Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Reich Here, Reich Now



If a morbidly obese man is a year away from a heart attack, but choking on a piece of steak right now, which should be our immediate course of action: Should we pester him about changing his diet and getting more exercise, or apply the Heimlich Maneuver right now?

The answer is obvious, as is the reason why this rhetorical question serves as a perfect Election Day metaphor.

Yes, the process of restoring some semblance of liberty through the rule of law will require long-term treatment of the deeply entrenched corruption within our body politic. Whether this can be done at this late stage of our decline into outright despotism is a question I'm hardly competent to answer.

But any progress will require, first and foremost, that we deal with the most acute threat to what remains of our liberties: The emergence of an unabashedly totalitarian Republican ruling elite that emits the unmistakable aroma of Fascism.

Assuming that the GOP's fortunes aren't favored by Diebold, as it were, the Republican death-grip on the political system will be loosened, at least somewhat, by tomorrow.

Thank God.

Of course, there's always the possibility of a lame-duck session of Congress.

And we shouldn't assume that the “Democrat” brand through which the Ruling Party retails some of its programs would be any better, were it to achieve the same political dominance that its “competitor” presently enjoys.

The case made by the Bush-led GOP for preserving the Republican majority seems to be nothing other than this: As long as we're “at war” -- and this will continue into the foreseeable future – One Party Rule is a patriotic imperative.



The Wee Decider made that point explicitly yesterday in a campaign speech before a throng of auto-lobomotized Bu'ushists in Pensacola.


"As you go to the polls, remember we're at war," commanded the Bushling. "And if you want this country to do everything in its power to protect you and at the same time lay a foundation for peace for generations to come, vote Republican."

Statements of this sort help explain the bizarre difficulty Bush displays with the English language: Clearly, his native tongue is Orwellian.

Assuming, once again, that a Democratic congressional majority, or plurality (with a Democrat majority in the House and the Senate still under Republican control) emerges as a result of today's elections, the Brownshirt wing of the Republican Party – which, to be blunt, seems to be the only fully functional wing – will be given a handy rationale for the failure of the war in Iraq.

We can expect that the GOP's media auxiliary, having execrated the mainstream media for supposedly ignoring the “good news” out of Iraq, will perform a lock-step pivot and start describing the debacle in detail, while insisting that this is the fault of those who “stabbed us in the back” -- not a failure on the part of a president and party who have faced no significant opposition since November 2002.

Charles Featherstone offers this perceptive analysis:

“What I've seen on the web tells me that some [Republican leaders and apologists], at any rate, are willing to blame the media and Democrats exclusively for the defeat. How that works mechanically, especially given how little power they have in determining policy, is anyone's guess. But we are talking about magical thinking after all. It also means that Republicans, if they take this line of thinking to its logical conclusion (and thankfully most of them don't), are going to demand something akin to one-party authoritarian government the next time they wage war. A government with the power to keep all possible secrets, detain all possible opponents and control all domestic media. Why do anything less if success in war – and thus the future of civilization itself – hinges on it?... Which means the next logical step is the rack and the inquisition – `Do you support the war? Do you love and trust your leaders?' --and torture and death for those who do not. That is, after all, what the state does when it demands the allegiance and support of all its citizens.”


Featherstone's assessment is contingent only on the continuation of the war in Iraq through the rest of Bush's reign, and into that of his successor. The Democrat Party leadership, unfortunately, has repudiated the “cut-and-run” option. It has become committed to “victory” in Iraq. In a curious way, the Democrats have dusted off Michael Dukakis's 1988 campaign theme: The election is about competence, not ideology.

When we're mired in a war we shouldn't have fought, and continuing the war actually exacerbates the threat, cutting and running is the only rational course of action. Since we're looking down the barrel of immediate bankruptcy and financial ruin, a radical – and immediate – change of fiscal policy is imperative. And Americans of all backgrounds should be able to appreciate the need to blow up the foundations of the Garrison State and wartime dictatorship that have been laid during the past five years.

So we'll have plenty to do, and lots to talk about, no matter what happens at the polls today -- but first, we need to get that chunk of gristle dislodged from the trachea of the body politic....

8 comments:

rick said...

will,

i think that if the fat man represents our current state of affairs, then i say let the fat man die. as for the democrats, i think it will be, "good mornin ralph!"...."g'mornin sam." i think the 'switch' is on. that is to say, "ok, we got away with what we could with the republicans, and the people are now tired of the republicans. good. so now when the democrats are in charge, we'll get away with what we can while they hold the reins of power. and when the public is tired of the democrats, we'll switch back to the republicans...and we'll keep doing this until we have a complete police state and a war based economy." well, that is how i figure the unseen hand is now talking...or something along those lines.

and by the way, that title was hilarious!

dixiedog said...

Well, the Constitution Party had no candidate for this mid-term election so I didn't bother wasting gas travelling to the polls. The CPVA mentioned that the Marriage Amendment to the VA Constitution was important and I was aware it was on the ballot. But my contention with that is that if preventing homosexual "marriages" requires amending the state constitution when Virginia law already prohibits this, then the BATTLE IS ALREADY LOST!! Dammit, I can't see why it's so difficult for good folk - be they evangelicals, the CP officials, true traditionalists/constitutionalists among the commoners, matters not - to see that changing LAWS is acting no different than the average Leftist likewise trying to prevent the ten commandments from being displayed in the classroom. If they can ignore clear LAWS already on the parchment for over a century, what's to prevent them from also doing the same with a [cough...sneeze]...constitutional LAW?? Once again, it's the HEART and the MIND of the commoner that's broke and depraved. Otherwise, all these so-called "activist" judges and other government agents wouldn't be in the positions they currently occupy. Why have self-described conservative and/or traditionalist/constitutionalist folk just today, or only in the last two dozen years give or take a few years, squawking so loudly about the depraved culture, the morality devolution, the growth of leviathan government, etc.??? This crap started DECADES AGO even before the FDR regime came upon the scene, but he put leviathan growth on the fast track. Yet, he was elected to FOUR!! terms as Der Führer der Vereinigten Staaten. If no commoner rebellion was evident when the dawn of government subsidies/welfare/regulation was ballooning during the FDR years, why should we expect to see one now, for God's sakes?? As is evident, I reckon, indeed I am growing more tired of the talk of a "return to the constitution" era for a government from which the commoners LONG AGO threw out all restraints upon. Get that? LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG AGO! And it was the oldies back when they were spring chickens, who are now safely (so they think) and comfortably ensconced in their government-controlled and bankrolled retirements, that I remember would always answer a political or cultural inquiry from the youngster thusly: "Never mind that, son. Don't worry yourself with what's happening over yonder - other side of town, other side of the state, other side of the country - because it doesn't affect us. Hello?? They could and did ignore machinations happening "over yonder" and when the next gen, and the next gen, comes along, the machinations are now "over here" and in our faces. The oldies will suffer too when forced budget reductions does eventually become the jungle dictate in due time. Ugly scenario, I admit, but it's what I imagine in my picobrain. Even a depraved culture and society cannot continue living and slouching upon the shoulders of the productive class without an eventual backlash, especially with the depraved mindset that now reigns among the post-modern youngster set.

Now, with that off my chest, I do really wish that I possessed your level of optimism for America reversing course from its current version of manifest destiny. After all, that's been a keen facet of the minds of the elites since the 19th century.

The problem is I can't see it, as is plainly evident from my diatribe. Seriously, I'm blind as a bat to this particular "return to our roots" apparition. In fact, what I see instead is America in steep decline and it's thus now (actually for some years) clear why America specifically fails to cross the mind of John while penning the last book. I often pondered that conundrum growing up of why America is not to be found in the eschatological blueprints when it was (keyword insert here) the most powerful nation militarily and economically on earth. Now, of course, it's quite clear to me and all but obvious ;).

We still might possess the most powerful military machine at present, but we're also the largest debtor nation on earth and have been since 1985, bar none. And our military is really used as a proxy for the UN, which is itself transforming gradually to being a proxy for the rising superstate, the fifth and final world empire, the revived Rome, the EU. Our military acts as its teeth, to the exclusion of our own and has been since 1945.

However, concerning the EU specifically, the EU is growing its own teeth gradually to be sure and will eventually supplant our own I believe over time. Since we're virtually broke, busted, and near bankrupt nationally, the Europeons and their overlords cannot depend on us indefinitely for their defense, or as a perpetual proxy for their desired aggressions round about the world, especially in the Middle East. So you can count on seeing more EU military components having even more of a presence in the ME and places like the Balkans for the purported purpose of "policing" as time marches forward.

dixiedog said...

Oh and I concur with rick, that title had a nice (ugly) ring to it ;).

William N. Grigg said...

Brothers Rick and D.D. -- I'm glad you liked the title!

Stay tuned for a fairly major announcement at the end of this comment...

D.D., you made a passing but pointed reference to "Manifest Destiny," a subject in which I've developed a renewed interest in large measure because of Hampton Sides' terrific new book "Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West."

The book deals primarily with the encounter between the U.S. Army and the Navajo, and there are numerous other stories that bud off from the narrative bough -- mini-biographies of Kit Carson (THERE's a fascinating, conflicted, ambivalently heroic man), John C. Fremont and his backer, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton, Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, the Navajo leader Narbona and his militant son-in-law Manuelito ... it's a fascinating and hugely depressing story of government-abetted greed and presumption. Which is emphatically NOT how I'd been taught to view Manifest Destiny, even though I'm of a generation that was exposed to the beginnings of what is now called Multiculturalism.

The thing that I find most provocative about Sides' book, and your comments, D.D., is the uncanny continuities between the rapacious expansion of the federal state into Mexican and Navajo land, and the ongoing occupation of Iraq as part of the "global democratic revolution."

I'm sure I'll blog about this at length -- or (here's the announcement) I might end up writing something about this subject in either the book I'm working on, or in the new periodical I'm trying to start with some friends. I'll have more details about these undertakings pretty soon, I hope.

Captain Kirk said...

Rick,

I'm just waiting for the numerous bureaucracies to be consolidated under just a few agencies with names like the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Plenty, etc....I think you get my drift. Will, BTW, I like the title.

dixiedog said...

I'm sure I'll blog about this at length -- or (here's the announcement) I might end up writing something about this subject in either the book I'm working on, or in the new periodical I'm trying to start with some friends. I'll have more details about these undertakings pretty soon, I hope.

Great news, I hope it all works out as you envisioned it. I mentioned in a previous thread that you should consider writing a book or books about all the topics you have painstakingly researched and written about in TNA over the years. It looks like you already had that firmly in mind...hehe.

Other than my increasingly aged collection of TNA magazines, warfare and military history books, and computer-related manuals, my library is barren of any current material and you are about the only author I readily read these days concerning subject matter dealing with the current body politic, culture, and government.

And a periodical? That would be great, if you and your buddies can yank it off the ground. Please keep us informed, as you said, and let us know where we can purchase these items as they become available.

Lastly, I'm squarely in your generation ;) if your profile is accurate. According to it, you're 43 and I'm 41 and, even though I'm pegged as a Gen X'er, I fit more the mold of the baby boomer set and always had elder friends from junior-high onwards. Some of whom were/are 10 years or more my senior. By contrast, I've met very few Gen X'ers I have much, if anything, in common with in terms of worldview and value system.

dixiedog said...

I'm not sure which "Right here, right now" tune you had in mind when you penned your title, or even if you had one in mind, but this one is a parody of Jesus Jone's version, the one I'm familiar with:

A Hannitoid on the radio talked about revolution
When it's already passed him by
Dubya didn't have this to sing about you
You know it feels good to possess liberty

I saw the decade in, when it seemed
America could change at the blink of an eye
And if anything
Then there's your sign...of the times

I was free and I waited, waited
I was free and I waited for this
Reich here, Reich now

I was free and I waited, waited
I was free and I waited for this
Reich here, reich now
This is no place I want to be
Reich here, Reich now
Watching America depart from her history

I was free and I was blind
To the machinations of the political and cultural kind
Reich here, Reich now
This is no place I want to grow old in
Branded like cattle in the herd pin
Reich here, Reich now
But to truly "come out of her"
may require becoming a martyr
Reich here!...Reich now!

zchris63 said...

Once again you never disappoint. Look forward to your new publication or books, whichever the case may be.