We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore

Come now, cowpox, the war beween the states is long over and the union still stands. Further, I cannot for the life of me understand why you folks continue to support the Republicans when the Southern states have the lowest per capita incomes in the country and send the most troops to be slaughtered so the boys in the back room can drive their gas guzzlers, pocket their golden parachutes, and hide their oil profits.
You can pray for the troops and hate the war and despise the president who sent them there.
Go Garrison!
nana

Everyone has said it already, so I’ll just add one more superlative:  BRILLIANT!

Thank you, Mr Keillor....

Janice

You know how this election makes me feel?  There should be an amendment to the Constitution that states that when one registers to vote at age 18 (for me it was age 21—how many of you remember those times?) you get ONE CHANCE to cast TWO votes when you feel, “This is the most important election of my life”.
The fly in that ointment is that we would have used it up when we were younger.  I certainly would have (Nixon-McGovern?).
I have felt since the 1960s that if our Republic survived Richard Nixon, it can survive anything.  Now I’m not so sure.

I think the scariest thing about what’s going on in America right now is that children are growing up thinking Fox News is a legitimate news organization.  Actually they’re not so much thinking, as blindly accepting: “it’s on TV, it has news in its name, etc.”

Those on the left need to fight back against this and so many other things.  For instance, why can’t filthy-rich Democrats fund a start-up that produce voting machines that DO provide a paper trail?  I’m a computer programmer living in one of the 10 or 15 wealthiest counties in the country, and I would work for such an enterprise for HALF what I could make as a cog in the overarching corporate wheel America has become.

Think I’ll cross post this to the Williamson County Democrats Yahoo group.  Now YOU go do something too ;)

A raindrop of logic and common sense in a roiling, broiling sea of inconsistancy, maliciousness, and bad intent.

There once was a president (Let’s call him LBJ), who decided to support equal rights for blacks. “How can this be?” said the southern Democrats. “He’s one of us! A southerner.... a Democrat… a Texan, for God’s sake.” Having none of this, these southern Democrats became southern Republicans… taking their bigotries with them.

So, in response to Mr. Keillor’s question… “How did the Party ... transmogrify...? This is meerly an example.

Dude...awesome!  How do you know you’re not Mark Twain?  Keep “telling the truth and shaming the devil.” Everyone. Thanks!

I too believe in my heart that this republic will be gone if Bush fanagles his way into office for four more years.Mr.Bush has put in place his own judges to control the direction that he wants the country to go.He has gutted and/hamstrung any protection of the environment,for the benefit of the richest industrialists and to the detrement of all the citizens of this country and the world.Freedom has become a dirty word to the world thanks to W..
Don’t be fooled.Mr. Kerry,if he is elected will not look good and probably will not be re-elected because it will take four years to clean up the mess that Mr.Bush has made of this country.Meanwhile the republicans will make hay of the fact that Mr.Kerry did nothing and will win re-election and continue on with the destruction of this country.One president can’t pull this country out of a deficit hole that we have been pushed into.
I see a very bleak future for this country with fewer freedoms for the people,less money,and a strangle hold on the windpipe of hope.So sad.
I am an independent and I will vote for Kerry just in the very faint hope that Bush will be expelled from our already clogged throats,but I see dire times ahead for this repulic.Ed P.

Kerry is NOT the answer! Sorry, he is one of the many who are part of the problem!  He and GW are cousins and are both pledged to the same Club. They ultimately have the same aims. There is an alternative: Mr. John Joseph Kennedy of NC, who is dedicated to the Constitution (the Original!) and who needs to be our next President. Please check him out and lend your support NOW—the campaign is ON and growing. We need to remove the dross that is part of BOTH of the two main parties!

To john sKerry,

If you had any guts at all you’d use your real name. But like most of your ilk you hide behind false names, threats and foul language. What is it that makes you and your kind react like this? Honestly, what is your problem?

Sorry, Mr. Keillor, it is worse than that.

All you say is true, but why aren’t the Democrats calling liars liars?  Kerry should call Bush a liar on a daily basis.  He not only has lied from the beginning of his political career, he did it before the last election to decive the voters, and he has gotton more brazen as time goes on, and it will get worse.  Democrats should call for impeachment even though the Republicans control Congress with malvolent intent. 
It will be good for Kerrry to lose so that the modern version of Calligula and Nero can drive the population to revolution.

VOTE NADAR!

Ronald James

Oh, poor Woebegon Garrison!

A discussion on the Republican Party is certainly fair game (although this was NOT a discussion but a monologue - which is OK too), but Mr. Keillor rants fit nicely into the Michael Moore wing of the Democratic Party.  Keillor as Mark Twain?  Sure.  And Twain, as great a writer as there was, proved woebegonfully wrong on the great issues of his day.  Don’t let anyone of us forget 9/11.  It changed forever the history of this country.  Over 200 years to forge our greatness without serious threat has ended.  New York, Minneapolis and Los Angeles are now the front lines of a war against Islamofascism.

You are wrong, Mr. Killor! It is worse than you say.

Bush is a liar.  He should be told each day by prominent Democrats he is a liar.

And WHY aren’t our Democratic politicians speaking out with this fervor??  It is SO frustrating and depressing.

Interesting article, for sure. What I am certain of is that a discussion whether Americans should pick a Democrat or Republican for next president is futile - it is the whole system that needs changing. The corporations already own all of the institution of the so called democracy. Mark Twain said it well, a long time ago: We have the best Congress money can buy!

If you are serious about change, you need to start looking outside the box. Remember Pat Buchanan’s words: The democratic and republican parties are but two wings on the same bird of prey. I don’t see many solutions, other than voting with your feet and your wallets. The choice you are presented with for this presidential election is a pseudo choice.

“Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral.” (Of course the problem with Republicans like Mr. Oplas is that they are unable to see that this country is in a serious period of crisis since they are snookered by all the lies… So good luck in the afterlife...)
For all of the others, however, let’s join the author and say our piece too!  Come along with the growing crowds who have decided to speak up and show their opposition to this administration and what it does to this beautiful country: just wear red every Friday between now and election day.

Wear a little or a lot-- just be sure that when you leave your house to go about your day—to work, to school, to the store, to the gas station, wherever you go in your daily routine—that everyone who sees you will see that you are wearing red because you believe in freedom and you don’t agree with our current administration’s policies at home and abroad.  We’ll see that lots of us are wearing red for freedom—because WE ARE THE MAJORITY. Between now and election day, ask everyone you know to wear red for “Freedom Fridays”.

“Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral”.  (Of course Republicans like Mr. Oplas are unable to see that the country is in a serious period of crisis since they are totally snookered by all the lies… Good luck in the afterlife...) For all of the others however, let’s say our piece too!  Just wear red every Friday between now and election day.

Wear a little or a lot-- just be sure that when youleave your house to go about your day—to work, to school, to the store, to the gas station, wherever you go in your daily routine—that everyone who sees you will see that you are wearing red because you believe in freedom and you don’t agree with our current administration’s policies at home and abroad. We’ll see that lots of us are wearing red for freedom—because WE ARE THE MAJORITY. Between now and election day, ask everyone you know to wear red for “Freedom Fridays”.

Garrison,

I, like pretty much everyone who has posted before me, agree with you!! What you have said is what needs to be said, and needs to be shouted from every tower! It needs to be heard… not just by the Democrats and the left leaning, but it needs to be heard and understood by the center and right as well!!

But where I disagree with you is that this is a Republican problem.  It is not just republicans that are causing the problems in this country… it is all of right (and all of the left who refuse to stand up to them), and militants.

That being said, it leaves us in a very scary situation for this coming election because there is no candidate who is far enough left to make things better. There is no candidate who is not a militant… there is no candidate who will fix this country.  I don’t even think it could be done in a single term, or two, or three, but Kerry is not the man to do it.

We need a president who is farther left than we will ever have a president be.  We need someone who will represent the people and not allow politics compromise their beliefs.

We need a second party.

Eli Scott

Sadly, America has become the Land of the “sometimes-free” and Home of the scared.
One thing I don’t get is how can Bush use 9/11 to get re-elcted when he is responsible for the greatest FAILURE of government in history?

Garrison

As another gentleman posted, I love you too, and thank you for putting such great words around our currnet national, and world tragedy. A lot of reading in the decline of empires really does suggest ours ma have already started down the decline on the backside, we are following observable historical patterns.

Just one quibble, though. A great portion of my work of late has centered on racism, its history, and the evolution of racist strategies. While I appreciate your images of Republicans of the Fifties and the era in general, wow, only White folks in small midwestern towns could see Republicans in that one light you cast (or a good deal of politicians in general). Those were still the days of Jim Crow, back of the bus, Whites Only drinking fountains, lynchings and all (of course we still have our occasional lynching). How that era is less open to criticism than our own, especially the “conservative” wing of it, is a bit perplexing, other than as a rhetorical tool.

The current neo-con false administration is so deeply evil, so deeply anti-human rights that it does not need the false idealized contrast from the Fifties. One more election in this direction and democracy’s murder will be complete, unlike Mark Twain’s who was able to say reports of his were premature.

I don’t think I have to look much further than to your words to find our generation’s Mark Twain.

Peace to you, peace to all, love your words, from a guy who used to live just down the road a piece from Lake Wobegone.

Dan Jordan, PhD

Having George W. Bush for President of the United States is a big mistake.
He should be impeached.

As a student of political history, I agree with poster Eli Scott.  Although a Republican, I grew up in a house with a strong Democratic history.  It is clear that conservative ascendency over the past 40 years has sent the liberals into a tailspin from which they have yet to emerge.  Liberals laud Bill Clinton, but his success can be attributed to the co-option of moderate / conservative policies despite his best post-term efforts to plant a liberal face on his presidency.  I would actually look forward to an unrequited liberal make a serious run for the presidency, whether within or without the Democratic Party and have a real debate on the political philosophy of the country.  As an aside, during the liberal cowardice over the past 40 years, the one issue for which liberals should NEVER have ceded the high ground was on national defense.  Despite the utter error of McGovern, the conservatives have made liberals pay for that mistake forever.  McGovern NEVER represented historic liberal positions on national defense, yet the entire movement was branded as McGovernesque without proper response.  A great failure of the movement.  Christopher Hitchens represents the true historic liberal thought on defense today:  he supports the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because they ARE wars of liberal intervention, despite what GWB has called them.  And the great mistake of today’s leftists?  They hate Bush so much they don’t see what Hitchens sees.  Another huge error that has helped to destroy liberal legitimacy in today’s polity.

This is wonderful. How quickly this list has grown. We are living in uncertain times. The economy, the newly exposed “threat” made by Mr Greenspan yesterday re: Pensions and Social Security, the perpetual war on terror I won’t go on. There is, despite everything the Republicans would like us to believe, a malaise that permeates evry aspect of our daily lives. The Image of the Twin Towers falling remains a chilling reminder of the failures of this administrations ability to lift us up out of our collective depression. It just keeps falling!
It is amazing, that more people aren’t out there
expressing their outrage. How we’ve changed. Once upon a time we had leaders who thrilled us with their often, passionate views of; who we are, what we have accomplished and what we still can do to make our lives and the lives of others better.
I am old enough to remember: JFK /MLK/ Malcom/ and the other Great Americans of our generation who never flinched from telling it like it is.
Our current leaders treat us like a herd of cattle.
How are we going to rekindle theses flames? Where are the leaders who will resurrect our passions- relight the fires of our dreams and soothe the wounds still burning from the events of 9-11 with the balm of Gilead we so urgently need.
Bush offers us perpetual war. Kerry I am not sure but atleast I know that at one time in his life he turned his boat around to save a life!

“Soothe the wounds still burning from the events of 9-11 . . .” What does that mean?  The wounds to the left are self-inflicted because of their denial of its impact.  The wounds to America remain unhealed because the threat exists.  It is NOT Bush who “ . . .offers us perpetual war.” It will NOT BE Kerry who “ . . .offers us perpetual war” should he be elected.  It is the Islamofascists who offer us perpetual war, safe in the knowledge that mutual assured destruction does not apply as a tactical response (despite our best efforts).  New York.  Minneapolis.  Los Angeles.  Moscow.  London.  Paris.  Tokyo.  Would that it not be so.

Yes, indeed, Keillor, what you say is true but begs the question: why did we allow it to happen ? Are we stupid or greedy or both ? Why is it that, of all nations on earth, we honor the conservative and bash the liberal the most ? What is there in being a conservative other than wanting to keep what you’ve got, no matter the consequences ? Isn’t that a sickness ? Why should the qualifier “liberal” have fallen into disrepute, when its intent means spreading freedom to all equally ?  We have been the willing victim, propelled by our own greed, of a cabal of leeches intent on securing the wealth of a continent to themselves. Before we can hope to get rid of those parasites, we ought to have a good look at ourselves.

Great, except that those who need to read this the most probably never will.

Thank you, Garrison,

I think Kerry’s greatest challenge is to create the definite impression that he can outstrip Bush in taking care of the terrorist situation. AND, looking “friendly.” These are the only two things which some voters are clinging to as reasons for choosing the shrub in recent polls.

I want to be proud of America again!

A couple of years ago a child in Atlanta starved to death.  Its unemployed parents could not find public relief or even shelter.  The city’s resources were expended, and so the child died.

The President’s motto “Leave no child behind” ought to be reworded:  “Leave no Republican child behind.”

“I want to be proud of America again!” What’s stopping you?  Stop with this self-pity stuff.  What would make you proud?  France and Germany agreeing with us on something?  What makes the United States wrong and those countries right?  And Mr. Shulenburg, your implication that GWB is guilty of the child’s death is, well, not truly worthy of the liberal mindset.  Blame and hate never won an election.  Just ask the Gingrichites about the 1996 election.

It’s either going to be Bush or Kerry.  Which one would we rather have for the next four years?

Please vote for Kerry.

It’s time for action!  One small thing we can all do: e-mail all tv news sources and suggest that they drop the “swift boat” coverage and use the time to report the lives taken (American and Iraqi) in this failed and illegal war.  Parents who attempt suicide should NOT be the only mourners to receive the media’s attention.

Unless we wish to be in the armies invading Syria, Iran and Noth Korea all Americans who love this country and Democracy need to register and vote against the Radcons currently occupying the White House. It is time to take our country back from these imposters. We need to be smarter and anticipate Karl Rove’s moves to get us embrioled in useless controversies that take the heat off the Bush regime’s record. Ignore Rove and co. and keep Bush’s failures and lies in the forefront.

“Something has gone seriously haywire with the Republican party.”

The real problem is what has happened to the Republican party in the last thirty years. The development of win-at-any-cost, scorched-earth campaigning has finally (and, sadly, necessarily) spread across the political spectrum and that is tragic. I have memories of true conservatives and principled Republicans, men like Goldwater, or Rockefeller, who could disagree and compromise at the same time. They could do so, I believe, because they were men of principle, not ideology.

In my youth I investigated ideologies, learning the arguments of everything from Marxism to market and I can argue dialectical materialism as easily as anarcho-libertarianism. As I have aged I have come to the conclusion that no ideology is safe or defensible. They are not safe because they do not admit compromise. The historian Shelby Foote once observed that “The real American genius is compromise.” I believe that he was correct, certainly that is what the American history I know teaches us. The great strength of ideology is the fervor it can inspire in its adherents. Its great danger is that its true believers are, as a consequence of their rigidity and refusal to question their own beliefs, vulnerable to manipulation by those with other goals. That, I believe, is what has happened to the Republican party. Ideologues have fallen prey to those who have agendas predicated on other priorities.

Mr. Keillor once satirized Unitarians as folks who believed that “a small light burned, somewhere...” That is the problem facing progressives and Democrats. We do not have the natural advantage of a rigid ideology. We endorse diversity and, yes, pragmatism, not the easy answers of orthodoxy.

We find ourselves the victims of our own success. We have been so free, rich, and safe, for so long, that the majority of the population no longer sees the need for voting. Or for the necessary self-education required for responsible voting, right or left.

We do need to respond to the hyperbole of the right, and I thank Mr. Keillor for doing so, and making me laugh. But we also have to perform a political miracle. We must forge a coalition of outraged moderates. I know, that sounds as oxymoronic as ‘soviet journalist’, or ‘compassionate conservative.’ But since I consider myself a ‘dead skunks and yellow stripes’ voter, since I want to do what is best for the country, and since I am viscerally outraged by the course the country has taken of late, I have a hope it is possible. Surely there are others like me out there? Look, I don’t care if you’re a Judeo-Christian-Islamic literalist or worship the Goddess or strive to realize the Eightfold Path. And I don’t care what you choose to do in your bedroom. I can honestly say that I don’t care what your position is on almost any issue. I can work with you if you are willing to honestly assess the best objective evidence and make policy decisions based on what is best for the nation, not some ideology. If you already know the answers to serious questions before I ask them, you’re in my crosshairs.

It’s time to put the grown-ups back in charge, and that’s going to mean some spanking.

An invasion of Syria will not be necessary, thanks to a number of factors that will bring down that despotic regime soon:  the democratization of Iraq, the REAL freedom fighting against the Al Assad dictatorship from within by the Kurds and the persistence of American covert action.  Is this a bad thing?  NO!  An invasion of Iran will not be necessary, thanks to a number of factors that will bring down that theocratic regime soon:  the democratization of Iraq and Afghanistan and the popular uprising of the younger Iranians, whose movement the United States supports with the same fervor the Wahabbists supported the Islamics in the 1970s.  An invasion of North Korea will not be necessary thanks to a number of factors that will bring down that relic soon:  Implosion.  Implosion.  And implosion.  Implosion with help from the United States and Japan.  And China.  And Russia.  A bad thing?  For you perhaps.  For the North Koreans, Iranians and Syrians.  No.  Liberal intervention?  Yes.

Julie, here’s another try.  I’m doing fine.  Talk to you later.

Dick

Okay, gang; we’re all just preaching to the choir here.  Start thinking of ways to get the message out to the enlightenable unenlightened!

The entire basis of the intervention in Iraq was bogus logic.  The idea, essentially perpetrated by Wolfowitz, is that to stabalize the region, one must create a controlled destabilization, and that other countries in the area will then be awed into submission.  Wolfowitz concluded that arabs can be impressed with power, and that that is the only way to deal with them.
The experience in Iraq proves that that is not the case.  Instead of creating a controlled destabliziation to resolve the problems in the middle east, we have created a quagmire.  Every day, more people join the cause against us, and the nations around Iraq, rather than being frightened of us, know that we cannot intervene.  Recently, when told that North Korea could very well possess operational nuclear weapons, Bush shrugged.  NK knows that there is no chance that we could interevene, and, with the necessity of pulling troops out of the penisula to shore up Iraq, the chance of the war continuing increases.
In the end, every president should be judged on their record, and Bush’s record is that he is a failure.  Even regardless of whether you support his policies at home (policies well laid out by Mr. Keiller), you should vote against Bush because his model for dealing with foreign affairs is fundamentally flawed.

Sir,Remind me to give you a hug if Im in town.How’s that lake said again?I’ll listen to your show on NPR in case you say it again.Thanks,Gary

Good Stuff Mr. Keillor!
What you say is clearly true, but only one way of expressing what many of us feel and live every day.

You hardly touch on the creeping loss of liberty that the economic exploitation of everything imposes on the peoples of the world.  This loss is a mere symptom, but an important indicator of the state of our country and of the world.  People do not freely choose to be bombed or shot or locked in a cage and held without contact with the rest of humanity.  Doing these things to people creates the sort of hatred that those 19 used to drive themselves on 9/11.  Doing these things is clearly wrong and will cost all of us for decades or perhaps centuries into the future.

Hatred and the ideas that fuel it are passed from person to person, but only take root in those that have hope driven from them.  Neither hope nor hate has ever appeared in any bank balance, so the forces of capitalism that wield much of the power in our country will never respect them.  Something else must serve to save our country and the world from fear and hate and give us hope.  Flag waving, cheap food and 150 channels of cable will not do it.

You speak of the degradation of the Republican party.  The Democratic party is hardly better today.  Hardly different.

Perhaps the differences are enough…

You speak of fear.  You demonstrate for the rest of us that we can conquer fear and do what is necessary.  It is as noble a demonstration as any warrior shows in battle.  Your celebrity, and the way you gained it, gives you both a podium and an obligation.  You are to be commended for your courage in fulfilling that obligation, though you surely know some will not agree with you.  Thank you for speaking your mind.

Change is in the air and your thoughts are a bellwether.

A.M.

Thank you,thank you Mr.Keillor. Now if we can get you a weekly spot on TV (or radio).You really know how to negate the lying, swill we are getting from the neocons.
It’s to late for a ticket with Keillor/Maher.But thank you guys for being there.

Alleluhia Mr. Keillor!  You are my hero.

Garrison -
I very much agree with your commentary. 

I am a life-long Republican that will be voting this year for John Kerry.  I’m not sure that he will do any better by Americans than GWB - I’m doing it mainly to fire the incumbent.

And if John Kerry wins and doesn’t do something about the flow of American Jobs to Asia, I’ll vote to fire HIM in 2008!

www.rescueamericanjobs.com
www.fairus.com

“Sir, you will never understand the depth of Southern Rancour.”

Mr. Cowpox: WHO CARES!?! Your side lost the war you pathetic racist trash!

It does my heart good to know that there are passionate people out there with a will to think for themselves and try to understand how this country is being twisted to the agenda of a few elite few in power… but it makes me sad that so many of us have misdirected anger.

“Our current leaders treat us like a herd of cattle.”

I am unsure who the ‘us’ is referring to, but I will take it that it is the American people as a whole, and with that in mind I cant disagree… we are being treated like a herd of cattle because we are living like a herd of cattle. The larger group of Americans, young and old, right and left, punk democrat or republican, eat what they are told with no real urge to think, fight, or act for themselves…

“Americans who love this country and Democracy need to register and vote against the Radcons currently occupying the White House”

This makes me happy too! Because I do believe that Americans need to rally against radcons and take this country back to where I really believe it could be… the problem is that that will not happen via voting in this election. The left is virtually non-existent in national politics. There are no good options open to us. If i had to name one thing about this article and the replies to it that I agree with the least, its that this is the fault of the republicans… I do not believe that. It is too narrow to say that republicans are to blame for everything… conservatives and passive liberals are the larger group that bares the burden.

Any American who understood it should be enraged about something like the USA PATRIOT act being passed, and every single congressman (save one) voted for it… that is because conservatives pushed it and liberals didn’t have the spine to stand against it. Our ‘representatives’ didn’t and still don’t represent us.

That is the problem, not republicans or a view differing from ours, it is the one-party system that has been created in this country that is the problem.

Eli

I couldn’t agree with Mr. Keillor more, and I am glad he has a pulpit. I am also thankful that so many of the people that replied have intelligent and incisive comments about Mr. Keillor’s commentary.

I am disappointed, but not surprised by the foregoing Oplas comment because it typifies the sanctimonious, ignorant attitude that so many bushies have about their flawed hero. Let’s not forget, this president used to blow up frogs with a firecracker when he was a kid, and while real men and women were fighting or protesting during Vietnam he was a drunken cheeleader vomiting his way through Yale and the Air National Guard. Tragically for us and much of the rest of the world, this frat house fool gifted with too much money and too little brains has done well (well, that is if you count the hand up he’s had all his life from his daddy’s friends).

It is a sad comment on the current state of the country and the ability of a people to critically think that such an untalented, illiterate individual could become president. I feel sorry for Oplas and his or her ilk because it must be terribly unfulfilling to be so enamored of mediocrity. At least my heroes deserve the accolades.

Well, enough said. Please, all of you vote this November - our country is at stake. Oh yeah, Mr. Keillor, please keep on spearing the republicans and bring the Prairie Home Companion Show to central New York. Thank you.

You have expressed my feelings in a way I could not.Those who would put the present resident back in the White House do not want a President but a Dictator. We are headed for an autocrisy the likes of which the modern world has never seen. Garrison, I am reminded of the old hymn that says “We are the sweet selected few, the rest may all be damned, there’s room enough in Hell for you, we don’t want heaven crammed.” It’s time for a huge change !!!

Someone posted that those who can afford to make political contributions, should. True, but ... even if you cannot afford to write a big fat check, go ahead and make a donation to John Kerry’s campaign. Is there any way you can afford 4 more years of George W. ?

My brother Garrison speaketh my mind, and I am grateful.

My greatest regret is that there is no real punishment for the likes of George Dubbyah Bush.
Like his father before him, the worst that can happen is he’s thrown out of office, then he promptly joins the boards of hundreds of companies, and uses all the connections he’s made while in the oval office to peddle influence and profit personally.
Where’s the downside to that?

For the first time since the Republicans stoned the finest President of this land without mercy for a human foiblewhich although not ommendable has been common among those in power, and at horrendous cost, and then with the grace of the high and mighty judges of this land stole the presidency away from the party preferred by the vast majority of US citizens I read your letter and begin to have a wee bit of hope again. Not pride; Mr. Bush has demolished my pride in being an American, and my hubris and security are gone.
I was stunned when a friend whom I’d previously thought astute admitted being a supporter of this inept, power seeking megalomaniac who has been bought and paid for and stamped fini by those whose agenda does not include support for this planet, let alone our countrymen. And he doesn’t even know it, pauvre petit puppet!
Incredible what diabolical PR men can create out of smoke with a burlap bag full of dollars, making a mahogany desk out of a knotty pine bough. But not for you, and not for me.
VOTE!!!

Great writing, Mr. Keillor, as usual. Some thoughts for all of you other scribes -

I just spent a large part of my day canvassing door-to-door for Kerry and our wonderful, idiosyncratic Senator Russ Feingold. You all may remember him as the only senator who did not vote for the Patriot Act. The man most likely to oppose him, once the Republicans have their primary next month, has a commerical running where he takes Feingold to task for failing to support “our president.”

You must understand that the Republican Party/Media Machine have succeeded in convincing themselves and much of the population that they actually won the last election. Even those who voted for Gore or Nader fail to emphasize that Bush got the votes of far less than half the voting population last time, and that translates to a small percentage of those actually qualified to vote if only they had done so. One must never stop repeating this truth. One must never use the term “reelection” in reference to Bush, simply because he was not elected in the way most people understand that term.

Further, this may be the first time in history that a campaign strategy has been based on characterizing more than half the voters as morons and traitors. How is it that non-Republicans have been willing to sit still for this for nearly four years? I never fail to firmly point out to any right winger I encounter that in fact, there is a substantial number of people who love this country who believe our current president is an illegitimate occupant of the White House, that we have tolerated his shenanigans without taking to the streets or even being particularly disrespectful, and that we have given him every reasonable chance to discharge his duties with competence and grace. He has utterly failed to leverage the opportunity provided to him by the Supreme Court, and now shall have to make a case for himself in the court of public opinion.

The good news is this: I spoke with many people today in an area that is solidly Republican. The majority told me that they would never vote for Bush again, meaning they had last time. They further told me that their wives/husbands, parents/siblings, etc. were all voting for Kerry. The few Republicans I encountered who are still supporting Bush were often willing to answer my questions about their concerns as voters and all but one named health care as their number one concern. Many of them are going to split their tickets and vote for Feingold. Whenever I heard this, I asked them to take another look at Kerry, and some said they would.

The Bush supporters were uniformly defensive, though I am a middle aged woman, introduced myself as a neighbor and was very laid back, smiling, etc. Their houses tended to be adorned with flags and wooden flag ornaments, and lots of signs saying, “God Bless America.” They seemed afraid...embattled.

The Kerry supporters, by vivid contrast, were defiantly angry. They were all in that mode of “I’m mad as hell and I’m just not going to take it anymore!” It was energizing and inspiring to speak with these people.

Then there were a few undecided voters and most of them were willing to discuss their issues. I asked them if they really believed the current administration was going to address those needs over the next four years. None stated confidentIy that they felt that was the case. I asked them to consider Kerry. I know that I made a difference today.

So, if you possibly can, please volunteer to walk a neighborhood. Dress nice, put on your party manners as my mother used to say, and just get out there and talk with people. I think there are many people who simply need to see that there are lots of nice, normal, sane people supporting Kerry. Change is frightening for some people, but we can make it less intimidating. We can show them that they don’t need to be afraid. Give it a try and if you just can’t bring yourself to talk with your neighbors, or folks who are a little different from you...well then maybe you better work on that.

I’ve just emailed this piece to friends and family.  I’m doing my patriotic duty tomorrow morning - marching past Madison Square Garden and protesting the RNC.  We don’t want them here.  They are exploiting 9/11 and it is shameful.  I’m glad to see that the firefighters told Bloomberg and Bush that they would only do a photo-op in one of the fire houses that were closed down due to lack of money.  Right on guys! My sister is a NYC cop and she supports Kerry.  Any union member that votes for Bush needs to seriously re-think their position and vote in their best interest.

These words are beyond anger—they are laced with an agony of our beloved country snatched from us.  This is the election of our lives.  The course of America must change or we will end up like the Soviet Union—decayed, hopeless, and fractured—and unspeakable poverty for the working class.  Bush should be impeached for incompetence at the least and abuse of power at the most telling.  This IS a call to arms at the voting booths.  We absolutely must energize our young people to vote and then take their rightful place in making this country great once more.

Marty Meyer, Ph.D.

Inre “A Pen Warmed-Up in Hell,” we shout Bravo!

I LOVE YOU, Garrison!  Be you scathingly serious or phenomenally facetious, you are always THE GREATEST! (Love those Republican sketches you do on radio!)

I keep telling myself that the right and the good have got to prevail because God will not have it any other way.  Yet in these times it seems practically hopeless.  It is totally scary the way the right-wingers have appropriated the radio airwaves unto themselves; one can scarcely find a sane voice in that genre anymore, you and PBS being that rare exception.

PLEASE - KEEP FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT; WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE!

Forget what you have always voted.  Forget that your parents always voted the same way.  Ask yourself if you are better off today than you were 4 years ago (health care, education, jobs, economy, veteran benefits, Clean air, etc), then vote your conscience on November 2, 2004.  Don’t buy into the argument that you don’t change Presidents during a war. The war against terrorism will continue far beyond the 8 year presidential tenure possible. The war against Iraq was unjust and has cost the lives of over 972 Americans. The arguments for this war were all bogus - the only reason for going to war was if the threat was imminent - it was not.  Americans don’t initiate wars without just cause. Vote Bush and his chickenhawks out on November 2, 2004.

Hey Rich,

Knock it off.  This is not a chat board. State your position then get the hell off so others can post.

Trillions of dollars are at stake and the facist right will leave no stone unturned to continue on their present path.  A second Bush administration will finish ripping the guts out of our national treasures.  If the neocons are succussful in re-installing him as President, my mom’s favorite old saying will ring true.  It is simply, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

I LOVE YOU, Garrison!  Be you scathingly serious or phenomenally facetious, you are always THE GREATEST!  (Love those Republican sketches you do on radio!)

I keep telling myself that Good and Right have got to prevail because God will not have it any other way; however, in these times it all seems so very hopeless.  It is totally scary the way the right-wingers have appropriated the talk-radio media unto themselves.  One can scarcely find a sane voice in this genre anymore - you and PBS being the rare exception.

KEEP FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT; WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE THIS ONE!

A piece sent to me, on the internet, spewing hate for the Arabs and claiming that they would never say they were sorry to the prisoners abused at Abu Garib. made me realize that the party of compassion ‘under God” jad lost all sight of humanity, but were hateful war mongers, greedy, self-serving, self engrandizing with no thought how small our planet is and that we need to care for it and all those alive on it. 

Your letter encapsulates it beautifully and the extent they will go without an ethical whim to win at all costs - truly, we are looking EVIL in the face.

I always thought this country was strong enough with checks and balances to withstand any idiot in the White House, but GWB has proven me wrong over and over again.  His henchmen have had over 30 years of experience in Dirty tricks and he is their pawn and willing puppet. 

To save our democrcy as a way of life - we must support Kerry/Edwards - men with honor and not the depraved history of GWB.

Hmmm...<a href=http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo37.html>Lincoln</a> was no friend of liberty:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union.

-- Abraham Lincoln

I would argue that the Republicans are returning to the policies of Lincoln (strong centralized government).

The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few is the death knell of democracy. No republic in the history of humanity has survived this. The election of 2004 will say something about what happens to ours. The omens are not good

Hmmm...Kerry’s net worth is <a href=http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20040823.html>20 times more</a> than George Bush’s net worth.  Or look at the party affiliation of most of the <a href=http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topindivs.asp?cycle=2004>top 100</a> individual contributors in this election.  Methinks Keillor doesn’t really mind the concentration of wealth and power—he’s just upset that the power isn’t being concentrated in the hands he favors. 

If Keillor were really concerned about the concentration of power, he would be advocating downsizing government, and returning money and power to individuals and local level goverments.  Unfortunately, both Keillor’s candidate Kerry and Bush are just fighting to see who gets control of an ever expanding government.

How honored I feel to have adopted Minnesota as my home. THank you Mr. Keillor.  Let me echo Jacob’s call for those who can support Kerry financially to do so, and those of us who cannot to volunteer and volunteer again.  WHen Mr. Reagan was elected I lit a candle, closeted myself in my studio, cried and prayed because of what I feared this election might hold.  Thus when Mr. G.W. Bush was elected I hoped that my worse fears would prove to be unfounded (as they were to a degree by Mr. Reagan’s election).  I was wrong.  Our civilization is already in steep decline and in grave danger if we allow these people to continue to run rampant.

I don’t understand why the party of the most intelligent people can’t un-seat Bush. Democrats have as supporters, actors and actresses who can convince the world with such powerful portrayals of any human characteristic and personality at will. They now also have big money behind them. Why can’t the Democrats convince the moderate Republicans that Bush is dangerous and undeserving of another term? What am I missing?

Dear Garrison, I spoke to you at the Tanglewood concert last year about how afraid I was by this governement. You said it would be alright, don’t be afraid.  Are you afraid now?  We gave in without much protest to the sham in Florida and the Supreme Court appointment, thinking it was best for the country.  But now we will not go the way of Germany in the 30s. Good people there were deceived too until they lost all rights and it was too late to protest.  We must look at Corporationism.  Corporationism gives the legal right to businesses to do what individuals cannot do with out breaking the law.  This governement in attacking government itself is trying to free corporations from all laws that require that the common good be protected. This is not Americanism.  This is not freedom and justice for all.  This is the beginning of capitalistic totalitarianism.  I am so glad you are writing plainly.

Read your article.  I totally understand your anger because I feel it too.  It runs through my veins, it pulses in my head, it hardens my heart.

I have seriously thought of moving out fo the country should Bush win.  People do not realize what damage this administration has caused and how much time and effort it will take to repair the damage both domestically and foreign.

Books that expose this administration are best-sellers.
F-911 is the highest grossing documentary on opening weekend ever.
Theaters and auditoriums are SRO when liberal and progressive speakers are in town.
The majority of actual votes were for Gore in 2000.
Look up the definition of juggernaut in the dictionary. But God forbid any liberal might sound strident!

Thank you so much for this. Please keep writing, sharing and helping us to articulate this very very long list of what this administration has done to us and our country.

It’s amazing that so many “little” sheep follow this.  I’m sorry that you all are angry about losing the 2000 vote.  I’m sorry that you all have lost the Senate and the House.  You all should really get a grip on fighting back, (except for this mess).

I truly feel sorry for the Dems becuase you all have to support John Kerry.. had you nominated Joe Lieberman you would have been all set, but you made the choice of John Kerry.  Just don’t blame us, because you all like to do that. And don’t cry on Nov 3rd becuase you all like to do that also.

Observe playground bulllies. They inflate their self-images by belittling others and calling those whom they harass crybabies, whether anyone is crying or not.

Bullies: your punching bags aren’t crying now. They’re angry, and getting organized, and learning to use their mouths too, only with brains engaged.

Wow.. you are feeling the heat, becuase I was not even rough.. it’s ok.. we’ll comfort you on Nov 3rd

I agree with everything that Keillor says, save for his oft-heard statement that America is a “great” country. Isn’t this type of egoistic pontificating the very same slogan that the Republicans often use to incite Americans into a type of national chuvanism that encourages us to rationalize support for everything the U.S. government ever does, here and abroad? Is this slogan and belief not the very crux of the misuse of patriotism by those overladden with hubris?
I am not looking to get anyone here angry, nor try to diminish any of the wonderful observations and anecdotes that Keillor made in this article, but simply to add a bit of critical thought on the validity of that one particular slogan. Let’s concentrate on turning America into a nation of *good* people, rather than encouraging to think of ourselves as *great.* From the perspective of most of the rest of the world, America is not “great,” but a problem. Let’s see it as such until we can make it over as per Keillor’s suggestions, and not dive head-first into the same type of thinking that is used to justify the draconian actions of the post-Nixonian Republicans.

Mr. Keiller,

I’m the daughter of immigrants; my father and mother came to America in 1956 with only the clothes on their backs, not knowing a word of English. They came here fleeing Communism.

My father fought in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; a few years ago, his fellow Freedom Fighters (who are now all proud American citizens) choose him to represent them when then-Gov. Edgar proclaimed October 23rd Hungarian Freedom Fighter Day in honor of their attempt to fight down the mighty Soviet army with molotov cocktails and blood, sweat, and many, many tears.

My parents came to this country so that their descendants could live in peace and freedom. As your masterful writing and my very own eyes have shown these many years, the dream of my parents—and the sacrafices they made to come to this nation—may soon have been in vain.

Fortunately, there *are* those who show themselves to be heroic in trying and difficult times—risking their own comfort and security and position for the greater good.

Thank you for being counted among the heroes, Mr. Keiller.

In gratitude,

Ilona

======================

P.S. As Elie Weisal stated at the occasion of accepting the Nobel Peace Prize:

“And then I explain to him how naïve we were, that the world did know and remained silent.  And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. 

We must take sides. 

Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.  Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. 

Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”

If Bush gets in again we will be in another war.  We have a murder rate that would put any other western nation to shsme.
What did the Taliban do with the money (43 million dollars) that Bush gave to them in May of 2001?
Richard

I don’t know the Republicans ever as the party of moderates ("the Nixon moderates vanished like the passenger pigeon"). It has its deluded moderate followers but never its leaders. Keillor does not mention Joe McCarthy, the great Republican immoderate from his neighboring state of Wisconsin of whom Nixon was just a twin in those sainted years of the ‘50s. But this is just carping. Keillor hits the nail on the head when he talks about W. The only way out of the quicksand that guy is immersing us in and which Keillor so well describes is to vote Kerry in on Nov. 3rd.

George the II’s accession to the presidency of the United States will mark the date in history when our nation’s experiment in republican democracy ended. With an ersatz election under his belt and an unauthorized war against a third world country to dispose of a tinhorn dictator, the constitution has become a dead letter and the congress a “confederacy of dunces”.

Freedom of speech and association will be the next victims. Already, those who do not support this cabal are being accused of treason. Soon, under the guise of homeland security and faith-based initiatives, government spies and infiltrators will be everywhere; in the workplace, in the churches, in the universities, all with the acquiescence and compliance of the media. Some citizens will be silenced and then “re-educated”. Others will simply disappear. Am I paranoid? You had better believe it! The bright shining light that was America has been extinguished. The dark ages have returned and we shall all “Inherit the Wind”.

Regards,

Joseph V. Purcell
1400 Forrest Avenue
Nashville, Tennessee 37206
615.650.0141

Garrison should have spoken these words at the Democratic convention.  Of course, the networks and cable outlets would not have allowed them to be “aired”.  Just so much hype.  Well these words in his article are so powerful and so true, it is imperative that the American public hear them over and over again.  This nation is in peril if Bush is again “chosen” (never elected).  We have a hard job ahead, and we must all get to work.  Our survival depends on it!

Lots of creative hand-wringing and intellectual muscle-flexing going on here, but what are you all doing? Could we hear some comments about how folks are reaching out to others in their community to persuade them to join us in actively opposing Bush? We need to encourage one another to get on our feet and actually do something! It doesn’t take any courage or effort to sit around and talk to our like-minded friends about how bad things are getting.

One thing that’s been pointed out, and I think accurately, by the media is that the Democratic Party is not really a party, but a coalition of interest groups with little in common aside from their loathing for George Bush. I’ve been out canvassing among working people, and doing follow-up phoning, and this is true. If we work hard, we may achieve a victory in November - but that will only be the beginning. We must continue to work and sacrifice beyond the election to build a true progressive coalition that will support local candidates and begin the strangulation of this fascist/corporatist weed that has taken root.

It is true that in many ways Kerry just puts a prettier face and an expanded vocabulary on the situation in which we find ourselves. It’s not going to be enough to replace this president and his advisors and turn the clock back to the Clinton regime. Once the election is over, no matter which way it goes, the real work will begin. It’s not going to be enough to stop the ship of state, we then have to turn it around in a very narrow channel.

Are liberals and progressives willing to roll up their sleeves and make some personal sacrifices to do this? It is clear that the Republican base has been persuaded to vote in a manner that is contrary to their economic interests to support this regime. You could argue that they are not aware of the threat to their civil liberties and world peace, but you would be at least somewhat mistaken. They don’t always see it that way. They are, in fact, willing to sacrifice some of their own liberties in order to deny them to homosexuals, women seeking abortions, those who do not attend churches of which they approve, and anyone whom they perceive to be a threat to their personal security. This is what we are confronting.

So, what are we willing to do beyond posting to message boards, congratulating each other on our profound grasp of the situation, and joining the occasional march down main street? This is going to take lots of money and muscle. Have we got it?

What a shame that many of these “solemn” comments are filled with bile and name calling, not only of President Bush, but of his supporters.

Amen!

A brief note to three posters before signing off. I have enjoyed receiving others’ postings since I posted on Friday night, but the volume of emails has overwhelmed me (and I have some hay fields to cut today).

First to Joanne—you’re right that we must work, and work hard, in the next ten weeks to trim Bush. I spent last Monday and Tuesday in West Memphis, Arkansas registering new voters—13 hours a day in the sun, but worth every minute. I helped register at least 56 new voters, 95%+ of whom are Kerry supporters. Two of them had not voted for decades (one woman for 31 years!!) but to a person, everyone felt that they could not stay on the sidelines this time.

If well-grounded fear is what we need to revive our democracy, then I can say that “it’s all good”. But it will be better if we do everything necessary to retake America from the right-wing coup that started in every community that denied people the right to vote in 2000 and ended in the Supreme Court. So all of us should carry voter registration forms with us at all times, engage everyone we know in a brief political conversation and—if someone presents an appropriate opportunity—we should register them on the spot. You can download voter registration forms for your state easily off the net, or pick them up at your election commission. We have about a month in most states to get this done.

Two final brief notes: To Christopher—Kerry’s fortune is not 20 times greater than Bush’s wealth; his wife’s fortune is. And Republicans keep forgetting that her first husband was a Republican. So please don’t confuse who accumulated that wealth with where it ended up.

And Joel, Joel—what can we say, oh ye of simple mind and simpler phrase? Yes, we feel the heat of righteous indignation, and it is impelling many more of us to action than ever before. And in November, you will see the light—attached to a speeding, hundred mile long train—filled with fed-up folks who will send your squashed self behind your suburban, walled-in gates, to sulk in Humvee-wrapped silence. But don’t be surprised to find fewer of your too-well-off neighbors with you. Because those neighbors whose prior Republicanism was based on some of the worthy principles that Garrison articulated early on in his article won’t be there with you. They’ll be outside the walls that Duh-bya helped build between us, sharing with the rest of us the free air of a no-longer-foundering democracy.

As one of the Arad news reporters said in “Control Room”, “The world doesn’t need another superpower to keep America in check—we have democracy and the Constitution to do that, as long as the American people continue to embrace and use those tools for their own sake and the sake of the world at large.” How true. And how sad for those like Joel who crawled out from under their rocks a while back. The heat and light of a democratic sunlight will crack and wither their slimy skin and festering brains soon enough.

Defend women. Defend children. Defend the elderly. Defend the soldiers. Defend people of color. Defend America. Defend the earth. Defeat Duh-bya.

I’m not the biggest Keillor fan.  If Mark Twain were Keillor, he’d have written about the good, old Tory colonial days swilling a cool one at the Tubby Boar Inn or dancing at the corn shuck—instead of writing about things like slavery.

But he does hit one over the fence now and then.  This one is good writing _and_ significant.

Garrison Keillor is a soft-spoken genius with an incredible gift for telling tales that take all of us to where we would like to be. I listen to the PHC every week. Someone else said it right that he hit the nail on the head so hard that the head popped off. My hat is off to an amazing patriotic man whose mission I share. I love and celebrate you, Mr. Keillor.

National treasures? For this administration, they are just resources to be exploited.

Social programs? For this administration, they are evil, and need to be bankrupted so even a new administration won’t afford to reinstate them.

What a bunch of crap.

Left winged nutcases.

I’ll have you know I voted for the mouthpiece of NPR before I voted against him.

Bush is evil and is hiding behind someone he calls God, and someone I call evil. The idiots that will vote for Bush cannot see the evil he exudes. This is a battle against evil and all it entails.

I LOVE YOU, Garrison!  Be you scathingly serious or phenomenally facetious, you are always THE GREATEST!  (Love those Republican sketches you do on radio!)

I keep telling myself that Right and Good have got to prevail because God will not have it any other way; yet, in these times, it seems so very hopeless.  It is totally scary the way that the right-wingers have appropriated the talk-radio medium unto themselves.  One can scarcely find a sane voice in that genre anymore - you and PBS being the rare exception.

KEEP FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT; WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE THIS ONE!!!

God bless and keep you!

If this is the “best President since the end of WWII” it must be worse than I thought.

This is the person who has difficulty understanding the difference between “prosecution” and “persecution” ("W" speech in 2001), someone who has misjudged (as indicated by his own admission last week), misled (by the findings of the 9/11 commission) and mismanaged (by the indications of the lack of leadership in regard the prison incident, to Najaf, Haliburton, etc, etc, etc.).

It is sad when so many in our country are sitting in the dark and have yet to see the light. If going to war in Iraq after 9/11 was not enough to turn on the light, then I’m not sure what is. Instead of fighting the terrorism that hurt and killed so many innocent people, the powerful leaders in Washington have created a “hotbed” for it to grow. We need a man who is a leader and stands for what he believes in instead of an illiterate puppet on a string who does what those under him (like his daddy and Cheney) tell him to do. This country was built on democracy and freedom for all, but that freedom is slowly being taken away. Wake up America before it is too late!!!

Thank you,keillor, I am glad you are expressing the sentiments of so many of us that are not represented in the main stream media. I always say, “they aren’t polling me!” I am depressed as many of the commenters seem to be. I work as a hairdresser in an area where people are from all economic levels and I am upset because so many people have no Idea how much worse off we are after 3+ years of the bush administration. We need to get that liar and his corporate cronies out of office! It is going to take years to udo the damage, and our children will be paying for the mistakes we have made. Lets get everyone to vote for Kerry/Edwards in 2004. as Arianna Huffington says"Bush republicans have offered a messianic vision of a new world built on tax cuts.This call has proved incredibly alluring:its clear,it’s broad, and it’s accessible. Democrats need to present a vision that is equally clear, broad and accessible, and that answers the fundamental question:what sort of america do we want to live in?”

I believe the Bush administration’s power derives from the nation’s love affair with passive media absorption. We’ve become a nation of followers and cheerleaders, and we follow politics and the discussion of cultural values with the blind allegiance of a sports fan, my cause right or wrong. We talk the talk, but no longer walk any walk. No Existentialist angst allowed, you are what you “believe”.

Someone mentioned the incongruity of GOP support by low wage earners and uneducated people generally. The reason is distraction, to avoid discussing real, more complex issues, issues that demand more than the voter’s arm-chair indignation.

Bush has made a political career out of pushing issues that do not require citizens to actually do anything, other than be pissed off at some group they’d prefer to judge than try to understand. The great uniter, indeed!

Bush convinces his adherents that support for these issues means he’s on their side, when his real agenda continues to be completely handing over the regulatory functions of government to those special business industry interests, who do not have the good of the citizenry at heart.

The next time a right-to-lifer is spewing their uncompromising opinions, ask them how many underprivileged children they’ve adopted, or what contribution they’ve made to easing the suffering of the world’s most unfortunate.

The next time an Iraq-war supporter explains why your children should die in a foreign land to protect American oil interests, while the Bush administration pays lip service to any real alternative energy plans, which might free us of our dependency on foreign oil, check their credentials. This will weed out the growing ranks of Chicken Hawks, who identify themselves these days, by congratulating you up front, for your service.

I always believed that the conservative view of business was the less regulation by the government, the better, except when it’s clear that a business or industry is acting against the public interest. Teddy Roosevelt was a great example of a conservative president who embodied this value. Jim Hightower recently joked that the business special interests no longer have to worry about lobbying the government, as they have, in effect, become the government, a fact reflected in Bush naming only industry figures to key regulatory posts, from the cabinet level on down.

This is an aspect that is never discussed by the GOP, and instantly draws name-calling and ridicule from the right when someone raises the issue. To use one of far too many examples, does any one seriously believe that Dick Cheney, and the Enrons of the energy industry, held private meetings to develop energy legislation, so that they can further the interests of the average citizen?

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”

Total elitist BS.

When the left starts praising Nixon and the Vietnam war, it is obvious that they are as unprincipled as their critics said they were when they protested them.

Dennis

Our nation is at peril for what we once took for granted, but Kerry is showing himself to be totally inept at getting his arms around the issues.His response to the slime Swift boat ads was late and limp, and this demonstates to many that his leadership skills in a time of such crisis for his campaign are lacking, as so much of his campaign has been.

Excuse me, for I suspect my message will not be immediately welcome in this “fest”, I just want to say something to you in all sincerity:

1.  You all sound so intolerant of those with different political views - of different world-views. This does not sound like my image of “liberals” - well known for their tolerance of their neighbors. Just re-read this conversation thread and you will see it.

2.  Have you heard of the “electoral college”? Do you know what it means? I am curious. And please be honest. What would be your reaction if - after the *next* election - we all discover that Bush won the popular vote but Kerry (or Nadar, for that matter) won the electoral college vote and - backed up by the supreme Court - is thus elected the next President. Would you consider him (Kerry or Nadar) the true President? It would be ironic, true. But, honestly, what would be your reaction? And what would you want of the Republicans as they address and work with the newly elected President?

I send this as a former Democrat. I voted for Gore and every Democratic presidental candidate before him - beginning with McGovern. I am not stupid. I suspect my educational level is “higher” than most engaging in this covnersation. I am not greedy and I am not hateful. In fact, I love my family, my neighbors, and my counry. For 22 years, I have worked for non-profit organizations serving vulnerable populations and I have sacrificed higher salaries to do so. These are my credentials I provide so that you will be more open to consider what I am sayng in this comment.

I say this because I want to challenge you to do what you seem to want “the others” to do - i.e. to take a look at the beam in your own eye before trying to pick out the sliver in the other’s eye.

I am challenging you all to look beyond stereotypes. Just review this covnersation thread. What do you see? Can you see the stereotyping?

As a former liberal, as a former Democrat, I see it clearly and I am challenging you to be a more introspective about all of this. I am challenging you to dare to think that we all have much to learn from each other. None of us - on the right, left or center - holds a corner on the truth.

It is a mistake to underestimate the other and to overestimate ourselves. Can you accept this challenge?

Remember, we are all Americans. Those of us some of you call “Bible-thumpers” or “right-wingers” love justice and peace every bit as much as you do.

Please check your language with love. And if “Republican” Americans are your “enemy”, love your enemy. And reflect on the fact that you are talking about your fellow Americans as if they (we) are your enemy.

Sincerely sent.

Dear Garrison,

Thanks for your excellent lament re the lamentable Republicans.  I counter with my lament, which is also a call to action, and which I imagine myself orating (don’t laugh) from the podium at the DNC:

Doug Lane
Los Angeles

HOW CAN THEY BE SO STRONG?

How can the likes of Cheney and Perle be so strong?  They look very weak to me:  liars, swindlers, operators in the shadows......  How does Cheney’s 4-alarm heart go on beating?  And Bush?  This is a strong man?  He’s barely there.  But he’s propped up pretty firmly.  These guys are only as strong as the American peoples’ capacity for self-deception & delusion, which is very very strong.  They’re strong the way the NRA hysterics who fight for the right to party with assault weapons are strong, they’re strong the way election saboteurs like Katherine Harris are strong, they’re strong the way Halliburton war profiteers are strong, they’re strong the way pro-life terrorists and assassins are strong, they’re strong the way TV talking-head thugs are strong, they’re strong the way lumbermen colluding with Ann Venneman and Gayle Norton to pillage the national forests are strong, they’re strong the way cynical Tom Delay-led Congressmen who pass taxcut after trillion dollar taxcut for the upper 1% are strong, they’re strong the way Tom Ridge strongly warns us of another terror threat every time Bush’s polls need goosing, they’re strong the way Rumsfeld strongly flung the Geneva Convention into the trash can while he gave the go ahead to torturers in Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, they’re strong the way the Big Brass is strong when they decide to let wretched lowlife reservist PFC’s like Lynndie England take the heat for the Abu Ghraib scandal, they’re strong with the strength that comes from pulling America out of nuqular disarmament agreements, international law treaties, Kyoto environmental treaties, they’re strong with the strength that comes from devastating our ties to former friends & Nato allies like the French and Germans, they’re strong with the strength that comes from never using diplomacy but always relying on violence, they’re strong with the strength that comes from penning dissenters in barbed wire “free speech zones,” they’re strong with strength that comes from asking others to sacrifice while they and their cronies cash in with no-bid contracts, corporate welfare, golden parachutes, and deficit raids on Social Security and Medicare, they’re strong with the strength that comes from fixing the rules of the economic game Enron-style and calling it a free market, they’re strong with the strength of always seeking to divide, not unify, they’re strong with the strength of voters whom they induce to vote against themselves, they’re strong with the strength that comes with fanning the flames of fear, they’re strong with the strength born of narrow self-interest, they’re strong with appeals to family values even as they shred families by destroying the working and middle classes, they’re strong with the strength of outsourcing, they’re strong with the almost overwhelming strength of hypocrisy, they’re strong with the strength of lobbyists, of special interests, of backrooms, of government for sale, they’re strong with the strength of men who tell the American people what to think instead of encouraging them to think for themselves, they’re strong with the strength of loathing for learning even as they promise to leave no child behind, they’re strong with the strength of men who never admit their own mistakes, no matter how devastating and bloody those errors of judgment have proven to be, they’re strong with the strength of lies asserted with perfect conviction, they’re strong with the strength of fraud, they’re strong the way those who never dialogue, who are incapable of dialogue, are strong, they’re strong the way rulers who have perfect contempt for the people are strong, they’re strong the way a people who have perfect contempt for themselves, and who therefore surrender ultimate responsibility for themselves, are strong, they’re strong the way a stubbornly blind faithbased contituency is strong, they’re strong the way a nation which has lost its way is strong, they’re strong the way a nation of gluttons in a starving world is strong, they’re strong the way Chickenhawks who let others bleed for their mistakes are strong, they’re strong the way spinmeisters who base policies on polls are strong, they’re strong the way media monopolists are strong, they’re strong the way Uncle Toms are strong, they’re strong with the strength of homophobia, they’re strong the way men who see the flag as a brand to be exploited are strong, they’re strong because they see patriotism as the last refuge of scoundrels such as themselves, they’re strong because they’re stamping out Liberty’s light, they’re strong because they preach Freedom Freedom Freedom and they practice repression repression repression, they’re strong because they gut the Bill of Rights, they’re strong because they use the Constitution as asswipe, they’re strong because they pray the Old South will rise again, this time with wage slaves of all colors, they’re strong because they encourage Christian and Jewish fundamentalists to hate Moslem fundamentalists, they’re strong because they ride the back of the tiger and spur the tiger on, they’re strong because they’re oilocrats, they’re strong because they destroy wildlife refuges on principle, not simply out of greed, they’re strong because they love hate and embody hate while purporting to love, they’re strong because they deify greed, they’re strong because they institutionalize injustice, they’re strong because they foster lies and live by them, they’re strong because they operate in shadows & secrecy and hate the light, they’re strong because they bully and intimidate and deceive, they’re strong because they admit nothing, they’re strong because their words & images mean whatever they pay them to mean, they’re strong because they’re Humpty Dumpties and they’re sitting on a wall, they’re strong because they subvert the vote, they’re strong because they don’t do what Jesus would have done, they’re strong because they would rather build more nukes than get rid of them, they’re strong because they attack the wrong enemies and offend former friends, they’re strong because they play into the hands of our enemies, they’re strong because they believe power is the highest good and they will hold it by any means necessary.

They’re strong because 9/11 is the best thing that ever happened to them, they’re strong because they did not hesitate to exploit the fear and goodwill and unity of the nation and the world.  They’re strong because they’re going it alone and letting others do their fighting for them.  They’re strong because they see respect for the truth as weakness.  They’re strong because they say one thing and do another and they rarely mean what they say or say what they mean.  They’re strong because their highest allegiance is to narrow self-interest, not to the nation or the world.  They strong because they cannot imagine the future or remember the past and are blind to the present.  They’re strong because they shamelessly and cynically invoke the name of God and claim God is on their side instead of praying that they are on God’s side.  They’re strong because they shoot first and ask questions later.  Actually, they never ask questions unless they are forced to because they believe they already have the answers.  They’re strong because they believe that power comes out of the barrel of a gun and they cannot imagine power that is not violent.  They’re strong because they believe they are the chosen ones, the frozen ones.  They’re strong because their front man never does his homework, but gladly allows them to do his homework for him.  They’re strong because they have a crushing contempt for the facts.  They’re strong because they silence whisteblowers and exile dissenters and slander those who would tell truth to power.  They’re strong because they love bad science.  They’re strong because they’re denying we’re warming the globe.  They’re strong because they somehow imagine they can engineer an apocalypse without going down themselves, or else they’ve so lost sight of joy or are so eaten up with hate & fear that they’re turning the whole world into a carbomb with themselves at the wheel.  They’re strong because they lead the fight against terrorism yet they are themselves terrifying.  They’re strong because they promise to save the nation they are destroying.  They’re strong because they’ve alienated America from the rest of the world and they’ve alienated Americans from ourselves.  They’re strong because they find a government of the people, for the people, by the people to be a laughable, exploitable, slogan.  They’re strong because they exploit our weakness and indifference and ignorance at every turn.  They’re strong because they think they are the ultimate players and they’re playing us and they’re playing the world and they think governing is great game, not a sacred responsibility. They’re strong because they think they will go on forever. 

Let’s prove them wrong.  Before they take us down with them.

Great comments Garrison.

What I have come to determine about people who support the President is that they can only see the world from the standpoint of “what’s in it for me?”.  This doesn’t mean they’re bad people but that they just can’t stand back and think about things clearly because they are overcome by some kind of patriotic religion and belief in self-interest.

Fact is that if one of these people has something happen in their life that forces them to confront the realities of their positions (read Dick Cheney and his Gay daughter, Nancy Reagan and stem-cell research, etc.) then they tend to see that things are more gray than they think and the idea of “the greater good” slips into their mind.  Governments, and participation in a society (or even an economy) cannot be based strictly on “what’s in it for me?” approach.

Unless America wakes up (and soon) I fear for the entire stability of the world.  If Bush gets in this fall he knows they will not likely win in ‘08.  So he will have a “scorched earth” policy over the next four years to set things up