "PUMA's" who are casting their vote for Palin were never Hillary Clinton supporters in the first place; they are and always have been anti-Obama supporters.
( continued from Part 2 )
-- Part 3 of 3
This Country has suffered the invasion of from the British .. The French ... Lived through a Civil War...Worl
The Constitution was a body of works to protect it's citizen's rights against Invasion of the Greatest Magnitude ... It's own Citizens ! ... The protection against the wrath of any Snake Oil Salesmen .... Religious Fanatic ..... Capitalistic Tycoon ..... or a two-bit smooth talking Politician !
It has stood the test of time since the founding of this Great Nation ......
Now here We Stand at this very Moment .... ..........
I Swear to You .........J
These are Deceptively Dangerous Times ! The Neo-Con / Religious Right is the Most Dangerous Factions that our Founding Fathers so so desperately tried to save us against ..........
They are Vigilant and Most Organized.
The Religious Right is waiting for Christ to return after the World goes up in Smoke ... And "They Will Make it Happen " ! ...Unfortu
(continued from Part 1 )
-- Part 2 of 3
See Mr. Cusack .......... One of the Greatest Deceptions of all Time is the Deception of having you Think that you Live in a Quote~UnQuote - Democracy here in the US ....... That notion went out the window long ago with the Patriot Act .
Make no Mistake about it .... " Obama is apart of that Great Wheel " ....... You learn a great deal about a person by carefully observing his/her actions .... and on what they Don't say ...as apposed to what the Actually Say !
And Let me just State for the Record ..just in case some of our readers may think that my vision is blurry or better yet...that I'm an Obama hater .......to the contrary ...
I'm African American ...and will vote for him .....
But....
Remember this as it is written today .......... the Democrats.
But you will not get them back ..........
(Continue to Part 3 )
-- Part 1
Mr. Cusack ... Well Written but there lies the Dichotomy of This Election..
I'm sorry to inform you ..that you'll never get Obama to ARTICULATE those eloquent Truths that you rightfully pointed out :
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.
IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN !!!!!!!!
Why ? .... because Obama is a Spoke in a much Larger Wheel ... A wheel that provides that Smooth Ride that most all Elected officials in both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party on the Hill are so accustom to enjoying .......... And that Wheel is the Wheel of Power ! ....... The Truly Sad Satire in this massive deception is ... that we the People Actually think we can Change that Fact as it stands now ........
No No .... Obama will no more be ready and willing to Articulate those Truths that his Base is Dying to take action against .... then he was ready to stand of for the rights of the people with his July Vote on the Fisa Bill
( http://blo
( Continue to Part 2 )
It might help if this "article" had more substance to it. Say...I don't know, an anecdote? It's just another typical rant by a liberal Republican-hater. It's nothing interesting, just unsubstantiated angry mudslinging. Kind of boring...
You first have to have a soul, to sell it. McCain doesn't have a soul. The only thing being sold is his crap to us that he is going to be a reformist, and, that's why he brought in Palin to take down the old boys club who hold the White House. McCain still operates as if he is still a POW. That's only scary when he keeps bringing up Russia, China and Iran and calling them enemies (countries who all have nukes). And, Palin has no knowledge of foreign affairs or policies, again, she was Googled by McCain before he had one phone call with her and she accepted his VP offer. But you all go crazy and vote these people in and then you'll see who's been DUPED and sold (no pun intended) a Bridge to Destruction.
does anyone actually believe we are not already in a fascist state?
"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Folks, ALL OF THE MEDIA IS CORPORATELY OWNED.
There's a saying about people getting the leaders or the government they deserve. Pretty scary thought. If people don't take the time to look at the facts before choosing a candidate, we're all in trouble. If voters checked out McCain's past political record, I don't believe they would trust him to be the "reformer" he claims to be. He says he wants to change how Washington has done business, but he WAS how Washington did business, was a huge Bush supporter, yet now he's distancing himself from the Bush Administration. If hind sight is 20/20, why hasn't the past decade taught us anything?
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
