Why They (Send Others To) Fight
A ‘well, duh’ moment from Barack Obama:
OTTAWA, Ill. – Barack Obama said Saturday that health care and other domestic needs will be neglected until the Iraq war ends, and that he had the judgment and ideas to lead the country.
“When this war is over, we can finally get back to facing the challenges we face here at home, the challenges you’re grappling with every day,” the Democratic presidential candidate told about 600 people at a union conference.
The first-term Illinois senator said the war now costs between $10 billion and $12 billion a month. He noted that President Bush had vetoed a $35 billion measure expanding a children’s health program and wants almost $190 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yeah, no shit.
Nothing happens for any one reason; strategies are seldom concocted for just one purpose. In the context of politics, many interests and biases must be served by any great plan that means to succeed. Thus it’s not just because wingnuts are cowardly sociopaths that they desire to have the U.S. Army blow as many people as politically possible to smithereens. It’s not just because wingnuts are pathetic losers that they get meaning in their lives by supporting policies that rob foreigners of life and limb. Their support for the war doesn’t sustain just because they are racists, or in the case of the Christian and Jewish fundamentalists among them, religious sectarians and tribalist bigots with murder in their hearts and “God” on their lips.
And they don’t continue to support the war just because they (or their friends, or, at least, those whom they admire) get rich from it.
War rewards many wingnut desires: financial, psychological, religious, political. They love war — from a safe distance — because it serves so many needs, the most practical being the one Francis Fukuyama disclosed:
I think in the case of Bill Kristol and The Weekly Standard there was actually a deliberate search for an enemy because I think that they felt that the Republican Party didn’t do as well if foreign policy wasn’t a big issue. The late 1990s was the, you know, the period of the stock market bubble and Monica Lewinsky and they didn’t really have an issue in all of that, I thought, that they thought was particularly important or had much traction with the voters and with the public.
War stalls domestic progress. Republicans are well aware that the majority of the American populace favors liberal reforms — that, in short, it favors an expansion of the welfare state. To stop such a decent thing from happening, wingnuts have created a Perpetual Warfare state that inculcates fear in the masses, militarizes American society, empties the treasury, curtails or outright destroys civil liberties.
Consider that, in the 80s when Republicans ran up incredible deficits (knowing that succeeding Democratic administrations would have to sacrifice liberal programs so as to afford cleaning up the mess), it was done with tax cuts and a cold war with a monolithic enemy. By wingnut logic, then, what would do an even better job of staving off social democracy? and of getting back power and retaining it? The answer, of course, is tax cuts and a hot war with a monolithic enemy. Which is exactly what we got.
I know there are probably some comrades who would prefer to believe that wingnuts are basically inscrutable, merely observing and noting that war provides, through some inexplicable and opaque process, a rush of endorphins to such addicted geopolitical maniacs — and leaving it at that; better than admitting there is also a perverse logic in wingnut madness. But there it is. Even serial killers have to make a living. Scaring people gives wingnuts power; once power’s had, war keeps it in their grasp and even tightens their hold on it. And it’s not like a variety of people haven’t stumbled on the same truth.
For instance, here’s Christopher Hitchens intuiting the same truth, just to completely pervert and dismiss it with characteristic mendacity:
Christopher Hitchens: I think this is more than just instinct on my part, the reaction of a lot of Democrats and liberals to the September 11th events was obviously in common with everyone else, revulsion, disgust, hatred, and so forth. But when they consider politically I think a lot of them couldn’t say this, but they thought that’s the end of our agenda for a little while. We’re not going to be talking very much about welfare and gay marriage. We’re going to be living in law and order times. Now the instinct is to think well, that must favor the right wing. Surely, that creates a climate for the conservatives–law and order and warfare and mobilization and so forth.
This instinct is exactly right; he’s so close to the next step. But the next step would be Fukuyaman; it would be an apostacy to neoconservatism. So instead comes the twistification:
In fact, the Second World War probably was a tremendous asset to the Democratic Left and presumably when the Right was so opposed to going into it because they know there’s a relationship between social mobilization and warfare. But the Left is too dumb to see this in this case. And then some of them are crackpotted enough to think that if it comes out like that, maybe it was all fixed to come out like this.
Once again a WWII analogy that gets things exactly wrong; indeed, it is fatuous enough, especially with its insinuation of a conspiracy theory, to delight Peter Robinson and Frau Farbissina Anne Applebaum, whose standards in these matters are rather high. There are a million reasons why the analogy doesn’t hold, but for the context of my point only the following matters: One, that FDR, in my opinion the only truly Leftist president we’ve ever had, was in office then where we have a moronic near-fascist in the oval office now (whose VP, for good measure, has the mentality of full-blown fascist and the sclerotic heart of the most boring sort of kleptocrat). Two, the nature of the Right has changed. Its aims — getting rich by any means, religious nuttery, a racist society — remain unchanged but where then it was truly conservative in the cautious sense, today it is murderously radical and adventurous; then it was suspicious of social mobilization per se*, now it encourages baroquely fascist mobilization, and anyone acquainted with a Gathering of Kleagles, Freepers, and even the ol’ “anti-idiotarian” digital brownshirt brigade knows exactly what I’m talking about. Herbert Hoover, a morally decent though infamously inept man, would certainly be appalled by our modern, bloodthirsty, spendthrift, chickenhawk Right** which has pushed an agenda of Perpetual War for the sake domestic power.
Consider that even with a president like FDR, who had good instincts, American citizens were put into internment camps: if a Liberal president could enact a policy that depraved and reactionary, what would a depraved and reactionary president do? And though it’s true that many reactionaries in the 40s thought FDR wanted war so that he could cram “communism” down gagging Americans’ throats, just because those reactionaries were paranoid, stupid, and crazy doesn’t mean, now that the shoe’s on the other ideological foot, modern American leftists are just as wrong about wingnut administration whose motives are transparent — and now, with Fukuyama the Insider’s testimony, corroborated.
The Bushites have done exactly what any depraved and reactionary administration would do given the opportunity provided by a fiendishly clever OBL: they’ve exploited it. And thanks to a press corps made up of wingnuts and assorted pseudoliberals (not to mention a “progressive establishment” largely made up of snot-nosed careerists whose only consistent posture has been hostility to that keystone belief of progressives: genuine anti-imperialism), the degree to which 9/11 could be exploited was massive.
The old libertarian saw that “war is the health of the state” remains true; it’s just that in our age of irony, the warfare state has come to America to serve the libertarian cause of thwarting social democratic reforms. So how do ya like your blue-eyed boy now, Mr. Libertarian? Social democracy remains dead in America, but your freedom has been taken away all the same, your taxes one way or another will cost you the same, the bureaucracy grows as never before. But I’m sure it was worth it, short-term financial gain (Krusty the Clown: “I could really go for that upper-class tax cut!”) and socking it to progressives being the prime motivators of libertarians since time immemorial.
Anyway, Obama is close to saying something meaningful, but since timidity is the rule among centrist Democrats, I’m sure he’ll resist voicing the logical conclusion. Calling wingnuts what they are and using plain language to describe their schemes is no way to a “national healing,” after all.
I know people dislike the “we’re doomed” sentiments that typically conclude my posts on these matters. Okay, so here’s something a little different: if you accept my thesis that the war in Iraq specifically and the PNAC mentality in general are not only morally obscene in their own right, but also by design the primary political obstacles to American social democracy, you’ll understand why I think it’s obvious that all other issues are subordinate. Gay marriage? Immigration? Health care? These are necessary causes, but to expect to do anything truly progressive about them is to put the cart before the horse. First, the war must be stopped and the war-mongering tendencies of our rulers thoroughly repudiated — by which I mean in practical terms that it does no good to “lessen our footprint” in Iraq if we’re still going to occupy it and then bomb Iran for good measure. So the only thing to do is to reject any Democratic candidate who supports anything less than a total withdrawal from Iraq. One thing I can promise you is that the wingnuts will make sure their nominee for President will be the most war-mongering, stay-the-course maniac possible (which is why they hate Ron Paul and love Rudy despite his social liberalism); in my view, then, a progressive’s duty is to make god-damned sure that our nominee is anti-war. (And in my case, as much as I love John Edwards, he’s not making the grade right now; but the otherwise unsavory Bill Richardson, whose Chamber of Commerce Democrat schtick I detest, is — and he’d get my vote today because of it.)
*Such figures as Hoover and Taft represented the mainstream 30s-40s Right. Such radical fringe movements as the German-American Bund and the fans of Father Coughlin were exactly that — the fringe. But the radicals are now the mainstream in the American Right; the administration in whose reactionary browneye the supposedly Leftist Hitchens inserts his nose counts as its base the Little Green American Bund types, the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweillers, the Freepers, et al, who are the direct descendants of the 30s and 40s fascists, with their inheritance including a closet full of black, brown and silver shirts and a bag of rhetoric stuffed with blood libels from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Islam.
**Except for the version of Hoover who shitcanned his principles to react violently against the Bonus Army. He’d fit right in. Or maybe not — if only because he actually had principles to betray.
This was so clear and incisive, I almost didn’t miss the funny.
I’ve decided this place hasn’t been depressing enough lately. I am Gothpundit! Listen to me mope!
“First, the war must be stopped and the war-mongering tendencies of our rulers thoroughly repudiated…”
As I explained in October 2004, “I don’t just want for them to lose the election, I want them sent to The Hague for trial.”
‘So how do ya like your blue-eyed boy now, Mr. Libertarian? Social democracy remains dead in America, but your freedom has been taken away all the same, your taxes one way or another will cost you the same, the bureaucracy grows as never before. But I’m sure it was worth it, short-term financial gain (Krusty the Clown: “I could really go for that upper-class tax cut!”) and socking it to progressives being the prime motivators of libertarians since time immemorial.’
Indeed, the Republican Congress and President were the very best arguments for liberalism evah: if our taxes will stay high, shouldn’t we at least get something positive for it? But the modern ‘conservative position’ consists entirely of hating liberal values, nothing more, and hatred runs thin after a short while. (Except for the fascist, of course.)
Great post. Maybe short on the funny, but long on the truth. Satire is tough when the targets do not care.
Despondency is brought on by the lies of the Criminal in Chief, his Orc-like base, and the weakness of the Democrats, not by people like HTML who write what’s true about them.
From: John Cole:
If he (and others like him) are openly calling the wingnuts “drooling retards” why are Democrats still polite? And why did they participate in that ridiculous demonization of MoveOn.org? Gad, GROW A SPINE, DEMS and stop allowing yourselves to be suckerpunched by criminals.
I feel like all these asshole rightists have left is tribalism. They’d vote Republican even while being waterboarded by Bush in a bondage outfit, as long as the dirty fucking hippies lose.
Consider that even with a president like FDR, who had good instincts, American citizens were put into internment camps…
There’s something in this. I don’t want to let FDR off the hook for his role in the internments, but it seems like that was driven by the sort of weird phobias that sweep through this country from time to time — where you are called upon to join in some symbolic and otherwise pointless act (flag pin, lynching, burning your Beatles albums, whatever) to prove that you are with us and against those who pose this terrible imaginary danger — the devil, Injuns, black men, those evil Japanese farmers, and now of course the Jihadis. I suppose every culture has some form of mass hate, but American mass hating doesn’t seem to have lost any of its virulence, perhaps because it is always packaged in things Americans profess to love — religion, patriotism, womanhood, life (whatever the hell they mean by that). It’s such a simple mechanism, this thing. But apparently whenver the wingnuts need to rally a crowd this hate is there, waiting for the call. The number and reach of people who make a living out of making the call is so extensive now, too. Right now living in this country feels a bit like living in a madhouse for me. The most bloody minded people with their mouth full of Jesus and the sanctity of life and freedom, on a rampage of destruction, fighting a murderous proxy war against their own fellow-citizens. I hope there will be a day of reckoning on all this, more people than the few members of that criminal conspiracy who will have to examine their own consciences.
I’ve decided this place hasn’t been depressing enough lately. I am Gothpundit! Listen to me mope!
Ah, there’s teh funny.
….largely made up of snot-nosed careerists…..
who can you mean?
HTML, the only problem with your plan is that no Democratic candidate supports a full withdrawal from Iraq. And any one of them that says they do is lying. Both the insane gibbering Hessians of the Republican party and the crafty, oldschool Realpolitikers of the Democratic party (or what passes for as much anymore) subscribe to foreign policy theories that make withdrawal a technical impossibility.
We’ll get drawdowns with Dems, and the promise of a neutral overseer role like we play in Korea once things calm down in Iraq. What that ends up meaning in reality is that until the various factions in Iraq get tired of blowing each other up, we will still have troops on active combat duty there.
I take no joy in saying this, and I freely disclose that I loves me some HTML Mencken. But I just cannot imagine anything that we would think of as a “withdrawal” happening at any point in the next decade or so – unless it’s a “withdrawal” like we saw in Vietnam in ’75.
My goals for the next Presidential election are very modest: I will vote for the candidate whom I think is most likely to occasionally apply the handbrake on this train hurtling toward neofascism we’re all currently riding. I am voting for breathing space; a candidate who will hopefully take his finger off the “AAAH! MUSLAMONAZIS!!!” button for maybe five goddamn minutes so that people have a chance to think rationally again. And that’s all I’m hoping for. If the next President can give me that, it will be all that I can reasonably hope for.
My biggest fear is that voting a candidate like this into office will end up backfiring, and the gibberingly insane crowds out there will actually believe all the ads the Republican party is going to run about how “a vote for the Democrats is a vote for MUSLAMONAZIS!!!”, and the nation will start the slow descent into ungovernability.
But hey – at least I’ll be voting my hopes, not my fears.
It’s just that I never thought my hopes would become such small, petty, unworthy things.
Thanks, Democratic party.
Great post, but let me quibble a little.
The great Randolph Bourne’s famous line, “War is the health of the state” (like many things Bourne said, it deserves to be rescued from his many libertarian epigones) is entirely correct. But it suggests (perhaps despite Bourne’s intent) that war’s impact on domestic social progress is a lot more complicated than simply slowing it. To the extent that social progress can be helped by state power, war can actually boost it.
Take the issue of racial justice. Many of the periods of most rapid, positive change in the place of African Americans in America took place immediately after wars. Immediately after the Civil War came Reconstruction. And the modern civil rights movement in many ways flowed out of World War II. In both cases, Black participation in war gave African American men a new claim on equal citizenship. And in both cases, an invigorated national state was in a position to do something about those claims.
Now of course whether or not the increase in state power contributes to social progress depends entirely on who controls the state during (and more crucially immediately after) the war. The 1919 Red Scare, for example, would hardly have been possible without the state’s invigoration during World War I (Bourne penned his famous statement just before his death in 1917).
Moreover, the fact that war can help lead to domestic progress does not at all mean that war is necessary to that progress…or even that it’s a good thing given all its quite significant downsides. The very militarized conception of masculinity that helped bolster African American claims for equal rights after many of our wars is highly problematic. And Randolph Bourne’s much more generalized fear of the modern state deserves mention, too (see James Scott, Seeing Like A State for a particularly thoughtful critic of modern, “high modernist” states). Even if one comes out in favor of the kinds of solutions centralized states propose to domestic social problems, going to war tends to lead those states to do all kinds of things that are fundamentally hostile to democratic values.
I, for one (& that’s really about it, me, period) have totally given up, & fully emotionally embraced the nihilism I’ve always been intellectually in favor of.
I am voting for breathing space; a candidate who will hopefully take his finger off the “AAAH! MUSLAMONAZIS!!!” button for maybe five goddamn minutes so that people have a chance to think rationally again.
You can’t really believe there’s more than a tiny minority capable of rational thought, can you? And even so, truly rational thought tells us that in the long run, we’re all dead, & there appears to be no way to change the structural whatnot, the conventional wisdom, the crazed bloodlust of the planet’s dominant species, made potentially fatal by our knowledge & technology.
American democracy has been rendered a joke by gerrymandering & the Electoral College. You can send all the sharply worded e-mails you want to your “representatives” or the local or national fishwrappers, you can proclaim your truth on the web, a few million people (maybe) can hit the streets once & demonstrate against a war, or the war, or war in general (well, there won’t be that many against war in general, ever) & each suceeding protest will draw fewer people, & be ignored (or simply announced as “a protest was held” w/ 20 seconds of footage of the most radical, offensive to the conventional mind protestors & their signs) or actively ridiculed, & nothing will change.
If the current adventure in Iraq had been correctly planned & executed, & by some random, amazing stroke of luck, things had gone fairly well there (not bloody likely, but just pretend) Bush would probably have the same 80% approval rating his “Poppy” had at the end of the first adventure there, & the mass of undifferentiated tissue out there that passes for the public would be cheering on “taking care of” Iran.
Let’s face it, the average American, who has had at least a form of democracy handed to him on a silver platter, doesn’t give it any more thought than which candidate would be the best beer buddy, which one makes you feel good about yourself & the country you’re supposed to be directing or influencing.
Take my word for it. I worked in a traditionally “pink collar” job for 18 yrs., mostly w/ lower middle class African-Americans & Hispano-Americans, & plenty of immigrants or the children of immigrants (of both genders) w/ no contact w/ the public, then in “retail” for about eight years, & most people are a horrifying combination of just plain stupidity & (often proud, willfull) ignorance. In my spare time I associated w/ life’s total losers, drug-addled musicians/actors/creative-types/aesthetes. And though their tastes & interests were more sophisticated (in a certain “punk,” for lack of a better word, way) than those of most of my co-workers, & they may have been more educated or informed as well, that only made them more aware of their essential powerlessness.
Most of our species are absolutely incapable of independent, rational thought, don’t even realize it, & wouldn’t be able to do anything about it if they did realize it.
Jillian, I know you’re trying to teach people who’d usually have crummy teachers, but (not to discourage you, but…) it’s too little, too late. The well-off & “educated” are too busy trying to stay that way, at the exclusion of all other concerns, including humanity itself, & a few more not so well-off people who are completely aware of how screwed they really are will just be driven mad sooner.
And on that note, have a nice day, North America & the rest of the world. Don’t forget to produce & consume for the benefit of your masters, pathetic food-tubes.
Well, I loves me some Jillian.
And I fear you’re right. Still, we can’t, for the sake of strategy, take it as a given that no candidate will seriously and honestly advocate total withdrawal. Better to use what leverage, even if in the end it proves insufficient, we have to force them into the morally acceptable position than to throw in the towel and send the signal that they can be wingnut-lite and get away with it.
I loves me some Jillian & HTML too. But Jillian, I think it’s worth it to at least try and alter the situation, try to get Obama or Clinton or Edwards in the White House. I think they would at least slow the slide of the country into complete batshittery and fascism. And if one of them get in to the white house, the country at large might start to see exactly who is agitating against them, giving the populace a view of who exactly hates them. This is an obscure thing to most people now.
I don’t think it’s petty or unworthy to try and help fix a bad situation.
HyperText: What actual leverage do we (or anyone who is not wealthy or powerful) have over any of these weasel-dicks? Clinton is a triangulating corporate tool, moving that Overton Window rightward, Obama wants to “bring us together,” or “start a new politics,” or some such crap, which is absurd in our polarized environment, when the choices are so stark (and most of the leftish choices are being ignored anyway) Edwards talks a good game, but after all he’s a traitor to his “class” (even though he wasn’t exactly born into it) & everyone thinks/hopes they’ll be getting rich, so his “class warfare” (talking about the fact that the rich are waging war on the rest of us) is seen as the true evil, & what the rich are doing to us is ignored, or blamed on illegal immigrants & cheap Chinese labor. And he combs his hair & gets it cut.
And there are some other candidates too, aren’t there? Are there?
I’m hoping for a Giuliani/Clinton event in the center ring, & a Christo-fascist splinter party & a truer left splinter party in the other two rings, resulting in an Electoral College deadlock & political violence in the streets. Or at least a car with an infinite number of clowns popping out of it.
And in my case, as much as I love John Edwards, he’s not making the grade right now; but the otherwise unsavory Bill Richardson, whose Chamber of Commerce Democrat schtick I detest, is — and he’d get my vote today because of it.
Or you could vote for Dodd, dood.
Or at least a car with an infinite number of clowns popping out of it.
There’s been no shortage of that in our recent national politics.
Yes, but you forget one key fact about Hitchens: he imagined that an invasion of Iraq would go well and liberate people (such that life would actually be better than life under Saddam), he imagined that he was channeling Orwell, he imagined that he was on the side of those tough minded liberals and leftists who smashed Nazism — and that was the end of that.
His moral responsibility (like that of all liberal hawks) ended with what he imagined, wished, fantasized; whether it be about the results of the invasion, or about the historical analogues, or the hero’s gallery of noble advocates they’d be joining.
The Hitchens’ and the liberal hawks are more noble than us cheap anti-imperialist sloganeering surrenderers to sub-fascism because their fantasy worlds were (and are) much more liberated and just than the grungy realities with which many people feel responsible to deal.
Just want to inject a side note that I think HTML Mencken gives FDR too much credit for being a basically good person. FDR possessed a great deal of visceral personally-held racism against persons of Japanese descent. It wasn’t an accident that Japanese-Americans were villified and interned when German-Americans and Italian-Americans were not.
From our more educated “liberal” masters we get this:
How do we know that they are sensible? Well, they are Democratic leaders from the Clinton White House and Congress.
How do we know that their huge assertions about “free trade” pacts leading to real growth and economic stability in Latin America are true?
Why, because they said so, and who are we to be on the side of these immature non-sensible “Democrats” who hate economic growth and stability and ponies and pots of gold in Latin America, particularly given the phenomenal growth and health of such economies as have rejected the US-led economic model such as Argentina and Venezuela and, up until now, Costa Rica.
Oh, also, boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity boogity HUGO CHAVEZ!!!! ZOMG HE’S LIKE THE ENEMY OF ALL GOOD AMURKANS AND DEMOCRAPS BETTER PASS THESE BILLS TO HELP OUR POOR INTERNATIONAL TRADERS AND INVESTORS OR HUGO CHAVEZ WILL MAKE BABIES EVERYWHUR!!!!!!
A question for the peanut gallery…
I like the idea of voting my hopes, as Jillian suggested, but I’m still keen to vote instead my dreams. Either one is better than voting my fears, but I’m afraid. If I vote my dreams, and send my primary vote off to Kucinich, am I dooming us to wind up with the most centrist of Dems?
I guess the question is, is a vote for Dennis in the primary the equivalent of a vote for the Socialist candidate in the general?
If it’s any comfort, Jas, the entire primary process is a sham, so your vote probably doesn’t matter anyway. Might as well vote those hopes.
I might add that the sort of fears expressed by Jas, coming from what I take to be an honestly progressive Democrat, is exactly why I never took any of that “Nader should have run in the Democratic primaries” talk at all seriously.
The folks running the Democratic Party don’t want you to even consider voting for a progressive, whether that person comes from outside the party, or from its own increasingly marginalized left fringe. And they’re willing to scare you away from voting your hopes in any and every election.
Worried about wasting your vote? Devote yourself to electoral reform.
boogity boogity HUGO CHAVEZ!!!! ZOMG HE’S LIKE THE ENEMY OF ALL GOOD AMURKANS
Don’t forget – he pals around with Ahmadinejad, TEH NOO HITLER!!11
Goldstein’s book explains that the war is unwinnable, and that its only purpose is to use up human labor and the fruits of human labor so that each superstate’s economy cannot support an equal (and high) standard of living for every citizen. . . By the year 1984 hunger, disease, and filth have become the norm. When travelling around London, Winston is surrounded by rubble, decay, and the crumbling shells of wrecked buildings. Much of the population of Oceania go barefoot most – if not all – of the time, despite The Party reporting large quantities of boots being produced
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
Goldstein’s book explains that the war is unwinnable, and that its only purpose is to use up human labor and the fruits of human labor so that each superstate’s economy cannot support an equal (and high) standard of living for every citizen. . .
You mean Hitch totally missed the point of 1984?
Cripes, only him and 95% of people who quote the goddamn thing.
I assume he likewise missed the parts in Homage To Catalonia where Orwell described the socialist nature of early wartime Barcelona and how impressed he was by it.
The wingnuts “won” their little elections in 2000 and 2004, but did they really get anything out of the deal? My guess is that they’re actually happier being out of power and bitching about Teh Eeevil Dumbocraps. Defending the record of BushCo has got to be tiring after all this time. No wonder the wingnuts are not excited about their presidential candidates. I don’t think they’re going to fight as hard this time. I really don’t.
Cole’s “retards” must be closely related to the LGFtards. If this thread doesn’t convince you of the insanity and stupidty of the far right, I got nothin’ else to tell ya:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=27405_Dissent_from_the_Daily_Kos_Line_and_Youre_Instantly_Banned&only
University of Suck:
Would You Buy a Used Hawk From This Man?
Great piece HTML. Thanks. Even in the storm, a little clarity of vision can be valuable.
And the point is extremely well taken. After the dems take complete power in ’08 (and outside MAYBE of another great big terror attack, that’s a given, even with all the cheating in play), then there will be a whole lot of people with a whole lot to lose. They built this world on lies and madness. It cannot support itself, and the lies and madness can’t prop up the structure if they are coming from the outside.
The only thing thats keeping the whole thing from collapsing today is the artificially high quality of life in the US. “Go shopping”. Sit in your McMansion, watch American Idol on your plasma, fight with your kids, screw your spouse, get up and do it all again. Numbness. Numbnuts.
But make no mistake. The economic house of cards upon which it’s all built is more fragile than anyone dare tell. And like the proverbial butterfly, it will be a small event that starts the long slide. And when the fight moves from SUVs and private schools to food and marauders, that’s when the wingnut power structure gets on their plane and leaves, scarcely waving goodby to a smouldering, raped land.
All things considered, it’s good to be old….
mikey
I have no problem voting or even, to an extent, working for Democrats. Unlike some cynics here, I don’t think they operate under the same policy as Republicans, like your Fukuyama quote points out. If he is right, it would be foolish for D administrations to start new wars. I have no illusions about Iraq, a long drawdown is really our best hope at this stage. But look at all the wingnut fantasies on the horizon, which only begin with Iran. I strongly believe no D prez will bomb or invade Iran.
Good point on the Giuliani/Paul phenomenon. Weird huh? Wingnuts ultimately believe in nothing except fear and sticking it to “liberals”. It’s sad that this is basically the ideology that ran the country for 6 years. No wonder nothing was accomplished
HTML Mencken said,
October 8, 2007 at 9:34
I’ve decided this place hasn’t been depressing enough lately. I am Gothpundit! Listen to me mope!
Jillian said,
October 8, 2007 at 11:15
…
It’s just that I never thought my hopes would become such small, petty, unworthy things.
Thanks, Democratic party.
All right you two, I’m dropping the big one!
Oh heck, why go with just the music when you can watch the video.
But look at all the wingnut fantasies on the horizon, which only begin with Iran.
Exactly. I don’t understand why people won’t see this. Make no mistake, the Democrats are pretty bad. But the Republicans are worse.
M. Bouffant, I have to disagree with you. I’ll admit I’m a young ‘un, and maybe my misanthropy hasn’t fully developed, but over the past few years I’ve encountered a number of people I’d ordinarily toss into the “ignorant and proud” bin who learned to think for themselves.
For instance, my boyfriend, 21, who is little more than a fascist with a centrist Democrat veneer, said to me recently that he wants to know what politicians mean by “win” when they talk about Iraq. His only source of information is the 11pm news and whatever I read that I happen to tell him (which ain’t much), and yet he thought critically about what our objectives are in Iraq, and realized that there was some disconnect. I was impressed. That said, he is a college grad, if that says anything about his intelligence… And he’s just one of many people who’d ordinarily be centrist Repubs or Dems who now lean much further left. You’d be suprised by the number of young people out there who’ve had some type of poltical awkening because of this war.
So, to conclude my ramblings, I think there are plenty of people out there who can and will question authority, think critically, and respond thoughtfully to political and social issues if they are introduced to the idea that you can do these things.
Another amazing piece, HTML, but I must disagree on one point: I don’t think FDR was a Leftist; I think he was a scion of wealth who was in charge of a country that was very close to revolution, and he needed to let off some of that prole steam. The best way to defeat Bolshevix, after all, is with reform, and that’s what he provided. No Marxism, just Keynesianism, which is why anti-Communists like Galbraith saw in him the Second Coming. (Not that I wouldn’t love a good reformer right now. Boy, could be use another National Recovery Act!)
And Cokane–
A great deal has been accomplished in the past six years. It’s just all been destructive. And if you really believe that Hillary wouldn’t bomb Iran, well…why not just ask her?
The one good part in all of this: Li’l George has done more damage to the American Empire than generations of anti-imperialist activists. Protesting outside the School of the Americas can’t hold a candle to bankrupting the Army.
Picked this up yesterday from another comment section…
“Mistaken ideas always end in bloodshed, but in every case it is someone else’s blood. That is why some of our thinkers feel free to say just about anything.”
–Albert Camus
ROTFLMAO and shit!
I’m a hard core Edwards supporter, and things were looking good for a while. He was comfortably ahead here in Iowa, where people know him well, but now, if the Des Moines Register is to be believed, Clinton has pulled ahead, and he is only slightly ahead of Obama. Forget Richardson; he doesn’t have a prayer, and he has probably been running for Secretary of State all along anyway. Dodd – who? He’s not even charting.
Personally, I think Rudy is a gone goose in Iowa. Romney is comfortably ahead of everyone, his closest rival is Thompson, who even with his Johnny-Come-Lately press boost is not really threatening Romney, and Rudy is polling behind Huckabee. Iowa is, of course, not the be all and end all of the race, but coming out of Iowa strong is important.
Unless we’re very lucky, we’re going to wind up with a Clinton – Romney race. Now, while I think Clinton is preferable to Romney, she’s not going to get us out of Iraq any time soon, and her universal health care plan isn’t universal and is just going to be a boon to the health care industry. She sold her shrivelled soul to them a long time ago.
Edwards is the only (fairly) progressive candidate who has a shot at winning. I wish Al Gore would get in the race, or, failing that, would endorse Edwards. That’s the only hope I have, and it’s faint. My outlook at this point is more than bleak. It’s damned close to hopeless.
Look. To the people in power today, the “risk” that the next administration might decide NOT to attack Iran is too great, even if we see it as minuscule. They will start a war with Iran and leave that regional mess in the hands of their successors, knowing that with conflict on every front, there will be no withdrawal. Another million people will die, and many thousands more americans, and the economy will decline, and domestic spending will have to be cut.
They can set this up so it runs on remote control. And they have NOTHING to lose…
mikey
My fear is that you are exactly right, mikey. I hope not, but the wind sure is blowing in that direction.
I’m not so worried for myself. But I have a fifteen year old son. What’s this country, this world going to be like for him?
Candy, I do not ask that question about my 6 and 10 year old. The answer takes me to a dark place…
I think it’s amusing that Shakespeare wrote about this 500 years ago, in Henry IV’s advice to his son:
—Henry IV, Part 2
Me too, 14Toby, me too. Maybe emigration is the way to go. Not sure where, though. Canada might not be far enough.
You have kids at this point? Seems to me, you got two choices.
Get out. Now. ‘Cause they’re gonna spend your kids, just put ’em out there and get them lit up. They’ll keep sending them out ’til they come home in a bag, they come home too damaged to be of use, or they slip their cogs and become too great a menace to unit cohesion.
Or.
Disable ’em. Find a surgeon to take off the left hand. Or leg, below the knee. Pretty good prosthetics out there, and Iraq is creating more research in that area. But if you break ’em a little, the army won’t take ’em. Might be better than the alternative.
I guess you could start teaching them that there’s no lack of dignity in refusing to fight. But in that level of militarized authoritarian state, they will do some hard prison time.
Hard choices. But you need to start making them…
mikey
America forgets that the rest of the world will not tolerate Elmer Fudd declaring open season on Iran. At least I can’t imagine any scenario in which it would. If Bush hadn’t lied through his teeth using his most credible puppet to deliver the lie at the Security Council about WMDs, the war in Iraq could never have happened. He ain’t got no credible puppets left to market the destruction of Iran and the global hatred of Bush is palpable. Don’t forget that.
Have I told you lately that I love you? No? Well, dang. Consider it said. Also consider elopement. Canada looks better every day.
Jeebus, when you nail it, you nail it. And I came here for teh funneh.
Well, I know my kid won’t go willingly off to war. He taunts the recruiters at his high school by saying things like, “Here for another full day of lying to my friends?”
I’m afraid that soon they’ll be taking people who are missing fingers and drooling all over themselves, so mutilation would have to be pretty severe.
We should probably go now.
#
InsaneInTheCheneyBrain said,
October 8, 2007 at 10:13
“I feel like all these asshole rightists have left is tribalism. They’d vote Republican even while being waterboarded by Bush in a bondage outfit, as long as the dirty fucking hippies lose.”
Dick Gregory once said that the white supremacists would kill ten white men just to get to that nigger.Same sentiment applys.
I loves me some HTML and Jillian, too. Three way!!! (But HTML, give up your spot to some nice femme, please).
We’re in so deep now, like a critically ill patient with multisystem failure, that any small sign of improvement is welcome – probably out of proportion to its actual meaning or value, but still.
It’s easier to see, when stepping back, how we got to this point. It was a double-done deal by the time Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex. He was about a generation too late.
That said, Mikey’s dark vision of what comes next is all too believable.
Until then? Humor, and love, and still small hopes. Because the other options are too sad and troubling to consider right now.
But nice move on Clinton’s part,voting aye to the asinine Iran censure resolution.And Obama abstaining.We are screwed Y’all.I like Gravel’s rhetoric and the fact that he filibustered to get the Pentagon Papers read into the Congressional record,but he has about as much chance of winning as Kafka’s roach.Kucinich too.No the Dem.party is in up to it’s neck.
Great post HTML.lets also not forget that it was Gen.MacArthur who bravely with sword in hand lead the tanks across the Potomac to crush,and burn the encampments of those disaffected vets.Sorry for the multiples.
Mad props on the e.e. cummings ref, HTML. Very appropriate.
I think there are plenty of people out there who can and will question authority, think critically, and respond thoughtfully to political and social issues if they are introduced to the idea that you can do these things.
I like your optimism, le chien. But I think there’s another “if” involved — they need to be shown HOW to do these things. That’s why I’m convinced that education is so central to any effort to put the brakes on the insanity. Most of the college freshmen and sophomores I teach walk in the door content to believe what they’re told. So first they need to be shown that there’s a reason to question. Then they need to understand, as you say, that it’s possible to do so. The hard work comes in helping them to gain the skills to actually do so. Critical thinking doesn’t come easy to those who’ve suckled at the prevailing teat throughout their lives.
Very thoughtful essay, HTML. Thanks.
I live about 25 miles north of the border and today is our Thansgiving holiday here in Canada. I guess I can give thanks that my country bends naturally to a live-and-let-live posture (gay marriage, not much racism) and it is still possible here to have public discussions of social democratic policy without too many shouts of commie! and traitor! There’s a National Child-Care Plan that, for at least two decades, has been proposed and re-proposed and re-packaged to appeal to suburnanites. It’s never been implemented but at least it’s won endorsement by every major party here. Even in the face of our current GOP-lite right-wing minority govt., hope at least seems possible.
I’m here to say, just so you know, that I, as a left-liberal type, would welcome the large numbers of beleaguered decent Americans who feel they need to flee the snowballing American madness. Hell, we’ve got a big, underpopulated country up here. Whether the craziness spills over the border is another question but at least we’d have a sovereign territory from which to fight back.
And, frankly, us lefties up here could use the extra numbers. Harper (the PM) and his minions seem set on sabotaging our health care and trashing the environment. We could use a little help, if ya know what I’m sayin’.
So I’ll say thanks as well to all of you for the old US of A I loved so much. The music, the baseball, the movies, your dynamic cities, your parks…
I really, really hope things get better down there for you. Don’t surrender to despair.
listen el cid–just because argentina costa rica and venezuala are doing well right now is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. free trade unfettered from any nasty side-agreements is the best way for us all to race to the bottom, where we can join the cockroaches, you know the ones who will survive anything. perhaps all of us workers can learn a thing or two from the roaches, like living off of trash and hiding from the masters who come to stamp on us.
good times.
As an American, I’d like to thank you for your generosity, objectivelypro. Of course, I’m still holding out hope for this.
Great, if depressing, post. What I thought of when I read this: War stalls domestic progress. Republicans are well aware that the majority of the American populace favors liberal reforms — that, in short, it favors an expansion of the welfare state. To stop such a decent thing from happening, wingnuts have created a Perpetual Warfare state that inculcates fear in the masses, militarizes American society, empties the treasury, curtails or outright destroys civil liberties.
Was this: Susan Faludi has a new book out about how 9/11 is being used by anti-feminists: Before the end of the day she has received the phone call that provides her book with its foundation myth: A reporter asks for her reaction to the tragedies, crowing to Faludi, “Well, this sure pushes feminism off the map!”
Iran is going to happen, no matter what we do. It makes me profoundly sad. All those thousands of lives shattered. Your country is fucked up. The only way of fixing it would be to tow you to another planet.
Most of our species are absolutely incapable of independent, rational thought, don’t even realize it, & wouldn’t be able to do anything about it if they did realize it.
And yet, M. Bouffant, we have to behave just as if Those People are capable, at least after they’ve been exposed to all the possible (horrible) alternatives and they’ve got their backs against the wall. It’s not for *their* sakes — it’s for ours. Believe it or not, it can actually work; it’s just so goddamn tedious keeping one’s mouth shut while they try to unlock the door by banging it with their heads, or clawing through it with their nails, or jamming the key in their ears and up their noses.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if there are any single, progressive-type Canadian guys (or gals! Yay Canada!) reading this who are tired of looking for love in all the wrong places…you know how to find me!
Hate to say it, but I actually would emigrate in a flat second at this point.
Hey, we’re a bit further away than Canada, but we also get more sunshine. So if any of you fine folk are desperate to escape the evils of fascism, head down south: I’m sure we can find a place to put you all, and gods know we could do with a few more sensible folk.
My state (South Australia) has been the most progressive state in Australia several times in the past. Instances are the enfranchisement of women in 1861, and the marvellous “Dunstan Decade” of the 70s:
A reformist, Dunstan brought profound change to South Australian society: his progressive reign saw Aboriginal land rights recognised, homosexuality decriminalised, the first female judge appointed and anti-discrimination legislation introduced amongst other reforms.
Dunstan was also notable for being the first (and so far, the only) politician to wear a pink safari suit in Parliament House. Gotta respect a man for that. Sadly, that fine tradition of lefty activism has faded somewhat since then, and we need some more brave lefties to take the baton back from the rightist fuckwads and the boring, toadying, pretend lefties. Safari suits optional.
Plus, as an added incentive, Mikey could have all sorts of fun cooking up lobster and prawns and all sorts of fishy delights, ‘cos our ocean’s fairly clean still (being all the way down here and more or less fed by Antarctica).
Mmmm, fish.
[…] and shrill. They never get hoarse; they can always get a gig; they keep making new albums but basically their song remains the same. Critics can pan them; we Weird Al Yankovics of the internet can parody their songs; but the only […]
[…] want to solve. And I’m not so certain some of them do want it solved. I’ll quote HTMN Mencken here, as he says it so much better: War stalls domestic progress. Republicans are well aware that […]
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