Not Your Sweetie

Original message
Interesting Times.Edited on Thu Nov-04-04 10:35 AM by library_max
It's probably neither ancient nor Chinese, but the "ancient Chinese curse" of "May you live in interesting times" makes its point. It's often no fun to be there when history is made.
It's certainly no fun to look back and realize that the last free and fair Presidential election was in 1996. In 2000, the Republicans were surprised that it was so close, and they had to improvise a steal in Florida. This time, they had all their ducks in a row before the primaries. In retrospect, we never had a chance. Between electronic voting and gerrymandering and purges of the voting rolls and intimidating new and infrequent voters (read: Kerry voters), they had us coming and going. All the careful Democrats who voted absentee or provisional ballot to make sure that their votes got counted got to see the election called and conceded before the envelopes containing their votes were even opened.
And protest isn't going to change anything. Did it change anything in 2000? The votes were eventually counted in Florida in 2000, too, and Gore won. But Bush was already President. Same song, second verse.
The Republicans are now the PRI. They control all three branches at the federal and state levels. They can stay in power as long as they want. They are the government now. We need to give up the illusions that we matter politically, that there is any kind of partnership or cooperative role for Democrats. On the national level at least, we need to repudiate the government and all its works, because the government is the Republicans, pure and simple.
We are a true opposition party now. They are the establishment. We need to stand back and pick at their every misstep and failure and blunder, with mockery and cheap shots. We need everyone to understand that they, and not we, are running things and are responsible for the results. We need to ignore elections, at least on the federal level, for the foreseeable future. We need to prevent them from making us the fall guy for their failures, which is the only role they'll allow us politically. Like the PRI, eventually they'll become so ossified and institutional that they'll be vulnerable, but that point is decades away now.
For years, the Republicans have claimed that government is the enemy, that government can't and won't do anything to help anybody except the rich and powerful. Now they'll make it true. Watch education and every piece of the social safety net get "privatized" out of existence, at least on the federal level. "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you" really will become the bitter joke they've always claimed it is.
If there's anything we can accomplish politically, it'll be on the state level. We need to concentrate on state legislatures and governors' mansions. Because the federal government is going to concentrate on military adventurism and tax cutting, more and more functions will devolve to the states. If there's to be any decency and humane social institutions, they'll have to be on the state level. Imagine how little joy it gives me, a Texan, to write this.
We might as well face the facts. Republicans control all three branches at all levels. They control the news media. They control the process. A year ago, I'd have been the first to say that jeering and finger-pointing and demonizing the government are beneath us, no way to behave if we want the electorate to trust us with power. But they're the only way to behave now that the doors of power are sealed shut against us.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=19905#20607