Boxed In

A Republican coalition has allowed a plurality of wildly divergent individuals to control the government of the United States for much of the last forty years, ever since Nixon put together his "Silent Majority". During these last four decades, the population itself has undergone vast changes. Immigrants from all over the World, including huge numbers of Latinos and Asians have made the population a third again larger. Society has become immensely more tolerant of alternate lifestyles, non-traditional religious observance, the open use of illicit drugs and the public expression of civil dissent. Even as society became more loosey goosey, American government has continued on, controlled, for the most part, by leaders that speak and act as if the Nelsons, the Cleevers, the Andersons, and Gillis' are the constituency they represent, with no one more aberrant out there to contend with than Desi and Lucy. It's been a numbers game they play. As the numbers have gotten tighter, they learned to play better and lacking unified opposition, the American Right has reigned supreme.

With the election of George W. Bush in 2000, the hegemony of the Right took a new direction. Instead of merely trying to manage American society, they set out to control it. With the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government firmly in their grasp, there was no one to stop them. They have been able to make great strides in their endeavors. No real opposition has arisen against them but support that they previously had, has become disenchanted. The numbers game in the 2008 election will be more difficult than ever for them to win.

Many traditional Christians aren't comfortable revisiting the Scopes "Monkey" trial. Not every die hard Capitalist is comfortable with a totally "Free" market. Not every supporter of a strong national defense is comfortable with a blanket declaration of war against a religion of 1.25 billion people, world wide.

As we enter a watershed national election year, the American distrust of politicians has never been greater. There can be no greater proof of this than in the quality of those of us who have stepped forward to present ourselves for election to public office. Listing their deficiencies would be a Herculean task. As far as Presidential candidates are concerned, there is not a single one of them, that I am convinced, is going to be able to do a substantially better job than George W. Bush and he is a malignant, drunken retard.

Americans will have to realize that the function of government needs to first concentrate on dealing with things as they are and not as we wish they were. The goals we set for ourselves need to be achievable and not the wet dreams of some coke head retard. That time is not now. Maybe we need another four or eight or sixteen years of national decline to open our eyes.