For the last few days I've been preoccupied with a cat medical crisis (happily, the prognosis is now good), which explains the paucity of posting. I've also been dieting when it comes to cable-news pre-election coverage, and feel oh so much better for it. I'm sparing myself the junk anxiety that results from watching Chris Mathews soil his Sans-a-Belt slacks with excitement over the Bin Laden video, CNN decipher every poll as evidence of a Bush surge, Sean Hannity make his neck bulge like a frog's, etc. If you listened to any of the pundit programs, you wouldn't bother to vote or even think, they make everything sound so preordained, the product of unstoppable momentums. Thing is, some of these perceived shifts--such as the "Bush surge" from the Bin Laden tape--evaporate upon contact with reality.
Don't let anyone con you that New Yorkers are so tough, resilient, unphased by adversity; practically everyone I know is a neurotic basket case over this election, ready to call their mothers to see if they can have their old womb back should Bush win. My plan is, If Bush wins, I'm going to allot myself 48 hours to mope and dread--okay, 72--okay, maybe 96--but 96 tops--but after that it'll be time to get on mental war footing. If Kerry wins, do you think conservative Republicans are going to take to their beds for soul-searching? They have no souls to search, most of them. No, they'll be scheming to ratfuck a Kerry presidency, and if history is a reliable guide they'll have allies in the elite media who can't wait to start snarking over Teresa as First Lady and the timidity of Kerry's cabinet picks, whatever. Reporters and pundits who've paid scant attention to the casualties and carnage in Iraq will suddenly find their consciences tucked away in a file drawer, and start wondering when Kerry will show the strength and resolve we expect from our leaders. They will hound him about Bin Laden in ways they never did Bush.
The truth is, as Scott Ritter writes in an important article linked to by Antiwar.com, the war in Iraq has made moral cowards of us all. To focus on whether or not the Bin Laden tape would give Bush a boost while thousands upon thousands of Iraqis die and Fallujah is about to pulverized without the slightest debate in this country is an indictment of our media, our political class, and the phony Christianity that so many of our dumpling patriots profess.
But as Randi Rhodes said today on Air America, voters don't show up early and stand in line for hours in the sun, as they've been doing in Florida, to support the status quo. So make way for tomorrow.
