Monica, Monica, Monica, 800 Dead GIs, WMDs, Iraq War
Will it work? Will one stupid, immoral peccadillo by Bill Clinton equal and erase the thoughts and memories of the Bush-Cheney lies that have led to the deaths of 800+ American GIs, thousands of Iraqis, the squandering of hundreds of billions of dollars...?
I have to stop myself from gritting my teeth when I think about the criminal acts of the current junta in the White House-- and the traitors in the Supreme Court who ensconced them there and the sell-outs in congress who keep them there, failing to impeach them, actively protecting them by squelching investigations into their illegal activities.
I don't think so. I don't think the fantasy of the desperate right-wingers-- that the Bill Clinton book tour-- will bring back a mass memory of Monica-induced outrage over the excesses of the democrats, shameless liars about what "is" is. On the contrary, Clinton's trip around America, promoting his book could be a further wedge, that works against the extreme right, to remind them of how they attacked the president for a private act, how the far right's think tanks spent millions to hire detectives, to investigate the dirt on Bill Clinton. (Frankly, I wish the Democrats and the progressives had the money and the toughness to do the same thing, as dirty as it may be. Bush and Cheney have closets full of vile skeletons, yet they trade on the "morality" issue with their "base" of fascist Christianist extremists who would warp the vision of the founders of America into in intolerant, Taliban-like theocratic state.
It amazes me that people with smarts can support the republican perspective. I understand rightwing religious nuts and blue collar rednecks, and I even understand college grads who are business types-- they were soul-less in college and managed to get through college without tickling any fresh brain cell connections.
But there are smart people, well, I should say, high IQ people who are avid, loyal Republicans. It's hard to make sense of why an intelligent person with a heart could be a republican or what is currently called a conservative. Okay, so leave out the people who are heartless... the businessmen and heartless greedy creeps and their self-centered, narcissistic, hyper-cosmeticalized, over-spa-indulged other halves who drive those eco-blasphemous Humvees and carry $500 purses. (It is nice to see that sales are down on the Humvees and hyper-SUVs by over 25% (Fed Up With Filling Up.)
And I guess even smart people still respond with hormones. It's amazing how testosterone or estrogen or even sugar can drain the brain. Then there are geeks who wear bowties, like CNN Crossfire's Tucker Carlson.
I bounced my question (Why any smart people could possibly be right-wingers?) off top Talk 100 radio host Thom Hartmann and he answered,
"Regardless of how smart they are, some of them take This is my team, right or wrong, I believe in my team attitude. That accounts for a good chunk of it. The liberal society is lets have a society that works for everybody and the conservative agenda is I've got mine, so screw the rest."
"The conservatives who have taken over the republican party are true radicals-- radical plutocrats. People don't understand that. These extremists accuse liberals of doing exactly what they are doing. They''ve done a great job of hiding their tracks."
I've long felt that a lot of the male love for Bush (the majority of women don't support him) is based on a kind of vicarious "big stick" connection (War is Not Viagra.) Bush talks tough and macho, and by supporting him, these right wing brainiacs and right wing rednecks make up for their feelings of inadequacy by rooting for him, just like they root for the home team.
So, it's likely that among many of these "imprinted" Republican loyalists, the Republican echo chamber will be able to, by tapping the right "reflex buttons" activate the old, massively conditioned anti-Clinton response. But reality is a funny thing. There's been enough news about lies about WMDs, about 800+ dead soldiers, beheadings, false reports about the war on terrorism, only to be replaced with the real news that the Bush Team has failed in that war, terrorism is up all over the world. So even some of the people the Bushies expect to be most loyal will be, at this point, wavering, and seeing Clinton with new eyes, like a hung-over drunk who's finally sobering up. It ain't necessarily pretty, but it's real, and that's better than what they were seeing when they were stoned out of their minds on the Republican vision of reality. Come November 5th, the Republicans are in for mother of all hangovers, when Democrats pop the bubble of their version of reality.
Rob Kall rob@opednews.com is publisher of progressive news and opinion website www.opednews.com and organizer of cutting edge meetings that bring together world leaders, such as the Winter Brain Meeting and the StoryCon Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story This article is copyright Rob Kall and originally published by opednews.com but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog or web media so long as this credit paragraph is attached. Over 100 other articles by Rob Kall
