This is an exceedingly strange 4th of July. Our independence is under attack by an unstable global order in various parts of the world. We are trying force, we are trying logic, and we are trying our national treasury. Our military, aided by unfathomable technologies, is being matched by resentments from distant, primitive centuries fueled by complementary energies of oil and drugs. In the late 1930's-- the only parallel we can point to for our modern distress-- the demands of a new world war helped pull the economy from a Depression. But today in key respects we are already stretched thin as a dime. California is so bankrupt the state is issuing IOU scripts to its vendors. Our federal government has not only been playing games with inflation for decades: it continues to mask the real number of trillion dollar interventions deemed necessary to protect our freedoms.
In fact, as we celebrate our day of independence, the American promise is under unparalleled pressure. In this respect, history is a reliable guide. The unraveling will give rise to demagogues and corporate survivalists. Along these lines, the so-called conservative wing of the Republican Party is planning its return. By 2010 mid-term elections and 2012, the United States will be ready for a sturdy, no-nonsense voice to corral popular disappointments and resentments in service of change.
What "change" means will not be the point of this next exercise in political grasping, because they are expecting that the change we were promised will have been frittered away by a president marginalized by an indecisive Congress. This is the trend line that the next generation of Republican leaders is aiming to intersect.
In the past two months, since the end of the session of the Florida legislature, Gov. Charlie Crist has signed abominable legislation into law-- defying expectations that he could be a new and moderate face of the Republican Party emerging from the South. But on growth, construction and development issues, Crist has shown he will pander to the corporate-enabled winds of change. His planning is not for the race for US Senate as much as it is for the next step, when his political arc intersects the Democrats'.
As to Sarah Palin, the recent Vanity Fair investigative report discloses how self-centered and driven she is, a big fish in the small pond of the nation's largest small state. In her announcement, Palin steps into the brave new world as a lightning rod who will also hammer government from the outside. Which version will the Kristol / Norquist / Limbaugh axis of the Republican Party embrace? At least, with these two angling forward, it seems that vapid emptiness surrounded by red, white and blue bunting will be the next garlands decorating the vessel back to the future.
6 comments:
I would welcome Palin to the role of pundit. She will drive the Republicans deeper into a hole.
My question is why are Democrats giving the right so much lip service? Just plow over them Democrats!
Thoughtful post. My only points of disagreement are that in my opinion much of the resentment aimed at the US is a product of our corporatist state or the actions of our empire's legions in protecting those corporations.
The other disagreement is that much as I would have wished it otherwise (greater fool I) Obama has, by and large, turned out to be the servant rather than the master of the corporatist state. In other words, he, like Crist, is all show, but at the end of the day he's a company man. Ironic, that the engine of so much growth, the legal fiction known as a corporation, looks likely to slowly strangle the empire nee republic that gave it birth.
Dems don't know when to shut-up. They are Social Workers, for gosh sakes: they counsel, have their heads in the clouds and talk.
An incredibly lyrical rendering of the State of the Nation. Difficult days ahead no doubt.
I was going to say that I think Sarah Palin is a lot more dangerous than our Charlie could ever be but then I started thinking about that and now I'm not so sure. I don't care how carefully she is groomed I doubt she would ever have the ability to appear in any way moderate or reflective of the values of any but the most rabid, paranoid, rightwing freakazoids.
Charlie , on the other hand, is such a waffler that he seems harmless enough until you realize that underneath that smiling demeanor he's every bit the party/company man. It’s a whole lot easier to stuff the suit and make it appear fuller than it actually is with Charlie than it would be to make Palin’s ego look smaller. Palin would be her own dangerous puppeteer, with Charlie, you wouldn’t know who was pulling the strings until it was too late.
If Sarah Palin is ever elected president of this country I will move to Canada.
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