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.
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Correct. McCain/Palin will be worse than Bush/Cheny. American Fascism is knocking at the door... If Palin becomes President, at best the country will become even more polarized, at worse, American Fascism will become a reality. It is time to take our country back!
We all need to sing the mantra: McCain/Palin worse than Bush!
Always love Cusak's rants. Well-reasoned and full of the fury that anyone with a beating heart, active brain and desire for free-thinking should be feeling after eight years of Shrub.
Other than the diehards, those Grand Old Pentecostals who'd vote for a doddering curmudgeon and his superstitious, parochial pea-brain if put up for election..
Up here in the Great White North, I can hear 300 million voices screaming "Enough".
"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."
Obama or the DNC needs to make an ad out of this line - or maybe a Ross Perot-esque hour long prime-time special, to go into detail so the under-informed can learn about each topic with some breadth. Not only would it help Obama, it would help every down-ticket race across the country.
We don't have the infrastructure to take on the massive rebuilding of Iraq on our own, so much of it was outsourced--partly because Bill Clinton gutted the military to balance the budget. Maybe the contracts should have been more properly handled.
I wasn't aware that Bush was present in Abu Ghraib? Am I mistaken or was McCain there too?
It is not unusual for a President to extend his power in a time of crisis...i
McCain is against torture.
Justice Department politicization I think I would concede.
But it's not a great tag line, it has misplace blamed.
Also, aren't the Dems in control of Congress? There is a reason there are 3 Branches..
Wow, I did not think it was possible for John Cusack to get more attractive
But wow, John, I am still sooo turned on!!
Anybody remember a quote by McCain caught on video at the Iowa Straw Vote (pre-primary), sometime in 2007, where McCain says "If you voted for Bush, vote for me"? I'm certain my memory is true about this... Just need confirmation and it should be used by the Obama campaign.
Bravo to John Kusak. In light of the AIG bailout, it looks as if we are privatizing not only warmongering but now the insurance industry where the CEO made millions last year.This seems like a perfect time to revisit the KEATING 5.
I'm not sure what you mean by the takeover of AIG being privatizing the insurance industry.
Honestly if I could pick one thing to be taken over by the gov. it would be the insurance industry. As a profit making venture it's a scam, by it's very nature.
Whatever you or your sister say.
Poetic account of our frightening reality. Would you consider taking your convictions on the road to knock on doors in Colorado, Ohio, and Virginia? Way too many people in those states don't seem to get it... and they're likely not reading the Huffington Post... or much of anything for that matter.
I second the motion! Get this out to people "not in the choir."
John Cusack has accurately captured the feelings of this democrat (a small town, moderate, middle-aged woman, at that). Bravo John. This is exactly why I could never be a republican. I do not trust that when the government unleashes the corporate machine, they (the fat cats) will take care of my neighbor..
Most Republicans are really Libertarians or those that have been brainwashed by Republican BS and should be Democrats. The only people that should be Republicans are greedy and in the top 5% financially.
I sort of disagree with John Cusak that the Democrats are taking the bait of the GOP in re; to Palin.
Much of the mess that is forced down the American peoples throats is construted by the Repulican Party and driven by the Media.
It is designed to be a no win situation. Case in point: Ms. Rothchild was given Primetime Coverage to announce her cross over support from Hillery Clinton to Mc Cain Palin while prominent Women For The Channge We Need pledged their support for Obama Biden and you never herd a word on any of the Major Networks.
Had they come out for Mc Cain it would be on a 24 hr cycle on all of the networks.
You can find their endorsement on Utube under Jobs Baby Jobs its 24.45 minutes long.
Lets demand fairness for the candidates. Lets make sure these womens voices are herd.
Arianna, Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, Rachell Maddow we need you on this one.
We will not sit by while these womens voices are being silenced.
We need to hear what these women are saying on a National platform.
Everybody get busy and help us get our women herd.
Uh... you must not read the articles in the HuffPo if you think Dems aren't taking the bait.
Obama needs to explain why he wants to delay the withdrawl of troops in Iraq.
Obama needs to explain why his advisers, economic ones, come from the top of bankrupt operations like Lehman, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Hamas needs to articulate that Obama would be better for their constituents in the wake of what you call the torcher of enemy combatants in the war on terror.
Anyone been wire tapped? Didn't think so.
Nice rambling diatribe.
Worse than Bush? I'm afraid, Peter, you've cried wolf one too many times.
You haven't been paying attention. Republicans talk about being "tough", but when the truth outs, it was really them in bed with the terrorists - but luckily, they all get pardons.
Reagan set the standard with Iran/contra and then again in Lebanon. The message was clear in Lebanon, hit us and we'll run like pigs. Now, with Iraq, Jr. has dissolved what was left of our credibility.
McCain needs to explain his top advisors, all lobbyists. Phil Gramm blew the guts out of regulation in banking in America beginning in the 1990s and the free for all began. Now we get to clean it up, because God forbid the rich take a loss. The country will fail whine whine - oh wait, Phil says we are the whiners.
Outstanding post
why does every hollywood millionaire think they can relate to the democrat base.the thought that they know anything about day to day struggles makes my skin scrawl.pam
bigblane maybe you should take the time to get to know some of these celebrities. Not everyone in Hollywood is irresponcible. Judging people without knowing them is just dumb, just as thinking millionairs can't relate to Demacrats is just as ludicrous.
When we set ourselves up as judges over other peoples lives without the facts to prove our conclusions about that person we make a mockery of the human decency that we need to bind us together as a cohesive unit.
We need to stop the madness that we have grown comfortable with. Can't We All Get Along?
Hollywood millionaires were not born that way. They spent their entire lives knowing exactly what the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people are. This was a brilliant assessment by JC.
Right on.
He is an American with an opinion. One I happen to agree with and just like ourselves he has every right to state that opinion. What difference does it matter his background he is an intelligent well spoken man. If you have a problem with him just because he has money that is your problem many people in this country have money, that does not mean they cannot relate.
Cusack isn't new to this!
He has strong convictions (see War Inc.), and the platform to express himself. He really knows what he's talking about so why not do so?
It's not only the democrat base that Hollywood millionaires relate to.
Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Selleck, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Clint Eastwood, The Rock, ... and of course, Reagan was a Hollywood millinoaire, as is Fred Thompson and Arnold Schwarzenegger all for the GOP.
The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is the subtitle, and if the current bailout of the financial services sector in the UK and USA ain't a profound shock to the fools who have swallowed the Friedmanite mantra since 1980, voodoo economics, then the chickens who have come home to roost at last will jump into a deep-fry faster than a New York minute, and a chicken has more sense than the Swiftian yahoo herd being driven by Fox, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. etc. How can these people wake up and count the cost of the last eight years, and look at the way the world laughs at the USA, even as they prepare to defend themselves from the wreckage of a country in free fall with nuclear weapons, Armageddon evangelicals, gun fanatics ready to blow anyone away, and mega billionaire hedge dealers who just can't get enough, all with an underpinning of economic theory designed for mutual destruction of society and environment, a payback for the indifference of the world to the fate of small nations.
I know in the midst of all of this, it is lame to say that not all gun-toters are fanatic or rabid. It's often just a matter of fact here in the west in the several states where I have lived. Some hunt, some inherited the gun from their fathers/gr
We can't put too much on Obama. It will take heroic effort to undo the past 8 years and it will be painful to each of us.
Palin? Take out the "L"ies and she is just Pain.
McCain has sold not only his sloe to win but has sold out his country by picking Palin as his running mate,this person is not fit to be the Govenor of her own state.
They just had the largest protest in State histort against Palin this week,funny the news media did not pick it up or is it?
You are right, what Bush and Cheney did in 8 years may never be undone. But at least a Democrat can begin to save the country from itself.
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