Op Ed
Here is another voice crying in the wilderness.
The Republican Party is on the verge of Collapse--but it needs a push.
The Democratic party no longer has an ideological center--it needs a spur--
--and you guys in the baby parties are all running around without a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting anywhere in the pursuit of the office of "The Big Cheese", (currently occupied by Mr. Paulson by virtue of the senatus consultum currently being passed by congress), and consequently none of your supposedly innovative ideas will ever see the light of day.
Yeh well-you dimwits, this is supposed to be a Democracy, wherein compromise and coalition are weapons the people should be able to use as a bulwark against elitism. Holy corporation, Batman, we're fucked again.
Why's that? Well, everybody wants to be the big cheese.--and the only two (besides Mr. Paulson, may his reign be long and prosperous) who have a chance for that; are big on platitudes but mired in cookie cutter personalities who all want a piece of the action. Which sucks pond water as far as the future of the republic is concerned. I don't really see that changing, we've gotten too big for our britches (we've got Aircraft Carriers, for Gods Sake)--and we have to be first in everything, all the time. Even if serious consideration were given to my proposal, (which I haven't given yet, were adopted: fat chance) there you'd be wanting to be Secretary of this or that, huffing and puffing about, forgetting where you came from and all that, as if you might actually be better than someone else--which has gotten us into all this trouble in the first place.
America, dudes.
Now me, down here at the bottom of the heap; just waiting for the electric to get turned off, or the sheriff to finally catch up to me for my various indiscretions in the matter of survival has a different point of view. I got no property, I don't have no stinking job where some witless yahoo is telling me what to do, my lover is married to some other dude, and for a career path I have chosen to write poetry which by way of remuneration earns nothing but ridicule in this the best of all possible worlds.
Not to worry, I get by--just don't ask me no questions. The fact that your world is falling down about your ears worries me not at all. I gotta kitten on my lap, and my lover plans to slip away today, despite the stock market's imminent fall. "Been down so long it looks like up to me," he said warbling an old song--
Ah! But you guys you ain't so lucky. You gotta a long ways to fall when the wells run dry. The Free Money dropping out of the sky won't fall so far. And like as not you're going to get buried in the crop dust. 9/11 and the holy wars take a seat on the back burner, the gas is turned off anyway, how do you get the point across?
Simple, really. Have yourselves a cabal, I suppose you'll have to invite yourself, just to make sure nothing goes wrong, no-one in my generation ever wanted to miss a party anyways--a consortium: agree not to disagree so vehemently for a while--toss your names in a hat, then do it again for a number two. What have you got to lose?
America, dudes?--Aircraft Carriers rusting at the pier.
shortly after the birth of a New American Party, a man said this:
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."
I would submit to you that democracy is a constant battle, your decision rests not on your petty ideas of Left vs Right, or in the constancy of your ambitions--rather, it is the very survival of the republic that is at stake. Whine all you want about your goddamn principles and the fact that you are right and they are wrong, put your name in the hat. It is altogether possible that within a small span of years, indeed it may already be impossible, that such a coalition will not be viable--you will be deemed "illegal" and a threat to the Empire. Recall the death of Cicero, at the hands of a nervous Octavian--the punishment of patriots is often cruel.
Simple, really. Have yourselves a cabal, I suppose you'll have to invite yourself, just to make sure nothing goes wrong, no-one in my generation ever wanted to miss a party anyways--a consortium: agree not to disagree so vehemently for a while--toss your names in a hat, then do it again for a number two. What have you got to lose?
America, dudes?--Aircraft Carriers rusting at the pier.
shortly after the birth of a New American Party, a man said this:
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."
I would submit to you that democracy is a constant battle, your decision rests not on your petty ideas of Left vs Right, or in the constancy of your ambitions--rather, it is the very survival of the republic that is at stake. Whine all you want about your goddamn principles and the fact that you are right and they are wrong, put your name in the hat. It is altogether possible that within a small span of years, indeed it may already be impossible, that such a coalition will not be viable--you will be deemed "illegal" and a threat to the Empire. Recall the death of Cicero, at the hands of a nervous Octavian--the punishment of patriots is often cruel.
Tom is an editor of burst!, poet and blogger.
