commie. or possibly pinko.It is a little disheartening but not particularly shocking to learn that approximately 52 percent of Americans are so scared of the queers, heathens, towelheads, commie foreigners (ooo, those scary pinkos in Soviet Canuckistan!) and intellectuals that they're willing to put up with the rest of the Bush package to get somebody who comforts their fears.
This is far from the worst swing to the right that this country has weathered. Those who do not study history, etc--
--although I was hoping to stave off the fall of capitalism for another couple of decades, because I am intrinsically lazy, and revolutions are a pain in the ass to live through.
(Fall of Capitalism, The: inevitable since the collapse of the eastern bloc; it's my considered opinion that we broke our system driving theirs down, see under "Reaganomics" for details)
There's a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth going on, but it seems to me that the American system is a bit like a bobsled in a bobsled run. It careens around a bit, but generally swings back the other way. I figure we've still got a year, eighteen months before we hit really cheerful post-1953 levels of paranoia.
And this, boys and girls, is the reason why the system is set up to encourage stagnation. Because we don't want them to be able to fix stuff, and they don't want us to be able to fix stuff. Fixing stuff is bad.
We don't like final solutions. We don't like cultural revolutions. We like gridlock; gridlock is our friend. 1953 (and now, 2004) teach us what happens when middle America gets a little too scared of the commies and the queers. An end to gridlock; my worst nightmare.
On the other hand, you don't get Ginsberg without McCarthy. So, yanno. The revolution will be along momentarily
Looks like Harry's Senate minority leader. I suspected as much. Not sure yet how much I'll miss Daschle, though.
And now it's time for this queer, heathen, pinko (but not particularly towelheaded, except after showers) intellectual to go slop the pigs.