Sheep to the Slaughter

Surprise! Bush's approval rating is cratering and suddenly administration officials are emitting ominous warnings about the imminence of another 9/11. Knowing these loathesome people as we by now do, can there be any doubt that they would see such an event as their salvation, the thing that would send Bush's numbers rocketing, just as the original attack did six years ago, when, a mere seven months after his inauguration, he was already widely perceived as an ignorant, arrogant, in-over-his-head failure? And, can there be any doubt that a panicked nation would rally around the flag and his numbers would indeed soar?

So, to every Democrat running for president -- no, to every Democrat in the House and Senate -- I say, Why isn't a single one of you pointing out IN ADVANCE, so people can take it in and understand it IN ADVANCE, before post-disaster hysteria obliterates actual reasoning, that any such attack would be NO ONE'S FAULT BUT BUSH'S? That the man who responded to a memo headlined "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S." by telling the deliverer, "All right, you've covered your ass now" has made us not safer but EXPONENTIALLY LESS SAFE by invading a non-threatening country to settle a personal grudge ("he tried to kill my daddy") instead of protecting the nation from its actual enemy, thus allowing that enemy to regenerate itself to the point where more horror is inevitable. That rallying around this incompetent, insane criminal, who would then have allowed this kind of mass carnage TWICE, would be suicidal madness.

What are these Democrats so afraid of? George W. Bush is increasingly understood to be the worst president ever, if you can call someone who stole two elections "president" -- personally, I can't. He epitomizes so many negative human qualities that a majority of the country now feels his odiousness viscerally, yet no one dares take him on. Does Karl Rove have pictures of each and every one of them in bed with animals or underage children?

To employ a metaphor of the moment, the Democrats are like the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, refusing to acknowledge -- let alone trumpet -- the reality of how much evil is in the air for fear that, by pointing it out, they will be blamed for it. Hey, Dems, guess what? People already know. They're waiting for you to catch up and lead the fight against it. There's a reward, not a punishment, for anyone with the guts to tell the truth, in all its ugliness, about these monsters who every sentient being knows are DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY. Is no one willing to speak out with the appropriate OUTRAGE about how much damage they've done, how much damage they're still doing, how much damage, given the opportunity, they will yet do? To point out just how vulnerable they've made us? No? Well, then, when the next attack comes and you see your hopes for regaining the White House evaporate in a frenzy of Republican fear-mongering, you contemptible wimps will have gotten just what you deserve.

And let's not overlook this. This is not a parody. This is real. What it basically means is that Bush and Cheney can decide that anyone who dares to criticize them -- which is to say, any or all of us -- is threatening the peace and stability of Iraq, and can therefore have all their money and possessions confiscated. Have you heard a great Democratic hue and cry -- or even a bleat -- about this stunningly brazen presumption of power? Are the Germany-in-the-'30s comparisons still over the top? Sheep to the slaughter, every useless one of them.

Oh, and Nader, thanks again, you smug, self-righteous egomaniac. Think Gore would have let all of this happen?