Current Listening: CCR – “Fortunate Son” (Chronicle)
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand, / Lord, don’t they help themselves, oh. / But when the taxman come to the door, / Lord, the house look a like a rummage sale,
Okay, so the votes are counted, and Bush won. For better or worse, we’re looking at another four years of Republican control. Since several Supreme Court justices are to retire sometime during Bush’s second term, there is a very real possibility that conservatives will control all three branches of US Government. This is a scary thought. But could it have a happy ending?
Take my state, Montana, as an example. Montana actually has one of the most progressive constitutions in the US, and for a long time was a left-leaning state. Then, something started happening. The economy started going downhill; Republicans started blaming the Democrats, and all of a sudden conservatives controlled all of Montana’s government.
That’s the way it’s stood for about a quarter-century. Our economy has been sliding into the crapper ever since. Businesses have been leaving, and we’ve been attacking the environment frequently. Things were beginning to look quite dark to some of us Montanans. Why are people consistently voting for Republicans when they’ve made the mess worse, we were asking ourselves. There weren’t easy answers. All we knew is that Montana was heavily leaning toward the right, and the poor Democrats couldn’t do anything right. I fact, they looked like everything, trying all sorts of tricks to regain control.
Then, Judy Martz was elected governor (governess?). And boy, did she screw up. If there’s any politician who could possibly be a challenger to George the Younger’s claim to Biggest Idiot in Office, it would be her. She kowtowed to corporations. She proclaimed herself the ‘lapdog of industry.’ She was an accessory to a vehicular homicide when she washed the defendant’s bloody clothes. And the people hated her. Not just the Democrats, who’ve been programmed from their teens to hate the other team. Everybody.
And she was enough to get the Republicans out of office. This election, we voted in a Democratic governor, state attorney, and one of our houses switched control to the Democrats. For the first time in some two decades, our government was balanced again. All because of an idiot politician, elected because of her party’s sway.
So, maybe Montana is ahead of the curve. Maybe Americans will see that, while George Bush is likeable, he and his ilk are not the best choice to lead America. Maybe Montana is a kind of oracle for the rest of the country.
Something to think about.
Tags: 2004 Election, Brian Schweitzer
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