The Mendacious "October Surprise"
With the November 7 election date less than three weeks away and significant Democratic gains in the House, Senate, and state governor races a distinct possibility, the nation's voters are on edge waiting for the illustrious Karl Rove to spring a last minute, last ditch surprise. They may be waiting in vain. In saying this, I mean to take nothing away from Rove. He has in the past proven his abilities as an election strategist, using frightening symbols and horrifying words to manipulate the minds of the American people. In 2004 he let loose a pack of bare-toothed hungry wolves upon the fragile psyches of the voters, and managed, with the help of a somewhat bent election mechanism in Ohio, to pull off victory. He has already sent a new ad to a few small market areas featuring none other than our old friend Osama bin Laden, still shouldering an automatic weapon and threatening us with devastation worse than "what happened before." But this ad, blatant in its attempt to create fear, is only a stalking horse, a teaser Rove has sent out to test the water. He wants to see if the same old tactic still has legs.
It hasn't. The television media rolled over to Rove in 2004 (probably because they were anxious to sell air time and didn't wish to offend the would-be purchaser), but this time, they're acting differently. Every reputable news channel ("not you Fox") ran clips of the new scare commercial and had their commentators identify it as nothing but what it was, a redeployment of an old tactic that has worn out its usefulness. Rove got his answer: This time the scare maneuver will not work.
At first, before I came to an even darker conclusion, I -- like everyone else -- thought Rove would finally come up with a tactic just as effective as the wolf pack. My favorite was a scheme in which Rove would have Cheney fake a heart attack and resign as VP. The current occupant of the White House would immediately appoint John McCain as Cheney's replacement, and off we would go to at least two more years of Fascist rule.
It didn't take me long to see that scam as a bit too risky even for Karl Rove. If the trick had failed and the Dems managed to win a majority in the House, and with McCain and not Cheney as the heir apparent, impeachment would be sure to follow. Cheney's presence as VP has served better than the Secret Service to keep the CO healthy.
So, with terror a dead issue and the war in Iraq an issue that would best be kept quiet; and with so-called family values having been scuttled by the well-publicized misdeeds of several Republican Congressmen, where could Rove look for an issue that would have even a bare chance of success? Taxes? Better not bring that up. The Dems will counter with the $7 billion a week of "your taxes, my fellow Americans" the mis-administration is squandering in Iraq. Can't run on the record either. There ain't nothing to brag about. Oh dear, what can we do?
The answer is obvious. Nothing. Let the Dems have the House and maybe a bare majority in the Senate. The person serving as president, and the remaining neocon Fascists in the House and Senate will still have enough power to make sure that the quagmire the current occupant has created will get even deeper during the next two years of "Democratic rule." (Watch for that, sports fans; that will be the keyword in the Fascist propaganda program over the next two years: "Democratic rule.")
The guys running the swamp at the present time didn't get there by being altogether stupid. After all, they're the ones who invested their hard-earned money in think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Group. Those organizations are peopled by scholars who are quite capable of seeing two years into the future. "OK, they reason," as any smart mouse would, "the world is a screwed-up mess, and quite frankly, we don't think the Dems can clean it up in two years, especially with only bare majorities in the Congress and a puppet Fascist in the White House. Let the Dems try ... and then empty the whole bag of shit at their feet in 2008."
Far fetched? I don't think so. A strategy of that ilk is at least within the visionary capabilities of the bright folks running the think tanks. And the Fascists who funded them have clearly demonstrated their ability to think long term. They started funding the think tanks and enrolling the religious right 30 years ago. Two years of hapless Democratic rule may be the final nail in the coffin of the form of government envisioned by the Founding Fathers and documented in the Constitution. Complete victory for the Fascists would finally be won, not by the usual tactic of stuffing ballot boxes with fraudulent votes and the heads of the voters with deceitful emotions. It would be won by giving the opposition an impossible task. How better to explain away even the fiascoes of the last six years than by handing the responsibility to "those loud mouth liberals who pretended to have all the answers"?
Far fetched? We shall see.
[Oh, my Lord! I just thought of another possible surprise the Fascists may engineer. I won't describe it in detail, but say only this: "Secret Service, be on your toes. The current occupant's life is in great danger.]
It hasn't. The television media rolled over to Rove in 2004 (probably because they were anxious to sell air time and didn't wish to offend the would-be purchaser), but this time, they're acting differently. Every reputable news channel ("not you Fox") ran clips of the new scare commercial and had their commentators identify it as nothing but what it was, a redeployment of an old tactic that has worn out its usefulness. Rove got his answer: This time the scare maneuver will not work.
At first, before I came to an even darker conclusion, I -- like everyone else -- thought Rove would finally come up with a tactic just as effective as the wolf pack. My favorite was a scheme in which Rove would have Cheney fake a heart attack and resign as VP. The current occupant of the White House would immediately appoint John McCain as Cheney's replacement, and off we would go to at least two more years of Fascist rule.
It didn't take me long to see that scam as a bit too risky even for Karl Rove. If the trick had failed and the Dems managed to win a majority in the House, and with McCain and not Cheney as the heir apparent, impeachment would be sure to follow. Cheney's presence as VP has served better than the Secret Service to keep the CO healthy.
So, with terror a dead issue and the war in Iraq an issue that would best be kept quiet; and with so-called family values having been scuttled by the well-publicized misdeeds of several Republican Congressmen, where could Rove look for an issue that would have even a bare chance of success? Taxes? Better not bring that up. The Dems will counter with the $7 billion a week of "your taxes, my fellow Americans" the mis-administration is squandering in Iraq. Can't run on the record either. There ain't nothing to brag about. Oh dear, what can we do?
The answer is obvious. Nothing. Let the Dems have the House and maybe a bare majority in the Senate. The person serving as president, and the remaining neocon Fascists in the House and Senate will still have enough power to make sure that the quagmire the current occupant has created will get even deeper during the next two years of "Democratic rule." (Watch for that, sports fans; that will be the keyword in the Fascist propaganda program over the next two years: "Democratic rule.")
The guys running the swamp at the present time didn't get there by being altogether stupid. After all, they're the ones who invested their hard-earned money in think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Group. Those organizations are peopled by scholars who are quite capable of seeing two years into the future. "OK, they reason," as any smart mouse would, "the world is a screwed-up mess, and quite frankly, we don't think the Dems can clean it up in two years, especially with only bare majorities in the Congress and a puppet Fascist in the White House. Let the Dems try ... and then empty the whole bag of shit at their feet in 2008."
Far fetched? I don't think so. A strategy of that ilk is at least within the visionary capabilities of the bright folks running the think tanks. And the Fascists who funded them have clearly demonstrated their ability to think long term. They started funding the think tanks and enrolling the religious right 30 years ago. Two years of hapless Democratic rule may be the final nail in the coffin of the form of government envisioned by the Founding Fathers and documented in the Constitution. Complete victory for the Fascists would finally be won, not by the usual tactic of stuffing ballot boxes with fraudulent votes and the heads of the voters with deceitful emotions. It would be won by giving the opposition an impossible task. How better to explain away even the fiascoes of the last six years than by handing the responsibility to "those loud mouth liberals who pretended to have all the answers"?
Far fetched? We shall see.
[Oh, my Lord! I just thought of another possible surprise the Fascists may engineer. I won't describe it in detail, but say only this: "Secret Service, be on your toes. The current occupant's life is in great danger.]
posted by Benedict S. at 6:23 AM
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