music: Loreena McKennitt - The Mask And Mirror
I'm as sick of talking about this election as anybody, but like a bad dream that you just can't wake up from, it doesn't go away. I'm sick of hearing pundits on tv talk about starting the country's "healing process". Healing, if it is to happen, cannot begin until damage has stopped being done. Does anybody really think -- now that they have, to use Cheney's word, a "mandate" -- that this administration is suddenly going to become kind and compassionate? I don't see it happening. If Bush's first 4 years are any indicator, real healing for this country is a LONG way off. In the near term, be prepared for them to bring on more pain. A lot more. The first 4 years were just a preview demonstration. Now we're about the get the real thing.
The leadership of the Democratic Party, which sold its soul long ago, predictibly calls for reconciliation, and tells supporters to support the newly reelected President. But the democratic party as a national institution has little real power left in Washington, and its influence with progressives and the anti-war movement on the ground was tenuous at best all along. We knew John Kerry was a sellout, but we got behind him anyway because we believed him to be better than the alternative. Now that his candidacy has failed, and his party with it, people are going to look elsewhere for outlets.
I don't see many who are willing to take this lying down. Expect demonstrations in the streets. With every anti-freedom, anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-world measure congress works to pass, expect an outcry from the public in the blue states. Expect the newly emboldened government, headed by the most arrogant man to occupy the White House since Andrew Jackson, to ignore all of them. "A leader does not govern by polls and focus groups. Besides, we have a mandate from the electorate!"
But the outry will continue nonetheless, and the government will be forced to respond, but it will not do so in a way the U.S. Constitution would condone. More protesters will be jailed for longer periods of time. New York City in August of 2004 was just a trial run. The poor, economically devastated, desperate, and out of options, will join the liberal activitsts, and will also be repressed.
How will such repression happen on a wide scale without outrage even from some who supported Bush in 2004? After all, even a corporate controlled media can only do so much to prevent word from getting around, and I think many Bush voters would still like to think of themselves as a decent, non-oppressive people.
The answer occurred to me this morning, but I didn't like it. Alas, it seems altogether too likely.
I predict that sometime during the next year, the United States will be hit by another major terrorist attack. This will be exactly what Bush and Ashcroft need to further cement their agenda. Think about it. Such an event would be sufficient to scare many who opposed the administration's policies into voluntary silence. The rest, who still dare to raise their voice against the holy leader, could again be labeled "unpatriotic" or "with the terrorists".
Any remaining opposition to further expansion of Patriot Act-eqsue legislation would be insignificant, and the newly granted police powers to make sure such opposition is kept quiet for a long, long time. Behind bars, and out of the public eye.
As an added boon for Bush and his allies, the lack of economic recovery could also be blamed on the terrorist acts. He could further cut taxes for the top 2%, the corporate giveaways to benefit his base would continue, and the President (and Republican congress) would be excused from responsibility for the ongoing economic downturn. Can't you see, it's the terrorists?
All it would take would be another 9/11. One day, and a few thousand lives, but the effects would be felt by millions for years to come.
Whether the administration directly (but untracably) causes the terrorists acts, or simply further inflames the Muslim world to such an extreme that a reaction becomes inevitable, the result ends up the same. More end up dead, and more power goes to the war leaders. Behind the curtain, Osama bin Laden and George Bush both work toward the same ends. They both like war, and they both get more followers when people on either side get killed.
Will more Americans wake up by 2008? Don't count on it.
I'd love to be proven wrong about any and all of this.
Gotta go. I had already planned to be outta here 15 minutes ago. I'll write more about how I personally plan to deal with this in my own life a little later.