A Concise Analysis If Ever There Was One

Bipartisanship Is Just Another Word For The Rich Ganging Up Against The Rest of Us

Joseph Palermo in the Huffington Post tells it like it is.

Bush/Cheney III?

Pretty much.

Sadly Prescient

Remember how some commentators and a huge number of ordinary people thought that the last US presidential election signalled the start of a shiny new enlightened era in US and world politics? With Obama's poll numbers plummeting and his abject failures to do much of anything substantial on the economy, the wars or the environment, it turns out that Jello Biafra's words from back in the 2008 primary season are looking as sage as ever:

“I figure every available tool should be used relentlessly to fight the powers that be. It’s not as though a President ‘Barack-star’ is going to wave his magic wand and suddenly Iraq is all better. My biggest worry about him is that if he wins, he’s just going to turn around, pull off the mask, and be the creature of the corporate establishment that his voting record indicates. And a whole generation inspired to get off their asses and participate will become so disillusioned that they don’t vote again.”

Indeed, Mr. Biafra, indeed.

An election for those who were missing Karl Rove...

After Sarah Palin's speech last night, there seems to be a general feeling that it is, in fact, a masterstroke by the McCain campaign. Clive Crook, in particular, has been making this case hard for a few days now.

Much as it pains me to admit it, I think this is probably right. Above all else, the line that was going to win the election for the Democrats was that John McCain was just going to double down on everything about George Bush that you already hated - Iraq, tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy, drilling for oil everywhere... you name it, it's part of McCain's policy programme. And even on the things where he used to be a "maverick" - torture, the environment - he seems to be coming round to the Bush way of thinking. Given that everyone in the US has had eight years to look at the results of those policies, and given that the overwhelming majority decided that they hated them, the last thing the McCain campaign wants to do is talk about policy.

So, they've decided to double down on the "culture wars" angle. They were already pushing the war hero thing as the answer to every conceivable question that anyone could field. Now, alongside a hyper-masculine McCain wrapping himself in the flag, they can work the "hockey mom" angle to death as well, they parade her crazy religious convictions, and generally mobilise the conservative base.

The irony is, of course, that this is itself a continuation of the Bush strategy of focusing on "moral issues" in elections - you mobilise an angry Christian base and hope that enough of them turn out on polling day to win you the election. OK, Sarah Palin may be better looking than Dick Cheney, but it looks to me like a government that offers the same basic package of subsidies for the oil industry and military contractors whilst uttering Christian pieties.

For what it's worth, I don't think this will work. As Roy Edroso points out in his review of Palin's speech:

But the crowing about the virtues of small government as demonstrated by the blessed lives of lucky white people goes back to Goldwater at least, and the flag-waving to the days before democracy was even a thought. The act went over gangbusters in the hall. How well it goes outside of it, and into November, will depend on how much Americans are willing to pay for this sort of entertainment.

It might all be fun and games to have this sort of pantomime when the times are good, but when the economy's crashing, you'd think the electorate would be responsive to some searching questions about what anyone plans to do about it.

McCain Brings in the Attack Dogs

With a key Karl Rove disciple now running the show, expect the McCain campaign to start playing a nastier brand of political hardball shortly. A fairly tepid campaign is about to get a whole lot uglier, a whole lot dirtier and a whole lot more divisive. But can a divisive political strategy win again or are Americans finally sick of such manufactured discord? We'll find out in November but in the meantime, to his credit, Obama still largely appears to be running his own campaign on more positive themes.

Legalized Watergate?

Here is a more direct and, hopefully, persuasive reason as to why Barack Obama and the Bush-appeasing Democrats need to think again about their cowardice over FISA.

Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of possessing this kind of legal carte blanche to tap the telecommunications of the Democratic National Committee, thus avoiding the need to dispatch G. Gordon Liddy and Co. to break into the Watergate Hotel. The sad and infuriating thing is that if Tricky Dickie had faced a Congress as weak-willed and spineless as the current one, he would certainly never have faced impeachment proceedings to hold him and key members of his administration accountable for their crimes against the republic.

A Gift to the Right from a Weak-Willed Left?

Paul Krugman of the New York Times definitely gets it, but will the Democratic "leadership"? The time for constructive left and centre-left partisanship, as opposed to the continued appeasement of GOP-style rabid conservatism, is now. Time will tell whether 2008 will be a turning point or just another failed opportunity to stop the United States' descent into full-on fascism in the 21st century.

An Emerging Democratic Majority, But Will It Matter?

The Washington Post features an op-ed piece on an emerging Democratic majority throughout US politics. While this kind of thing gives hope that the great national nightmare brought on by the era of Republican fascism may be coming to a close, renewal will only be possible if the Democrats finally, and improbably, grow a collective spine and reverse the policy of appeasement that has been so shamefully apparent under the "leadership" of Harry Reid in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives.

Here's to a thorough national political fumigation in 2008 and beyond!

The Onion yet again seemingly reports real news

Democratic Mob Censures Bush In Effigy

The best democracy...

As part of my obsession with the US presidential primaries and general work-avoidance I've been looking around OpenSecrets. The funding data was particularly interesting. I never knew, for example, that the pro-Israel lobby gives so much more to the Dems than the Repubs so consistently. Enjoy.