Thursday, February 05, 2004
(12:55 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Groundless Speculation about the Future of Our Democracy
Yesterday I listened to Rush Limbaugh for a while. I don't usually do things like that, but even Rush Limbaugh is better than NPR's People Magazine for Nerds -- oh, I mean Fresh Air. Terry Gross can suck it. In any case, Rush played this very interesting montage of Howard Dean quotes. Apparently, in every speech, he has talked about how we need to reassert that the flag is not the exclusive property of Rush Limbaugh. I understand his point, but Rush feigned (I think feigned) ignorance.
Rush made a couple points: first, Democratic primary voters (except in Delaware, which is closer to Ground Zero) tend to view terrorism as the bottom priority and getting rid of Bush ("hatred for Bush") as the top priority. He uses this as evidence that all Democrats are extremists and strongly implied that their priorities are disconnected from reality. I don't know. Terrorists aren't the ones completely gutting revenues while outlandishly increasing spending, spending that often amounts to corporate welfare. I think that as time goes on and no more terrorist attacks happen, people see 9-11 as what it really is: basically a one-time deal. It should have been dealt with as such. The war on terror is completely unnecessary and stupid. I guess those opinions make me an extermist. It would be wonderful, however, to hear them voiced -- even just once -- in the "mainstream media." It seems like treating 9-11 as a one-time affair rather than an excuse for massive world war would be the more "conservative" thing to do, but I'm no expert.
I think that if Kerry wins the nomination, Bush will win the election. I don't want to vote for Kerry. The guy looks like a corpse, and he's been in government way too long to have any new ideas. I would much rather vote for Howard Dean in 2004, although I will hold my nose and vote Kerry if necessary. If Bush does win, expect a lot of people to give up on politics completely. Expect a lot of the political blogosphere to go by the wayside. The reason: we're all becoming inured to the fact that there's not a fucking thing we can do about what those in power are doing. They're doing stupid, destructive things that should have consequences and that most people don't like, but somehow it doesn't matter. They just get to do what they want. After a certain point, the momentum will be irrevocable, and America will effectively become a one-party state.
Those are my calls.
