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CounterPunch
November
12, 2002
Rest in Peace,
Jackass!
by ANTHONY GANCARSKI
Fifteen-love went the count in the Security Council,
and it's as if the world is calling Richard Perle's bluff. Meanwhile,
here in the homeland, the Democrats are finding out what they
pissed away when they ran an unashamed LBJ-styled campaign of
intimidation and invective against Ralph Nader in 2000, informing
countless millions for the final time that there is very little
reason for them to believe in this party of paid off hacks and
war-hawk stiffs, willing almost to a man to lend support to any
fascistic enterprise dreamed up in the name of national security.
Wars, wars galore; terror, drugs, Iraq, and no end in sight to
a damned one of them.
The Democratic Party. The party of FDR
and his war economy; the party of Harry Truman and the bombing
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the party of Korea and Vietnam and
"Cold War liberalism"; of Dukakis in a tank; of Bill
Clinton chuckling his way through memorial services. The party
whose main principles bowed down like prison brides for the USA
PATRIOT act. This party, whose operatives and mouthpieces begged
our votes time and time again because it was "electable",
found the comeuppance for its repeated capitulation embodied
in its own national irrelevancy.
And it's not as if the Dems hadn't been
warned. While those who resisted the bland centrism of the national
party found themselves "liquidated", there were numerous
cogent criticisms from the outside of the Democratic Party's
inability to take a stand on any issue with electoral resonance.
While driving across South Dakota in May, I had occasion to
hear Rush Limbaugh arguing on his radio program that Senator
Daschle had failed to establish what the Democratic Party stood
for in any tangible sense, and that that failure would be calamitous
for the party's chances this November. Limbaugh made a play of
soliciting calls taking issue with what he expected to be a controversial
position, but elicited little beyond Dittos from those who passed
the muster of call screening.
It's not surprising that Rush Limbaugh
understood the problems faced by the national organization so
clearly. One of the few high-profile conservatives to give Buchanan
support in 1992, and one of the chief propagandists for the Gingrich
insurgency in the House, Limbaugh has a working knowledge of
how political thoughts are engendered in depoliticized people.
It is unfortunate that the same claim cannot be made for anyone
in the Democratic Party with the power to influence its national
agenda.
Unfortunate for the Democrats, at least.
It amazes this writer how many people seriously expected the
Republicans to harshen their rhetoric after the party's gains
on Election Day, in spite of the cable news folks informing us
repeatedly that the President was "above gloating."
As he should have been. The smart money currently is on Republicans'
rhetoric sounding distinctly centrist, in an effort to cherry
pick "moderate" Democrats more willing to switch parties
than to identify with a losing organization. Endemic in the American
temperament is the desire to cheer for a winner, and the understanding
that there is no great shame in being a frontrunner. Ironic indeed
that Rush was right after all
Anthony Gancarski, a frequent contributor to CounterPunch, recently
had his work recognized by Utne Reader's Web Watch. Contact him
at Anthony.Gancarski@Attbi.com.
Yesterday's
Features
Jeremy Scahill
Live
from Baghdad
Trading with the Enemy
Fran Shor
Crow's Return:
Auguries of Decay and Death
Scott Cossette
To Serve
or Not to Serve?
From Marine to Anti-War Organizer
Jason Leopold
Gray Davis' Trail of Broken Promises
Robert Fisk
Bush Crosses
the Rubicon
Ron Jacobs
UN Security
Council Vote:
Why Don't I Feel More Secure?
Brian Rainey
Bush's
Motives in Iraq
Tarif Abboushi
Cartoons and the Messianic Age
New
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- Ashcroft's Gays: the War on Free Speech;
- Saddam's Amnesty: Could It Happen Here?
- Criminalizing Dissent: a history and preview;
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- Egypt in Turmoil: an Anthropologist's Account;
- Green and Grounded: Profiled at the Gate.
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November 10,
2002
Ali Abunimah
Sharon's
Appendix
M. Shahid
Alam
Political Geography
Zionist Theses and Anti-Theses
Michael Neumann
Demonstrating a Genteel Reticence
Rosemary &
Walter Brasch
Personal Possession:
War and Iraq, a Recollection
Ralph Nader
The Mid-term Elections
Mark J. Palmer
Bring Back the Grizzly
Robert Fisk
Bush's "Clean Shot"
Dave Marsh
And the Beat(ing) Goes On
Adam Engel
No Blood for Marijuana in Iraq
Josh Frank
Sleater-Kinney
Rocks
Our Protest Songs Are Here
Clifford Lyle Marshall
Give the Trinity Back to the Salmon
Zeynep Toufe
Turn These Children into Stone
Philip Farruggio
In Name Only
Charles Sullivan
Mountain Party Rising!
Bernard, Krieger, Alam
Poets'Basement
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Press
by Alexander
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
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