COASTAL POST
(415)868 1600 FAX (415) 868 0502
P.O. Box 31
Bolinas CA 94924
http://www.coastalpost.com
email: [log in to unmask]
july, 2004


Immorality Plays

by Frank Scott


What could be  worse than the recent orgy of worship for a dreadful,
dead ex-president ? Is it the orgy of market hype for the memoirs of  a
dreadful, living ex-president?How about the inability of supposed
political opposition to deal with the most dreadful president of all,
who has transformed the executive chamber into an Office of Homeland
Deceit and Stupidity?

The morbid week-long  corpse watch for Reagan, his flag-draped coffin
on view everywhere , contrasted with the invisibility of more than 700
Americans killed in Iraq, their  coffins censored from view, lest we
glimpse the reality of war. But our  present court appointed ruler,  who
lost an election and somehow won a country, has served to make the
ex-presidential actors, one professional the other amateur,  seem
intelligent and heroic by comparison.


During the endlessly long funereal fiasco , important matters  were  put
into an even more  limited perspective than is usually the case. But
having finally planted the once historically  awful,  now mythologically
great  executive murderer, our short attention span has switched to
whatever  we’re being told now. And it seems our treacherous and
bungling regime is not only that, but in danger of legal problems as
well.


It is possible that every president in history has been impeachable , if
only his opposition had the guts to do the job.  But none has offered
the opportunity more than the current dim-bulb and his team of fanatics,
criminals and incompetents. A few Democrats have come out of their
groveling position  before power and have  begun to  stand erect, and
question the legality of some of the regime’s policies and practices.
Still, even with their new found spine, given their track record of
dismal failure, it may take nothing less than a public campaign to bring
about his impeachment.

The Democrats hope that increasing displeasure with the regime, combined
with the hatred that was always there, may serve to bring victory to
their most unattractive  candidate in November. Our ritual of lesser
evil  political choice  is  more serious than usual, in that the greater
evil  is more blatantly so than ever before. But simply relying on
negative feelings toward the Bush regime  could backfire. The lack of an
appealing candidate and a program substantially different from the
regime’s, especially regarding the savage attack on reason called a “war
on terror”, could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Only a ghastly
group like the Democrats could bring on such a disaster. They continue
to vilify Ralph Nader more than they attack the empty headed twit in the
White House, whose deepest thoughts may involve  locating an itch in his
lower anatomy.

The opposition candidate’s  strategy, if it can be called that, seems to
rely on saying and doing nothing different from the Republicans,  but
claiming to carry out the  usual policies in a way to bring more respect
and obedience from friends who’ve been lost by the arrogant
unilateralism practiced by the Bush league. And given the fear and
outright disgust created by the rapturous religious loonies in power,
such a gutless plan might work. But don’t bet on it.

The more radical opposition calls for grudging support to the Democrat,
with instant action against him as soon as he’s elected. But it may be
difficult to get that support when it is  regularly insulted and
antagonized by the petty, nasty venom regularly spat at Nader and his
supporters, whose votes will be needed , we are told, in order to beat
Bush. It’s hard to be dumber than a Democratic party campaign
strategist, but the nation’s  hope seems to be that the incumbent regime
will continue to be even dumber than that.

As bipartisan politics have increased the war budget by more than 300
billion dollars , and the presidential politics that occupy at least
some of our minds,  are financed by sums  already exceeding 300 million
dollars, some ought to be asking why the hell this money is being
squandered on death and stupidity. That would call for a political party
representing the interests of the great majority, when all we have are
the two corporate parties with one financial source.

Issues of daily survival at home, and their  connection to the
murderous  policies  in Iraq and Palestine, become more serious ,
dangerous, and barely acknowledged. The savage attacks on education,
health care, race relations and  nonprofessional  workers that have been
regular  policy under regimes from  Reagan  through  Clinton , have
become more deadly under Bush. Freedom of speech has never been in more
jeopardy, but it at least receives some concern from the upper middle
class, but the horrendous treatment of Americans who can’t even afford
civili liberties, are hardly mentioned at all.

The economic madness that rushes to privatize our public parts in
government culture, while its  lust for profit rushes to publicize our
private parts in market culture, is operating with more speed and less
logic than ever. There has been some notice of this, but not enough to
really confront the fact that a Kerry regime will not be substantially
different than the Bush league in these areas. And that’s  assuming that
it takes power and doesn’t , in  usual Democratic fashion, simply cringe
before it.

So, the death tolls grow in Palestine and Iraq, and the distracting
color coded alerts move from magenta to mauve to, perhaps, tutti-frutti,
if we’re threatened by gay terrorism. The problem of the rich , spoiled
, extraordinary religious fanatic  in the white house  seems solvable
only by  electing  a slightly less rich, spoiled, ordinary religious
zealot; a born again christian zionist who will continue supporting
anti-Semitism in USrael  is to be replaced by a once born catholic
zionist,  who will do the same. A sad choice, and  millions of citizens
can be forgiven if the immorality play of the elections assumes  less
importance to them than another sitcom episode on TV.

Copyright (c) 2004 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

             This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
             fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
           archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
            the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
           Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
          other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author

frank scott
email: [log in to unmask]
225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
(415)457 2415  cell (415)847 4105