The people have spoken. Welcome to America Old-Style.
To the tens of thousands of dead Afghan and Iraqi civilians, we say: "Your lives don't matter. We will sacrifice the lives of our children and bankrupt our treasury in order to strengthen the hegemony of Western capitalism. In using overwhelming lethal force, we will not discriminate between those among you who pose a genuine threat and those unfortunate enough to live in the same general region. Your resistance is 'terrorism' by 'evildoers' -- our aggression causes 'collateral damage' by 'liberators.'"
To the nations of the world, we say: "Fuck off. We're the U.S. and you're not. We don't follow the law, we are the law."
To the poor, the unemployed, and the uninsured: "You're on your own. Find a decent set of bootstraps or get married. What do you mean 'stop pissing on us'? That trickle-down stream is sacred. Trust us. The pharmaceutical companies need as much money as possible to advertise their latest erection-helper, right?"
To women who want to retain autonomy over their own bodies: "See, we're multicultural: We're open to ideas from our Wahhabi Islamist friends in Saudi Arabia. Choice? Well, you may not have a 'choice' about becoming a parent, but you will have a 'choice' for your kid's schooling."
To those who share their beds with people of the same sex: "Let's call it 'citizenship lite': fewer rights with all the obligations of citizenship."
To those who find media consolidation and corporate wealthfare problematic: "Shut up! Friends is on! Opinion polls say that Friends is the most popular show. So shut up and let me watch!"
To those concerned with personal injuries and environmental damage: "Our taxpayer-funded legal system exists for the benefit of corporations and to compensate corporate attorneys, not to deter harmful conduct or to compensate victims." UPDATE: more here on corporate regulation of citizens.
To the millions of black people imprisoned on nonviolent drug offenses and disenfranchised upon release: "Well, maybe we can work out a deal: we'll repeal these drug laws and sentencing guidelines if you also let us repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and overturn Brown v. Board. (It's right there in the Constitution: 'three-fifths of a person.')"
To those who care about clean water, clear air, and renewable energy: "Load up your solar-powered spacecraft with Evion and head for Mars." (that may not be a bad idea, actually)
UPDATE: in other words, as Anatol Lieven wondered before the election:
Suppose, then, George W. Bush dropped all pretenses and simply declared, "OK, you wanna know my domestic agenda? Here it is. Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay and I aren't just gonna defeat the liberals, we're gonna obliterate them, along with every progressive reform since the days of Teddy Roosevelt, every New Deal program, every Great Society entitlement. Why else do you think we're running these sky-high deficits? We're handing as much dough as we can to the people who know how to run this country -- namely the super-rich. Sure, that's gonna cost the rest of you jobs and social services, but isn't it worth it to give the poor, the nonwhite, the welfare queens, the gays and the feminazis a swift kick in the teeth? "What's my foreign policy? Listen up. We're gonna yank that oil out from under those dysfunctional Arabs because we need it to preserve our gas- guzzling way of life, and I'm not asking anybody for a permission slip to do that. We're God's chosen people and we intend to make the most of it. And if anybody gets in our way, we've got what it takes to clobber them."
If Bush took that line, I wonder if it would it cost him a single vote he doesn't already have.
Full steam ahead for the 19th century.
Regardless of your partisan affiliation or position on particular issues, we now have cause for genuine fear: A one-party system on both federal and state levels, across the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. There are no checks and balances within this system, and we cannot expect any meaningful challenges from its servile partners in Big Media. Laws can be passed, individuals incarcerated, and court decisions made with little opportunity for anyone to speak for the powerless to prevent (or even raise awareness of) exploitation, repression, and injustice.
Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know he is.The Christian fundamentalists are now in charge. While it's comforting to note that Alan Keyes got an embarrassing ass-whuppin' here in Illinois, there is little doubt that if he had run as a white man in a Southern state -- saying the same things and advocating the same policies -- he would have been elected to the U.S. Senate:
-- Jean Anouilh
Tom Coburn, the new senator from Oklahoma, has advocated the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions and warned that "the gay agenda" would undermine the country. He also characterized his race as a choice between "good and evil" and said he had heard there was "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma schools.
Jim DeMint, the new senator from South Carolina, said during his campaign that he supported a state G.O.P. platform plank banning gays from teaching in public schools. He explained, "I would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04dowd.html?hp
UPDATE: more here on the new Xtreme Senators.
How to respond? First we must borrow a few pages from the playbook of the new conservative backlash, and get serious about organizing on a widescale, grassroots level. What we are seeing today is the result of years of organizing among fundamentalists following the 1964 defeat of Barry Goldwater. We must focus on and fight for the best of the liberal/progressive tradition; as Katha Pollitt says:
We liberals and progressives and leftists have our own noble principles, our own beautiful abstract words. We should take our stand on them. Fairness is a liberal value. Equality is a liberal value. Education is a liberal value. Honesty in government, public service for modest remuneration, safeguarding public resources and the land--these are all values we share. Liberty is a liberal value, trusting people to make their own decisions, letting people speak their minds even if their views are unpopular. So is social solidarity, the belief that we should share the nation's enormous wealth so that everyone can live decently. The truth is, most of the good things about this country have been fought for by liberals (indeed, by leftists and, dare one say it, Communists) -- women's rights, civil liberties, the end of legal segregation, freedom of religion, the social safety net, unions, workers' rights, consumer protection, international cooperation, resistance to corporate domination -- and resisted by conservatives. If conservatives had carried the day, blacks would still be in the back of the bus, women would be barefoot and pregnant, medical care would be on a cash-only basis, there'd be mouse feet in your breakfast cereal and workers would still be sleeping next to their machines.
UPDATE: see "A Day in the Life of Joe Republican" in this David E post.
Our nation is not so much "red vs. blue" as varying shades of purple. The redder states will not turn bluer if we hold our breath. We must organize and fight. We should not be optimistic, but there are reasons to be hopeful.
"Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope."--Barack Obama
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