Speaking of self-inflicted wounds...

[NinetySix]

I was very fortunate NOT to have seen the interview with Michele Malkin, because I avoid Chris Matthews like a leper, but I just encountered a clip of her appearance there on-line, and my blood is boiling about it. It was almost as though she were put out because Matthews tried to get her to make the charges directly rather than simply allowing her to make her sleazy insinuations with a wink and a knowing look.

If there had ever been such charges brought against Kerry, then he would have had to defend himself against them, but quite clearly he has nothing to defend here; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. When Kennedy told the nation that the Soviets had missiles in Cuba, he showed us the pictures. If he had claimed that they had a base on the far side of the moon, he would have been expected to show pictures of that, too. The burden of proof here is quite clearly on Malkin, who prefers to rely on innuendo.

Imagine the indignation of the right-wing horde during the 1996 presidential campaign if Democrats had tried to insinuate that Bob Dole's arm had been incapacitated due to a self-inflicted wound. Yeah, Bob Dole's no war hero, that's for sure, just another yellow-belly who couldn't cut it and was willing to do anything to get sent back to his cushy bed at home. Did Dole do anything to prove that those wounds were not self-inflicted? Why did no one ever ask the question? Why haven't we asked that question of all the veterans of all of our recent wars? If you happen to visit a retirement home where a veteran of WWI lives, be sure to go out of your way to ask him that question. We'll prove to these veterans that we're on to them.

It's really hard to imagine that there are people out there who are so desperate for their world-view to be vindicated that they will latch on to even transparent lies and meritless attacks on the opposition if it will distract from the shortcomings of their own candidate. I must say, I like Kerry much better these days than I had at first, but I have no real emotional investment in his candidacy. In fact, I have much more visceral feelings about the prospect of Bush's defeat, but only after having seen his performance of the last four years. My emotional investment is in the future of my country, and I'm really beginning to believe that Bush, as a two-termer, will take us right to the precipice.

That being said, however, I would not lie about the man. Granted, you really wouldn't have to tell any lies, because in his case, the truth is spectacularly damning enough. But if we want to get back to true democracy, we must demand the truth, not only of others, but of ourselves as well. Discourse, whether political or otherwise, is always corrupted by lies, and that includes misleading implications and "spin." Politics should be a showcase for the competing visions of candidates to persuade voters as to who can better improve our lives. Is it any wonder that so few turn out to vote when shit like this starts to fly?

[salinen]

1. Only in a society where

half the population are immature and ideologically blind could this type of slander take traction. The Red state mentality must not take control, not only for the sake of the U.S., but for all humanity.

[NinetySix]

3. That's EXACTLY the thing

And it doesn't help that the major US media make no effort to disabuse that red 50% of their false impressions, but serve instead to reinforce them. Otherwise reasonable people hear a rumor that Gore claims to have invented the internet, turn on the TV where these claims are repeated but not analyzed for their veracity, then drink the Kool-Aid while they recline and watch characatures painted for them instead of doing any research for themselves, or even having the slightest skepticism about what they're being told. It's a depressing cycle.

I must say, I really can't believe it was Chris Matthews breaking the little daydream bubble this woman was trying to blow, but if only we get a bit more of that during this election cycle, we might see the Kool-Aid start to wear off, people begin to think for themselves once more, and the discourse start to turn back toward issues of real and immediate impact in average people's lives.

[Gildor Inglorion]

2. Actually, he'll drag us OVER the precipice...

"My emotional investment is in the future of my country, and I'm really beginning to believe that Bush, as a two-termer, will take us right to the precipice." We're at it as we speak. Four more years of Bushit* and his accomplices and this country will be a foul dictatorship with Busholini strutting about to adoring screams of "DUB-ya!" as the Italian mobs shrieked "DOO-chay!" at his role model, Mussolini.

[NinetySix]

4. That image...

...is both comical and horrifying at the same time; a sort of Ted Rall cartoon as a Leni Riefenstahl propoganda piece. If it were to happen that the Coup were ultimately successful and democracy were surreptitiously but effectively undermined through black-box voting and other means, I wonder how long it would take for Bush to become Big Brother. Imagine Two-Minutes-Hate with Clinton as Goldstein!

But part of my point is that we must avoid images like that which characature. Thom Hartmann recently discussed the power of ridicule, a tactic increasingly used in modern American politics to great effect. I suppose it can be done by both sides, and perhaps evil really can be dispelled by laughter, as Ray Bradbury would have it in Something Wicked This Way Comes, but if everyone is laughing at images which are mere appearances, then they are all distracted from the essential truths which are more important.