Letters To America - On Awakening

[Prophet 451]

"What's the time? / Seems it's already morning" ~ Roxette, Spending My Time

There seems to be something in the air, perhaps you can feel it. For the last six years, we have all suffered through the long night of Bush (and I truly believe that the eventual story of Bush's administration should be called "The Long Night") but lately, it seems there is a reason to hope once again. It seems that finally, after so long a nightmare, we are all starting to awake.

Optimism doesn't come easily to me. I am, by nature, a pessimist and a cynic and so, it takes a while for me to accept that something worthwhile is resurfacing. It seems that Bush has already become a lame duck. Even now, eighteen months ahead of time, the focus is entirely on who the Democratic candidate will be in 2008 and, while Diebold should never be counted out, it seems to be taken as read that the Democratic nominee will be the one measuring for drapes on Pensylvania Avenue after all is said and done. It's unusual for any political party to have such a bountiful crop of potential nominees but the Dem frontrunners already seem to resemble an All-Star team. Hillary Clinton is bright, eloquent and committed. I have a few problems with her policies but nothing which would make me run screaming and she would always have her husband's advice to call upon. Barrack Obama will almost certainly be president one day. I'm not sure this is his time but his time will come. Young, bright, passionate with an ethnic background that can only help him connect to the people. Sharp dresser and, of course, it helps that he's a handsome man (let's be honest, it never hurts). Dennis Kucinich would probably make the best president of all of them but will also probably never get the chance. To his credit, he has discovered a real talent for the meaningful quip.

And then there's Al Gore. The promotion of Al Gore is probably the cloest thing we've seen to a genuine grassroots movement for a long time in politics. According to a poll I read this morning, Gore ranks third amongst the Democratic candidates which doesn't sound too special until you realise he hasn't even announced yet. It would be easy to complain that Gore should have been president for the last six years. It's true too but as difficult as it has been for us, it seems the time away has been good for Gore. He seems tougher, more driven and he's actually discovered that he's allowed a personality (and frankly, not before time). The old Gore seemed timid, like a preppy schoolboy terrified of saying the wrong thing. This new Gore is likeable, even (dare I say it?) charismatic and he has discovered his cause (or, more accurately, he's more openly committed to his cause). Every great president should have a cause. FDR had the Nazis, Lincoln had slavery. It's difficult to say what Clinton's was since he spent most of his second term being treated like a chew-toy but Gore now has his cause: Saving the planet. That's one hell of a cause.

Amongst this, the Chimp In Chief seems somewhat lost. Like a petulant child, he pops up to announce some grandiose new lunacy, fiddling while Washington burns but shortly thereafter, he is forgotten again. His great ally, Tony Blair, can't afford to back him anymore since the feeling in England is that if Blair keeps quiet for the next seven months, he can have a dignified exit and retirement but if he tries anything radical, he'll be out on his ear. The increasingly megalomanical VP appears every so often amidst a cloud of brimstone but even he no longer intimidates as he once did. Even the general public are starting to look at Cheney and realise that the man is simply out of control. In a way, I almost feel sorry for the conservatives. Because we need the genuinely conservative. I'm about as liberal as they come but we need the opposite number to hold us down, reign in our excesses and force us to refine our ideas but Bush has taken the conservative ideas to such extremes and made such a mess of them, that the entire conservative philosophy is likely to be discredited with him.

You're not out of the woods yet, America, there's still some dark days ahead of you. Between Cheney's madness and Bush's pathological need to prove he still matters, you may yet be dragged into a doomed war on Iran. It's a war that the US would inevitibly lose but then, winning was never the point. The point was simply to tie up the oil reserves, pushing the price of crude to stratospheric levels. In Iraq, that strategy has worked beyond every hope. Iraq would struggle to pump a million barrels of crude a year these days and we've all seen what that's done to the price of oil. How much further would that price climb if Iran were subjected to a similar fiasco? Oh yes, lot's of people would die in the process but not Bush or Cheney or any of their loved ones so it makes no odds to them. When you consider that Bush's entire administration has been a mission to aid a very narrow, very wealthy elite that he once described as his "base", his administration has been wildly successful, judged purely on those grounds. Oil prices at record highs, billions disappearing into the pockets of Halliburton, Bechtel, Custer Battles and similar contractors, much of it unaccountable and unaccounted. At home, civil rights have been stripped back to, and in some cases, beyond the bare minimum and the great neoconservative dream of destroying the welfare state entirely? Well, there were some hiccups in that such as the embaressing collapse of teh Social Security sabotage but otherwise, things are ticking along nicely. So you still have a ways to go, America, you're not safe yet.

Why then, do I feel so chipper? Because the country is finally seeing Bush for what he is. A none-too-bright frat boy who coasted through life on his family name. A family name that was essentially a trust fund that should never have run dry but now, it seems the cheques are beginning to bounce. His adventurism is coming back to bite him, the base he once relied upon are becoming uncomfortable with him and even his father, phonomenal manners and all, couldn't save him (the late and sorely missed Ann Richards once described Bush Sr. as "born with a silver foot in his mouth". He promptly had a silver brooch made up in the shape of a foot and sent it to her as a gift. There's a man who takes a little mockery with good grace). Finally, a mainstream media figure (the wonderful Keith Olberman) is saying what we've all been thinking and saying it with more passion and eloquence than most of us could muster. Liberals are starting to come out of the woodwork. The long night is not yet over and things may well be darkest still to come but perhaps, finally, dawn is starting to break.

"How long? Not long, cause what you reap is what you sow" ~ Rage Against The Machine, Wake Up!

[babydollhead]

1. thank you