Beating The BushCo Blues
by Allen Snyder
If you're a good liberal, then you're blessed with the following; a fully functioning brain, a strong and enlightened altruistic conscience, an understanding of reality's complexity, fragility, and malleability, an intense desire to stay informed, and an equally intense desire to see BushCo's warmongering Neocon chickenhawks ingloriously unseated in the upcoming Presidential election.
But as we race toward that important event, there is little significant change in the way American voters perceive BushCo's moronic CEO. We either love him to death or hate him like The Plague. We either think he's really God's gift to America or he's a complete and total dipshit. Whatever the case, the mainstream poop (which, by the way, smells way worse than regular poop) is that, barring some electoral snafu, like not counting all the votes, some smoking-gun scandal, or an untimely accident, Bush will be illegitimately reinstalled as President (fruit from the poisonous tree, you know).
Thanks in large part to BushCo's corporate media lackeys and their own ineptitude, the Democrats can't buy a decent break. Meanwhile, BushCo's experienced lie and reality manufacturing machines create the politically useful illusions that we're all safer than before 9/11, that Saddam is the root of all evil, and that the tax cuts are working.
Despite his being a miserable failure at everything he's ever done, the Good Witch of Texas is looking after George W. Bush. No matter what he ruins or what criminal stupidity he commits, he comes out smellin' dandy. It's enough to make a lefty reach for the Proz"the Xan"no, make that the Hydros (I'll bum a few thousand from Rush). Top this off with an annual bout of good ol' seasonal depression and it's a wonder the suicide statistics for leftists aren't spiking like they are among the soldiers stationed in Iraq .
It's the classic story of one step forward, two steps back. Just when some big juicy political pimple is about to pop, they 'capture' Saddam, raise the terror alert to 'high' (more Hydros, please), charge Michael Jackson with perversion, kill a few dozen Iraqis 'insurgents', or spread some Mad Cow Disease.
There comes a point where you just wanna say, 'f*ck it!' and chuck the whole business. Why get stressed out and pissed off?! It's bad for my BP, my hyperacidity, and makes my head hurt right through"there.
I call this condition the BushCo Blues.
You're aware of, and may even have, some of the symptoms: anxiety, frustration, anger sometimes bordering on rage, palpitating heart, hopelessness, disbelief, fatigue, empty feeling in pit of stomach, desire to smack certain high-ranking Federal officials across the face with heavy armored gloves and wondering why anyone thinks Dennis Miller is funny.
This condition is rather common among liberals and it can be quite debilitating. At its most severe, it can lead to sitting alone in the dark listening to Depeche Mode and The Smiths, overeating, over-smoking, overdrinking, smile-less and laugh-less days, insomnia, migraines, shingles, hemorrhoids, and multi-colored dandruff.
How do we deal with this syndrome? How do we beat the BushCo Blues? Not with Hydros (unless you want to end up an ignorant blowhard radio talk-show host), but by getting involved, staying informed, staying angry, and venting appropriately.
If you're a regular Joe or Jane, who has traditionally done little else but vote, pick an activity you enjoy and tailor it toward ending the dangerous BushCo regime in November. Anger and frustration can be a major motivator - stirring up people who are sometimes better left alone - so don't let those feelings go to waste.
Get the Word out. Write to a newspaper, a website, or Congress (let me know if you find any liberals. If you don't write, then stuff envelopes, buy a anti-Bush bumper sticker or T-shirt, but for America 's sake, do something.
It's therapeutic, cathartic, and I guarantee you'll feel better.
And why not? You'll be fighting the good fight. You deplore the irrational Neocon world vision where might makes right, international cooperation is for sissies, and if we can't buy 'em or bribe 'em, we bomb 'em and conquer 'em. You don't think 'free' markets, big business, rampant consumerism, pollution, and employee exploitation rule. You don't believe that if you're poor, it's 'cause you made shitty choices. You abhor Social Darwinism as public policy and political philosophy. You know these attitudes are anathema to American democracy, individual rights, and fundamental human equality.
Thanks to the UN, the New Deal, labor unions, the minimum wage, the Hague , Civil Rights, the ACLU, and other American and international organizations and policies devoted to realizing the liberal dream, we've come far from a world filled with hate, fear, paranoia, and perpetual war. BushCo's Neocons have put all these institutions in serious danger, more than they've ever been in before.
Saving the liberal dream is up to you, dear reader.
Just keep those Morrissey CDs handy.
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