David Brin's Contrary Brin (RSS Feed)
10-14-2007, 12:20 AM
We're discussing how not only to eke victory over the Bushites, in 08, but to decisively repudiate the neocons' treasonous “culture war.” To do this, we must not over-rely upon plummeting GOP popularity. After all:
1) Something may happen to firm the GOP base. Another (convenient) terror attack. War with Iran. The nomination of Hillary Clinton. (Look, I like her. I'll campaign hard if she’s the nominee. But can you imagine anything more sure to bring out ten million extra Republican voters, through sleet or hail?)
2) The GOP is already re-positioning, preparing to blame everything on Bush and “Beltway Washington insiders...” giving GOP voters a way to vote for more neocon thieves, backed by the same interests, while telling themselves they're throwing bums out!
3) Democrats may let Karl Rove frame the debate, yet again, as a matter of “left versus right”... leaving moderate and “decent” conservatives no option but to hold their noses and “vote right” -- as a matter of simple self- identity.
We must prepare against these failure modes.
But how?
The best way to do it is by going for the throat. Go AFTER the Dole Goldwater Republicans, hammer and tongs! That beloved, sweet but troglodytic uncle of yours, for example, who gets his memes reinforced on Fox. Make him choose between the GOP and America!
Because that’s what it comes down to.
And now, back to providing ammo for that effort... more ostrich hypocrisy skewers.
.
* DO YOU FIGURE YOU’D HAVE NOTICED IF BILL CLINTON...
...sent our National Guard units into endless deployments, wrecking families, demolishing our reserves, and leaving our states and cities defenseless, in case of natural disaster. Or in case of a future terror attack?
...allowed a great American city to be destroyed through staggering bureaucratic negligence, despite plenty of warnings about hurricane danger? Then allowed graft and corruption (http://www.naomiklein.org/shock doctrine/the-book) to siphon off billions, in the aftermath?
...allowed U.S. air travel to decline into a morass of filthy, overcrowded airports, overbearing security and deteriorating service, while the rich escape to charters and corporate jets?
...allowed our nation’s infrastructure, bridges, highways etc to deteriorate at the fastest rate in history?
...oversaw the worst spiral into national debt the world has ever seen, reversing 1990s surpluses into record-breaking deficits?
(Self-check: When did you switch priorities? Loading your grandchildren with debt, while protecting Rupert Murdoch from taxes? Even when our nation is at war, in a “fight for survival”?
(Is it possible you were TAUGHT to make this weird reversal of conservative values? By the same aristocrats who control your radio and TV? By the very same men who directly benefit?)
.
* WOULD YOU CRITICIZE YOUR “COMMANDER IN CHIEF” IF IT WERE BILL CLINTON WHO...
...supervised and directly oversaw the steepest decline in U.S. military readiness (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/25/23530/4440) since the War of 1812? With the Army and Marines running out of troops and equipment, unable to meet quotas, despite steeply lowering standards and offering signup bonuses in excess of $20,000 all the way up to $150,000?
...brought us to the point where only two Army brigades are currently trained, equipped and prepared to fight off a national land force? And those two are in Korea? (Hint: that’s fewer ready brigades than Belgium or Mexico have.)
...fired, transferred, punished, or forced into retirement hundreds of US military officers, (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/1/175911/992) for refusing to parrot a party line or for not helping twist our armed forces into a political tool?
...appointed to top positions at the FBI, Justice Department, CIA, Defense and Homeland Security men and women without experience in those fields, whose sole attribute was partisan loyalty and a willingness to bully civil servants, harassing professionals into toeing the line?
(Self-check: If a Democrat did a smidgen of this, would you have looked the other way?
(Or would you have made a fuss if Clinton harassed even one US officer? So, what do you say to that face in the mirror? That fellow who let a Republican administration do all this, and much more, without uttering a word of protest?)
.
* WOULD YOU HAVE LAUGHED ALOUD -- OR CRIED -- IF BILL CLINTON...
...declared that he was the one and only “decider,” in what had previously been a vast and sophisticated democracy?
...declared repeatedly that a president can refuse to answer to any kind of accountability or oversight by Congress?
...promised (http://issuepedia.org/Bush_administration_hypocrisy) (as a candidate) never to commit troops without a timetable, an exit strategy, adequate financing, or clear goals? Achievable war aims that directly help our nation, enough to outweigh our soldiers’ sacrifice? What if Clinton had promised all that... then did the opposite?
...declared “Mission Accomplished” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Accomplished) when an endless, Vietnam-style quagmire had only just begun?
... initiated intimate and unwanted body contact (http://www.ifilm.com/video/2755176) with a female foreign leader? On camera?
...drove away all of our allies and made the United States more unpopular around the world than at any time in our history?
(Yes, the neocon attitude is “#*@! what the world thinks!” But, in that case, wouldn’t traditional conservative isolationism make more sense than trying to “lead” a world that hates us?)
(In fact, Clinton’s Balkans War (http://www.davidbrin.com/neocons.html) was brief, fierce, effective and perfect, quickly achieving all major goals at low expense, while preserving readiness and costing zero -- exactly zero -- American lives. While US popularity soared, even among Muslims and troop moral hit new records. Beat that.)
Next time... even more (what-if) crimes of “Bill Clinton!”...a collaborative contrarian product of http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
(Original Post) (http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2007/10/ostrich-papers-what-if-clinton-had-part.html)
1) Something may happen to firm the GOP base. Another (convenient) terror attack. War with Iran. The nomination of Hillary Clinton. (Look, I like her. I'll campaign hard if she’s the nominee. But can you imagine anything more sure to bring out ten million extra Republican voters, through sleet or hail?)
2) The GOP is already re-positioning, preparing to blame everything on Bush and “Beltway Washington insiders...” giving GOP voters a way to vote for more neocon thieves, backed by the same interests, while telling themselves they're throwing bums out!
3) Democrats may let Karl Rove frame the debate, yet again, as a matter of “left versus right”... leaving moderate and “decent” conservatives no option but to hold their noses and “vote right” -- as a matter of simple self- identity.
We must prepare against these failure modes.
But how?
The best way to do it is by going for the throat. Go AFTER the Dole Goldwater Republicans, hammer and tongs! That beloved, sweet but troglodytic uncle of yours, for example, who gets his memes reinforced on Fox. Make him choose between the GOP and America!
Because that’s what it comes down to.
And now, back to providing ammo for that effort... more ostrich hypocrisy skewers.
.
* DO YOU FIGURE YOU’D HAVE NOTICED IF BILL CLINTON...
...sent our National Guard units into endless deployments, wrecking families, demolishing our reserves, and leaving our states and cities defenseless, in case of natural disaster. Or in case of a future terror attack?
...allowed a great American city to be destroyed through staggering bureaucratic negligence, despite plenty of warnings about hurricane danger? Then allowed graft and corruption (http://www.naomiklein.org/shock doctrine/the-book) to siphon off billions, in the aftermath?
...allowed U.S. air travel to decline into a morass of filthy, overcrowded airports, overbearing security and deteriorating service, while the rich escape to charters and corporate jets?
...allowed our nation’s infrastructure, bridges, highways etc to deteriorate at the fastest rate in history?
...oversaw the worst spiral into national debt the world has ever seen, reversing 1990s surpluses into record-breaking deficits?
(Self-check: When did you switch priorities? Loading your grandchildren with debt, while protecting Rupert Murdoch from taxes? Even when our nation is at war, in a “fight for survival”?
(Is it possible you were TAUGHT to make this weird reversal of conservative values? By the same aristocrats who control your radio and TV? By the very same men who directly benefit?)
.
* WOULD YOU CRITICIZE YOUR “COMMANDER IN CHIEF” IF IT WERE BILL CLINTON WHO...
...supervised and directly oversaw the steepest decline in U.S. military readiness (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/25/23530/4440) since the War of 1812? With the Army and Marines running out of troops and equipment, unable to meet quotas, despite steeply lowering standards and offering signup bonuses in excess of $20,000 all the way up to $150,000?
...brought us to the point where only two Army brigades are currently trained, equipped and prepared to fight off a national land force? And those two are in Korea? (Hint: that’s fewer ready brigades than Belgium or Mexico have.)
...fired, transferred, punished, or forced into retirement hundreds of US military officers, (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/1/175911/992) for refusing to parrot a party line or for not helping twist our armed forces into a political tool?
...appointed to top positions at the FBI, Justice Department, CIA, Defense and Homeland Security men and women without experience in those fields, whose sole attribute was partisan loyalty and a willingness to bully civil servants, harassing professionals into toeing the line?
(Self-check: If a Democrat did a smidgen of this, would you have looked the other way?
(Or would you have made a fuss if Clinton harassed even one US officer? So, what do you say to that face in the mirror? That fellow who let a Republican administration do all this, and much more, without uttering a word of protest?)
.
* WOULD YOU HAVE LAUGHED ALOUD -- OR CRIED -- IF BILL CLINTON...
...declared that he was the one and only “decider,” in what had previously been a vast and sophisticated democracy?
...declared repeatedly that a president can refuse to answer to any kind of accountability or oversight by Congress?
...promised (http://issuepedia.org/Bush_administration_hypocrisy) (as a candidate) never to commit troops without a timetable, an exit strategy, adequate financing, or clear goals? Achievable war aims that directly help our nation, enough to outweigh our soldiers’ sacrifice? What if Clinton had promised all that... then did the opposite?
...declared “Mission Accomplished” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Accomplished) when an endless, Vietnam-style quagmire had only just begun?
... initiated intimate and unwanted body contact (http://www.ifilm.com/video/2755176) with a female foreign leader? On camera?
...drove away all of our allies and made the United States more unpopular around the world than at any time in our history?
(Yes, the neocon attitude is “#*@! what the world thinks!” But, in that case, wouldn’t traditional conservative isolationism make more sense than trying to “lead” a world that hates us?)
(In fact, Clinton’s Balkans War (http://www.davidbrin.com/neocons.html) was brief, fierce, effective and perfect, quickly achieving all major goals at low expense, while preserving readiness and costing zero -- exactly zero -- American lives. While US popularity soared, even among Muslims and troop moral hit new records. Beat that.)
Next time... even more (what-if) crimes of “Bill Clinton!”...a collaborative contrarian product of http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
(Original Post) (http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2007/10/ostrich-papers-what-if-clinton-had-part.html)