Alterman: More "them" than "us"

[MsAnthropy]

Let’s face it. It’s not Kerry’s fault. It’s not Nader’s fault (this time). It’s not the media’s fault (though they do bear a heavy responsibility for much of what ails our political system). It’s not “our” fault either. The problem is just this: Slightly more than half of the citizens of this country simply do not care about what those of us in the “reality-based community” say or believe about anything.

They don’t care that Iraq is turning into murderous quicksand and a killing field for our children. They don’t care that the Bush presidency has made us less safe by creating more terrorists, inspiring more anti-American hatred and refusing to engage in the hard work that would be necessary to make a meaningful dent in our myriad vulnerabilities at home. They don’t care that he has mortgaged our children’s future to give trillions to the wealthiest among us. They don’t care that the economy continues to hemorrhage well-paying jobs and replace them with Wal-Mart; that the number without health insurance is over forty million and rising. They don’t care that Medicare premiums are rising to fund the coffers of pharmaceutical companies. They don’t care that the air they breathe and the water they drink is being slowly poisoned and though they call themselves conservatives, they even don’t care that the size of the government and its share of our national income has increased by roughly a quarter in just four years. This is not a world of rational debate and issue preference.

It’s one of “them” and “us.” He’s one of “them” and not one of “us” and that’s all they care about. True it’s an illusion. After all, Bush is a millionaire’s son who went to Yale and Harvard and sat out Vietnam, not even bothering to show up for his cushy National Guard duty, and succeeded only in trading on his father’s name and connections in adult life. But somehow, they feel he understands them. He speaks their language. Our guys don’t. And unless they learn it, we will continue to condemn this country and those parts of the world it affects to a regime of malign neglect at best—malignant and malicious assault at worse.

Given the media’s talent for pandering to their lowest common denominator, the things that have driven us crazy about their past pathetic performance are bound to get a lot worse. Most of us—readers and writers of this web log and peoplelikeus-- derive an awful lot of benefit from being Americans. We owe it to our better selves, and though it sounds horribly clichéd, to our children-- not to walk away from this battle. I will admit, however, it’s pretty damn hard to see through this fog just where to turn before we march.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/

[Ducks In A Row]

1. The asshole media refuses to shoulder their blame

which makes it so much worse

they are the ones holding us down while the bushies take us in the ass

[Kurovski]

2. Good column

but the jury is still out on the whole "more than half of America wanted this" stuff.

It's true, as the contributor to Alterman's column states, that when their lives (Bush voters) nose dive into the toilet, they should not whine about it.

They asked for it, and by hook or by crook, they got it. So suck it up, all you red'un's.

But they will indeed complain and Bush & co. will convince them that their woes are all related to the liberals, pushy woman, blacks, Hollywood, lack of national prayerfulness, Al Qaeda, the "queers", or the fucking man in the moon if they run out of enemies. Anything and everything but to take responsibility for their shitty self-destructive choice for the shittiest damn president in the history of this nation.

They're all like the sickest, most emotionally fucked-up, drinkinest, most self deluded family. The way Bush and supporters feed off each other is so very screwed-up.

And rest of us get to pay the price. What fun.

[FlyByNight]

3. My feelings exactly

"Slightly more than half of the citizens of this country simply do not care about what those of us in the “reality-based community” say or believe about anything." Of course, my thoughts were slightly more profane but Mr. Alterman is a lot more eloquent.

Despite the brilliantly obvious flaws in Bush's personality and policies, it seems just as long as the wealthy donor class gets its tax cuts and wars, everything is just fine.

Anyone else feel a draft?

:-(

[Is It Fascism Yet]

4. Half of Diebold wanted this

They didn't count my vote, did they count yours? There is an elephant in the room that the nobody, especially the media is not mentioning. That elephant's name is Diebold. The Diebold tallies do not even remotely approximate the exit polls, and of course, cannot be recounted. Strangly, in all our history, the only time exit polls do not approximate the final tally is when The Son of a Bush is running and Diebold is counting. Everyone knows this elephant is standing there, why isn't anybody mentioning it? And then there is the elephant's evil twin..."early vote by mail ballots". Most Kerry supporters voted by mail, because they were wise enough to know that Diebold would cheat. In fact, the Kerry campaign informally and indirectly recommended mail ballots to their supporters, for this very reason. I voted by mail. I know my elections office got my vote in time. The day before election, I called my county elections officials to make sure they had received the "mail in ballots" from my household and was assured the ballots were received. However, this morning, the day after election, The Aizona Secretary of State's office informed me over the phone that my vote was never counted, my husband's vote was never counted, and my daughter's vote was never counted, because they were all "vote early by mail ballots", and the "mail ballots" were never counted. None of the mail ballots were counted. None!!!. Nobody was elected. The entire election was a farce of Diebold cheating and mail ballot disposal. It was much simpler to overthrow America than we thought. In a democracy, this entire election would be thrown out, invalidated for obvious fraud, and done again. America has always tried to export democracy, and now, who will liberate us, and give us democracy? I recommend that all of America strike, sell all your stock, don't go to work, don't pay your bills, consume as little of everything, (especially gasoline), as you possibly can, and run naked in the streets until our votes are counted. Or, don't, if that seems too much trouble. Shall we instead all migrate to India where they actually count votes and have all our jobs anyway? In 2008, let's just not bother with the voting farce, let's just move directly to Jeb, next in line for the Bush family throne.

[Kurovski]

5. Mike Malloy on air America

is talking about Diebold etc, tonight. Tune in now or catch the rebroadcast later if you can. He says nothing but this matters : cut them out like a cancer. All else is fruitless.

If you can't count the vote, democracy is gone.

When you think about it, he's correct. That is, if you do indeed think about it.