"...the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth's political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor."
----Mark Twain
As the eight years of failed Republican-lead policy threatens to crest at epic heights, swamping its ripped-off citizenry with crushing debt and decimating much of the sociopolitical landscape, the dastardly architects of the No Dollar Left Behind Ponzi scheme will be -- like cheesy vaudevillians -- tipping their hats, tapping their canes and saying "We killed 'em, didn't we?"
And all this courtesy of millions of supporters, shills and enablers who held unwavering loyalty above all else, loyalty to a leadership that promised them wealth and power but instead rewarded them with bankruptcy and defeat; a leadership which would cannibalize their young in an instant.
It's not just Bushie and Cheney and Wolfie and Rummy and Scooter all those other cutesy-poo monikered flimflammers, it's their legion of constitution-eroding mini-me's parading around as patriotic guardians of Democracy, one fist shaking in the faces of all who would oppose them, the other fist clenching soon-to-be valueless dead president post-it notes.
They are loyal and true and dangerous as hell and their unswerving fealty has made them so. Even when presented with an undisputed list of administration blunders, blindsides and blasphemies, the xenophobic legion of lost souls registers its snickering disdain, refusing to believe that their Grand Old Papa is anything but dedicated to the proposition that all rich white guys are created better than anyone else.
And instead of being characteristically boastful of their accomplishments and touting the party's leadership, they distance themselves, invoke the name of hemi-semi-demi-god Ronnie and lay the blame on everyone else: the smoldering ecology, the international hostility, the divided nation.
They outsource their cake and eat it, too.
They will rage and roar and gnash their teeth but, like all bullies possessed of a cowardly core, will never own up to their deeds. They are as foul tempered as any species which requires self-immolation as a pledge of allegiance; the amount of bile spewed is commensurate with the suffocating knowledge of their own sins of complicity.
So, while under no illusions about power, about how it works for the dithering and malleable Democrats as well as Republicans, there should at least be a shared awareness among the electorate of the perils this nation faces these days, the ones that already existed and the ones we have created. The irony is, with acknowledgment and humility comes forgiveness. That's a concept the "folks" who remain "steadfast" and "robust" in their support for the eight years of Bushwacking were probably never taught by them that raised them.
Pity. A nobler cause could use such loyalty.