A patient, faced with a life-threatening illness (as every member of my immediate family was, so I have some experience once removed with this), might be given Hobson’s Choice: There is no cure — but take this course of treatment; it will extend survival an extra six months — and in Quality Of Life, two will be tolerable, two will be good, and the last two horrible.
The landscape of November 8th will be inhospitable to Republicans — the only question is, to what degree, and how effective Fat Karl and The UnOuted Mel are at being a thieves in suppressing Democratic votes. But this election can’t, for the Democrats, be seen as simply a referendum on Iraq, or the WOT, the Culture of Corruption or separation of Church and State. It can’t be simply a chance to settle twelve years of political scores.
If it doesen’t curtail the authority of Il Duce; if it doesn’t begin to reverse the damage done just within the past five years to our social fabric, environment and economy (and it’s arguable that we’ve gone past the tipping point in any of these areas), then we’re well and truly fucked.
If victory doesn’t offer real alternatives to the mindset which created this unholy, psychotic mixture of illusion and greed; and which enables the Duce to go on in pissing in our faces… then it’s nothing more than a Hobson’s choice, postponing the return of a malignancy which will eventually kill everything we hold important, or love.

Posted by: Austin Cooper | Nov 4 2006 17:03 utc | 3

@dan of steele all of the issues you have highlighted are unlikely to be resolved by the US legislature ever, no matter which party wins.
The personal freedoms have been taken in order to enhance the power of government and what you are asking is for a group of people who are assuming increased power to give up that power which they will convince themselves gives them the ability to ‘do good’.
It’s not going to happen. The Dems may have espoused their support of these liberties for decades, but as soon as a halfway decent excuse (the WTC murders) came along most quietly shouted with joy as they voted ‘aye’ for their abolition.
Few people willingly gives up power, especially those who fight tooth and nail to get it, and it seems that tooth and nail is a mild description of what it takes to win election to the US congress.
Although under the current administration the bulk of the new powers have been centralised to the executive, under a democrat congress a deal will be cut, a compromise will be made to share the ability to oppress dissident citizenry between the executive and the legislature.
The Dems ‘turn’ was always going to come eventually and every time any legislator in Congress who has a shred of decency left in him/her decides to roll the incursion of the state into people’s lives back a little, the pragmatists who grab the positions of real power in any political party will have begun to use those laws supressing political expression against their opponents, so they will take the idealist aside and explain how the clock can’t be turned back ‘just yet’.
Chances are the pragmatist will know that in a year’s time no one in the party will be arguing for a change, as everyone will be desperately using every tool at their disposal to consolidate their position , a year later to cling onto office, and a year later than that to steal votes from their opponents.
It is difficult to imagine the institution which destroyed citizens’ freedoms, then changing course and restoring them.
In the past it would be the judiciary which would force the pendulum back, but given that this judiciary includes architects of these sanctions on liberty that isn’t certain this time. It is barely possible that the rethugs’ appointees will freak out at the powers they created, falling into the hands of ‘the enemy’, and rediscover the constitution, but that would only be a temporary fix until the situation on the ground changes again.
The only quick fix I could see, with the lowest loss of life, would come from some external circumstance causing a major change to SCOTUS. Maybe sufficient crooks have been put on the bench that purge by impeachment would be possible.
That is difficult to imagine because the elites of whatever political stripe see no benefit accruing from bringing one of the arms of government into the near total disrepute that a major purge would require.
It seems to me that amerikans won’t get their freedoms back unless sufficient numbers of citizens are prepared to fight for their resturn using mechanisms outside the established political structure.
We have to realise that the freedoms which many of us took for granted, the freedoms given to white fellas the world over in the latter half of the 19th and majority of the 20th century were won because for much of that period the net wealth of white fella society was increasing at a far greater rate than the increase in demand caused by population growth.
The chief impetus for that was the expansion of white fellas hegemony throughout the new world, an act which eventually increased the wealth of most white fellas everywhere.
Since barring the discovery of another planet close enough to get to which is bounteous in all that we covet, that is unlikely to happen again, so winning freedoms for all back once again is going to be considerably more difficult than it was to get them the first time.
Immeasurably harder than the indolent society which so bovinely observed observed their loss may be prepared to tolerate.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 4 2006 22:21 utc | 5