Bait and Switch

With the new "mandate" we can expect the Grand Bait and Switch to now occur.

Given the "moral" victory is now complete the Bush administration can now work on the real substance of their agenda:

1. Energy policy - watch out Alaska. Big Oil, pay-back time for you
2. Making tax cuts permanent; personal and corporate
3. Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, will now be scarred for a generation
4. Iran, you're next
5. Continue battle against science
6. Continue erosion of Church and State
7. Another brick in the wall...of secrecy
8. Here comes the draft
9. The civil rights dartboard just got bigger

The average dingbat who voted for Bush because of "moral" issues, which translates to NOTHING in terms of policy, unwittingly (because they are so blinded by ignorance) voted for a package deal that includes multiple stink-bombs set to explode flatus as far as the nose can smell. The "security" Moms, bible-pounders, "God, guns and guts"-belt-buckle-buying bone heads, smarty-pants-hating miscreants, sound-bite-only microcephalic dimwits and closet-racist gay-bashers got their "feel good" man in office paving the way for the real core minority (the ultra-rich) to get their way in the aforementioned categories. The former groups were in essence human shields for the latter.

Hail to the pOOpulous.


Egan

Wedge Issues

Some analysis on NPR this morning boiled down the election to moral wedge issues:

1. Gay marriage
2. Abortion

The heavily motivated and organized christian right won the election for Bush. Chalk one up for Karl Rove. In many ways Bush is his "discovery", i.e. creation; he set his site on him in the 1990s as fitting the bill for the white house. According to exit polling data, although with some flaws, "morals" were a supriringly high priority for voters.

It is amazing that wedge issues can be such an overwhelming force. I suppose one cannot expect much more from human nature. People are simple; they have a couple of core beliefs; when those beliefs are met/reinforced other issues in a platform become accepted in a series of rationalization dominos. Karl Rove certainly understood this aspect of human nature.

"So what if Iraq has been fucked up. My man W is a God-ferring Christian. He fights for the unborn and is against those heathenous rump rangers!"

What is glossed over: forget the fact that the really important issues (to W as a person; and to his croney supporters) are business regulatory ones (ranging from environmental, entitlement, taxation and others). These issues directly affect them. We know Republicans frequently go from government ("service", what a joke) to the private sector and Democrats go from government to different public service. Does anyone really believe that abortion means anything to W personally? school prayer? stem-cell research? Does anyone think that W will feel racism directed towards him? Or care whether some spotted owl gets killed off somewhere in Oregon? Or if Joe-loser who turns a wrench loses his job? But you better believe that an estate tax, income tax, capital gains tax, oil drilling regulation, campaign finance reform sure as hell personally affects him.

The problem with campaigns are the fact that slogans, not evaluation of deeds or of conflicts of interest/personal gain, rule the day. But then that is human nature. The former is easy and the latter is difficult.

Egan

11-2

The loss of Kerry is in some ways worse than 9-11. The ENTIRE nation grieved together. Now only HALF of the nation will grieve. To make matters worse those who supported Kerry will not be able to talk about it for fear of the other half being offended or simply be unable to empathize.

This will lead to maladaptive grieving.

So, I call it "11-2".

Egan

Mourning Morning

It is pretty much a sure thing for Bush at this point (8:48 AM, 11-3-2004). The votes in Ohio are not yet final; 90% of the remaining votes would have to go to Kerry in order for him to win.

I, like many other ABB people out there, will be mourning this morning. We are a nation divided. Here are some talking points:

1. The degree of hatred for Bush is not small; this cannot be good for the country.
2. Church-state separation will be at risk.
3. The democrats will undergo some intense reorganization. This election should have been a slam dunk yet they couldn't do it. What went wrong?
4. A casualty of this has been Justice.
5. Intellectuals, "fancy pants", are to be disdained.
6. Our country's standing in the world has hit a new low.
7. Osama is a happy man: more recruits acomin'.
8. The Republicans by and large serve the minority wealthy; they need religious followers to make their numbers more competetive. The agenda is clear: more for the rich, less for the challenged. As long as "God" gets painted on the package the American sucker will buy it. I suspect many Republican politicians in private could really give a crap about abortion, for example, just as long as Pork goes to their pet industry or private financial interest.
9. Transparency in government has suffered a severe blow.
10. Campaign finance reform has been made into a joke.
11. (Something positive!) Voter turnout was astounding!
12. Arrogance and ignorance has prevailed.

More to come...

Egan

Predicitons

• I predict that Sen. Kerry will win the 2004 presidential election because of minority voter/unpolled voter turnout in key battleground states
• In fact, the popular vote will be in favor of the president and the electoral college will vote for Kerry
• The final result will NOT be available on Nov. 3rd
• The lawyer-phase will follow the general election
• Ugliness in the form of lawsuits, demonstrations, some violent, will prevail
• The win by Kerry will switch the tables on the Repuclicans in terms of electoral college woes; a serious constitutional debate will follow regarding the electoral college
• Kerry will be an ineffectual president; the grid-lock that will follow will be unprecendented; he'll get no serious legislation through the congress, even the house let alone the senate
• The sorry seeds sown by Bush will yield pustular crops that Kerry will be forced to harvest; naturally his administration will take the blame and guarantee a one-term presidency
• The baby-boom "pig in the python" phenomenon will be tangible by 2008 and this will weigh heavily in the 2008 campaign
• The loss by Bush will lead to civil war in the republican party; the conservative bible-pounding far right will battle with the more centrist fiscally conservative and secular faction
• The civil war will yield a Guiliani to run on the "new" Republican ticket against Kerry and perhaps a splinter born-again-sponsored freak to make it a real three-party race for the first time since Bush-Clinton-Perot
• Iraq will fungate; the real heat will calm down slightly after spring 2005; Kerry will succeed in getting France and/or Germany into the fray in exchange for more oil-revenue-based contracts; we'll ooze out and remain in Bosnia-like proportions (in terms of military involvement) for another decade; the neocons will be relegated to the lacky-corners of the Pentagon in due course