A Moronic Hate Fest or a Sophisticated Shell Game?
by Becky Burgwin
The only thing left to do is to say to the Democratic Party, "Quit f***ing around and get your guy on point. If he needs to be scripted, get Rob Reiner, if he needs direction, get Steven Spielberg, if he needs some energy get Robin Williams. Get a goddam fifth of scotch if you have to but pump some life into this guy or we're toast."
Everybody knows that the Republican Convention was an all out hate-fest. However, if after watching it, you are convinced that Dubya's your man, I have a lovely piece of swampland in Western Florida I'd like to sell you. It's a real steal. Actually I'll buy it myself because in 2 months or so, we'll probably be able to drain it and put in a strip mall, or an amusement park, or better yet, an oil well.
P.T. Barnum said it, " There's one born every minute," and guess what? They're going to be deciding the fate of our country.
The intelligentsia of our country, the entire world, and every newscaster who watched that convention knows that it was smoke and mirrors with a little hillbilly and a lot of hatred thrown in. But in spite of blanket criticism of Zell Miller's frightening speech and his pathetic attempt to challenge Chris Matthews to a duel, the unbelievably crass Purple Heart Band Aid display and Tom Delay's little chat with David Gregory wherein he said, "Everybody knows Saddam had everything to do with 9/11 and that he was working hand in hand with Al Qaeda," these guys get an 11 POINT BUMP?
As my aunt was gushing on about Bush's speech and how sincere he is and how much he's grown, I asked her if she had any concerns about the environment. She said, "I am so tired of being dependent on foreign oil, I just really don't care about the caribou anymore." She believes there's enough oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to last us for years and years. Why? And whose job is it (besides mine, now) to tell her that she's wrong? And what makes her think that our government is going to lay off the Middle East oil supplies if we allow them to drill for oil in one of the only pristine wildernesses left on the planet?
Why aren't people being educated about these things by our candidate and his party? Why hasn't Kerry taken every idea that the republicans fallaciously promised at their convention and shown people why they shouldn't believe them?
The citizens of our country are being scammed and they're not going to realize it until it's too late and, by then, these guys will have taken the whole world down with them.
We're doomed. And I don't mean the Democratic Party is doomed, I mean the planet is doomed. Because, when the smartest people in the most powerful country, with the most sophisticated weaponry can't stop the world from being taken over by a bunch of warlords who don't care about anyone or anything besides the well-being of people who are exactly like them"rich, white, Christians, our planet is at the end of the road. Mind you, I have nothing against rich, white Christians"I happen to know a lot of them, but I like other people too"gays, artists, people of color and, um, women and children.
I've got to tell ya, for all the folks who put their hearts and souls into Howard Dean, this is becoming increasingly unbearable. We all knew that Kerry was boring, droll and lifeless, (we called him Lurch) but thanks in a large part to his own party, Dean took a heart-wrenching plunge for being too spirited, too angry and too confrontational. But did we throw in the towel? No. Did we, as we say here in Pittsburgh, take the bridge? No. Did we move to Canada? No. We said to ourselves, "Ok. Here's John Kerry"the war hero"the experienced politician. He has an intelligent, rich wife who has spent her life helping people and her money preserving the environment," and we got busy. So out goes the "angry" candidate and in comes the reasonable candidate. And what is everyone saying now? "He won't stand up for himself. Why won't he get angry and fight back? He's a big giant p*ssy who faked his own wounds in Viet Nam." MY GOD. This is the oldest con in republican neocon politics and has been done by Herr Rove and his private Gestapo at least twice before"everybody knows they did it"John McCain and Max Cleland know they did it" the media knows they did it and what's happening? PEOPLE ARE BUYING IT.
I can't think of anything else to say that hasn't been said a million times by me, the online press, the foreign press and the mainstream press. The only thing left to do is to say to the Democratic Party, "Quit f***ing around and get your guy on point. If he needs to be scripted, get Rob Reiner, if he needs direction, get Steven Spielberg, if he needs some energy get Robin Williams. Get a goddam fifth of scotch if you have to but pump some life into this guy or we're toast."
The entire world is behind us and we're going to lose. And once the Bush administration begins their "WAR THAT WILL LAST FOREVER," who's going to stop them? Who has the military capabilities to stop the United States of America? France? No. Germany? No. Russia? No. How about Iran or North Korea"BINGO!!
I saw a documentary years and years ago that I can't remember the name of, but it was about insects and it basically said that the only creature that will survive a nuclear holocaust is the cockroach. That's fitting because there'll be a bunch of cockroaches at the helm when it happens.
Why doesn't my aunt know that there isn't enough oil in Alaska to last us even one year? Why doesn't she know that every single word out of George Bush's mouth is a lie? Why isn't she asking herself why none of these empty promises were accomplished in the first 4 years? She watched the Bush twins. Doesn't she think it's telling that, like, their hamster died?
We're nearing the end of the road here and we can do phone banking, door-knocking, mass mailing, voter registering and internet writing until the cockroaches come home but if someone doesn't get John Kerry to start telling people, forcefully and courageously, that these people are the biggest con artists anyone has ever seen, they're going succeed in turning the world into a three ring circus whose dictatorial ring master will be George Bush.
Ms. Burgwin's writings have appeared in Time, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Counterpunch, Alternet and OpEdNews as well as several other online Op Ed sites. She is on the Board of Aid Afghanistan and one of the contributors to the Peace Project in Assisi, Italy. Send questions, comments, and critiques to rburgwin@aol.com.
