Where has all the indignation gone, long time passing?
Well, it hasn’t gone anywhere, per se, it has been submerged beneath other issues, serious and real issues that remain issues and remain serious. But that pot of spaghetti sauce is starting to boil over. The stove is getting crusty.
Twenty thousand additional troops are headed to Iraq to fight in the War Without End, but Preznitwit Bush says it’s not an escalation. It is a “surge.” Perhaps “thrust” is a more appropriate word, because someone’s getting fucked here. Oh yes, it’s us, the American people. History will look back on us unkindly, no doubt, and quite possibly judge us more harshly than our dimwit commander-and-thief. Because while our overeducated ranch hand president deserves the blame for conducting perhaps the most poorly conceived military campaign since the opening of the Eastern Front in World War 2, we elected him. Twice.
OK, to be fair we didn’t elect him the first time, at least not by any kind of popular vote. But the second time around we gave him the green light, and not only that we cleared traffic off the streets and fired all the police. Since 2004, it’s been pedal-to-the-metal straight down Main Street belching flame out the exhaust pipe. History will remember us as the people that elevated a failed businessman and dimwitted evangelist to the most powerful office on Earth, and watched for six years as he and those acting on his behalf looted the country and declared war on rest of the world, in God’s name.
This is the man who, when his generals told him they needed more troops, tried to make do with fewer. Now, when the commanders on the ground say reductions in force are appropriate, he sends more, and replaces the commanders who disagree with him. What are we to make of a commander-in-chief who ties the hands of his own military? What indeed. . . .
Like it or not, however, we are stuck with him for the foreseeable future. Even beyond that, few viable options have presented themselves. Illinois Senator Barack Obama wants to run for president as a Democrat. But the only thing we can say with any certainty about Sen. Obama is that he is very, very good at being Sen. Obama. His judgment on other issues, such as choosing real estate partners (Tony Rezko), or endorsing candidates (Todd Stroger), or accepting support (Mayor Daley) is open to questioning.
There is something more than mildly distasteful about the amount of hype surrounding Sen. Obama. It isn’t that he doesn’t seem to be a likeable guy. No doubt he is. But he hasn’t done anything. The Tribune’s John Kass puts it very well in his column: “… all these people, who don’t really know him, pouring their ambitions into his empty vessel.”
Such is the condition in which we find ourselves today, nearly 22 months before the next election. We are so starved for real leadership, for any sign of electrical activity in the brain of the man behind the podium, that we will eagerly pour our hopes and ambitions into the empty vessel of the first best looking thing that comes along. The sad part is, Obama can’t even control his own fate any more. His candidacy is no longer in his hands; Obama’s future is now controlled by a pack of thin-skinned and eager political reporters and pundit hacks who will fawn over him so long as he pleases them, but who won’t hesitate to skewer him at the first perceived slight or sign of danger.
The pack also likes, on occasion, to tear down what it has built up, and so there is a real possibility that, six months down the road, the popularity pendulum will begin its movement back toward the center, inevitably missing the center, as pendulums always do, and swinging over to personal destruction. The ultimate outcome of an Obama presidential run may be decided before a single straw poll or caucus is held. This is the New America: faster and more efficient, able to weed out presidential candidates with the click of a mouse.
There are two main concerns about Obama: One is that he is all flash and no substance, and the other is that there is real substance there, but it will be burned up by the flash. But we live in a fantasy land here in America, with an imagined economy and delusional leadership. So it makes perfect sense that we would embrace Obama at this early stage. He is a fantasy, he is a dream. Right now, he is whatever we want him to be—a strong leader, eloquent, pragmatic, intelligent, sexy. Whether he actually is any of those things right now is irrelevant. It only matters what we perceive, what we believe. Maybe Obama is smart. Maybe he’s just been lucky. Maybe he’s smart and lucky.
Either way, the trouble with living in a fantasy land is that eventually reality intrudes. Like Harvey Keitel’s character Hal Slocumb said in the movie “Thelma & Louise”:
“Brains will only get you so far, and luck always runs out.”
The same is true for countries, as well as politicians and fugitives.
The Indignant Citizen
Well, it hasn’t gone anywhere, per se, it has been submerged beneath other issues, serious and real issues that remain issues and remain serious. But that pot of spaghetti sauce is starting to boil over. The stove is getting crusty.
Twenty thousand additional troops are headed to Iraq to fight in the War Without End, but Preznitwit Bush says it’s not an escalation. It is a “surge.” Perhaps “thrust” is a more appropriate word, because someone’s getting fucked here. Oh yes, it’s us, the American people. History will look back on us unkindly, no doubt, and quite possibly judge us more harshly than our dimwit commander-and-thief. Because while our overeducated ranch hand president deserves the blame for conducting perhaps the most poorly conceived military campaign since the opening of the Eastern Front in World War 2, we elected him. Twice.
OK, to be fair we didn’t elect him the first time, at least not by any kind of popular vote. But the second time around we gave him the green light, and not only that we cleared traffic off the streets and fired all the police. Since 2004, it’s been pedal-to-the-metal straight down Main Street belching flame out the exhaust pipe. History will remember us as the people that elevated a failed businessman and dimwitted evangelist to the most powerful office on Earth, and watched for six years as he and those acting on his behalf looted the country and declared war on rest of the world, in God’s name.
This is the man who, when his generals told him they needed more troops, tried to make do with fewer. Now, when the commanders on the ground say reductions in force are appropriate, he sends more, and replaces the commanders who disagree with him. What are we to make of a commander-in-chief who ties the hands of his own military? What indeed. . . .
Like it or not, however, we are stuck with him for the foreseeable future. Even beyond that, few viable options have presented themselves. Illinois Senator Barack Obama wants to run for president as a Democrat. But the only thing we can say with any certainty about Sen. Obama is that he is very, very good at being Sen. Obama. His judgment on other issues, such as choosing real estate partners (Tony Rezko), or endorsing candidates (Todd Stroger), or accepting support (Mayor Daley) is open to questioning.
There is something more than mildly distasteful about the amount of hype surrounding Sen. Obama. It isn’t that he doesn’t seem to be a likeable guy. No doubt he is. But he hasn’t done anything. The Tribune’s John Kass puts it very well in his column: “… all these people, who don’t really know him, pouring their ambitions into his empty vessel.”
Such is the condition in which we find ourselves today, nearly 22 months before the next election. We are so starved for real leadership, for any sign of electrical activity in the brain of the man behind the podium, that we will eagerly pour our hopes and ambitions into the empty vessel of the first best looking thing that comes along. The sad part is, Obama can’t even control his own fate any more. His candidacy is no longer in his hands; Obama’s future is now controlled by a pack of thin-skinned and eager political reporters and pundit hacks who will fawn over him so long as he pleases them, but who won’t hesitate to skewer him at the first perceived slight or sign of danger.
The pack also likes, on occasion, to tear down what it has built up, and so there is a real possibility that, six months down the road, the popularity pendulum will begin its movement back toward the center, inevitably missing the center, as pendulums always do, and swinging over to personal destruction. The ultimate outcome of an Obama presidential run may be decided before a single straw poll or caucus is held. This is the New America: faster and more efficient, able to weed out presidential candidates with the click of a mouse.
There are two main concerns about Obama: One is that he is all flash and no substance, and the other is that there is real substance there, but it will be burned up by the flash. But we live in a fantasy land here in America, with an imagined economy and delusional leadership. So it makes perfect sense that we would embrace Obama at this early stage. He is a fantasy, he is a dream. Right now, he is whatever we want him to be—a strong leader, eloquent, pragmatic, intelligent, sexy. Whether he actually is any of those things right now is irrelevant. It only matters what we perceive, what we believe. Maybe Obama is smart. Maybe he’s just been lucky. Maybe he’s smart and lucky.
Either way, the trouble with living in a fantasy land is that eventually reality intrudes. Like Harvey Keitel’s character Hal Slocumb said in the movie “Thelma & Louise”:
“Brains will only get you so far, and luck always runs out.”
The same is true for countries, as well as politicians and fugitives.
The Indignant Citizen
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