After the Landslide
Democrats should not be in a forgiving mood.
In an old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie called Commando, the future governator hunts down the people involved in kidnapping his daughter. As he is dangling one of these seedy men over the side of a building, he quips, "Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last? I lied." And then he lets him go.
I hope this is the attitude President Obama adopts for the Republicans who have run this country like a corrupt condo owners association for the past eight years. Obama may run on a platform of party reconciliation, but his goal should be a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a landslide general election victory that would allow him to drop Republicanism over the ledge of a skyscraper and watch it plummet to its gruesome demise.
An Obama victory would be the perfect time to crush contemporary conservatism and to enact the kind of progressive agenda that only sweeping power will allow. Truly revolutionary, forward-thinking change has only been achieved during those rare moments when one party controls the government — like the enormous Democratic majorities that let FDR create the New Deal and LBJ, the Great Society.
The objective this November should be the comprehensive political liquidation of the people who declared war on the poor and the middle class, who led this country down the path of endless war, and who at every turn chose the interests of the wealthy over the needs of the people they were elected to serve.
The message should be very simple. For the incumbents who supported the Iraq war, the bankruptcy bill, the Terry Schiavo grandstanding, the tax giveaways to the rich, the endless gay-b aiting, the war profiteering, the rollback of privacy, the sanctification of torture, the pitiful lack of congressional oversight, the two recessions and the obliteration of New Orleans, there should be only five little words: We are coming for you.
Howard Dean's wildly successful 50-state strategy makes it possible to target many more of these corrupt plutocrats than anyone would have thought possible four years ago. Because of a Democratic Party renewed and reenergized everywhere from Mississippi to Montana, the political careers of dozens of bloodthirsty Bush sycophants like New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu will be coming to an end in a few months.
But as amazing as it will feel to grind Republicanism into dust for a generation, the guy Democrats really dream about dangling over a building — metaphorically of course — is Sen. Joe Lieberman (Himself-CT). This man, tragically chosen by Al Gore as a running mate in 2000, won re-election in 2006 with overwhelming Republican support. He has since turned into a cheerleader for John McCain and seizes every opportunity to bash the party that made him a (detested) household name.
We can't actually get this craven opportunist out of the Senate until 2013, but on the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, President-elect Obama can march into Lieberman's office and strip him of every position of any importance in the Democratic Senate, the political equivalent of busting him down to private.
Lieberman probably won't expect this, since he may have been made certain guarantees in return for caucusing with the Democrats. And oh how I would love to be the person that gets to say to Lieberman: Remember, Joe, those promises we made to you?
We lied.
David Faris is a frequent Slant contributor. To respond to his Slant, or write one of your own, e-mail bhoward@citypaper.net.
Also In This Week's Opinion Section
. A disturbing insight into Barack Obama’s psychological makeup is revealed in three of Obama’s recent comments: (1) Speaking to the student body at Dartmouth - “A light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack.”; (2) Speaking after a primary victory - “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” ; and, (3) Responding in an interview as to the definition of sin, he responded -”Being out of alignment with MY values.” ASTOUNDING.
Obama’s commentary clearly identifies him as possessing a dangerously narcissistic personality. He unquestionably has a mental disorder characterized by an extreme sense of his own importance, which readily explains the context of his San Francisco comments where he belittled those living in “small town” America who he clearly perceived as inferior to his self- constructed status of superiority.
Obama’s admitted heavy marijuana and cocaine use in high school and college may well have played a decisive role in the development of Obama’s inflated sense of his own importance; and, his pretentious demeanor. Heavy drug use can lead to hallucinations concerning ones status of grandiosity. Another clue is Obama’s frequent confused and unintelligible babblings whenever he is subjected to a public forum where he is devoid of a prepared text by his handlers to read from; which is the reason that Obama's controllers will resist any attempt to have their candidate exposed to town-hall style forums.
Unequivocally, this man, who has exhibited a profound lack of common-sense, should never be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office. Greg Neubeck
The sick fantasies that Faris continually spews are the symptom of a very sick mind.
You need help, Dave.