How easy it is to be bloody blind... ..."Rant Mode" enabled... One of the things that really concerns me in "our" democracy is the lazy manner in which we all, collectively, engage in it. There are some obvious signs of good things that flow from lack of involvement. In a way it can be a sign of general contentment to some extent that people are "fat" (and we are especially that in the US) and "happy" and find no need to vote at all. If everybody was active AND pissed off that certainly would not necessarily be a sign that things are swell in the country. But more than the trend of contentment, I think it is fairly obvious that the lack of involvement stems from two other more disturbing conditions in the American Electorate: First, look around at your fellow citizens -- are we not the most disappointingly ignorant and parochial people on the planet? We aren't ignorant because we live in some backwater where we have no hope of being informed. Rather, we are collectively uninformed because we either have no time to be informed, or more likely because so many of us just don't give a rat's ass. Second, because of the reason above, politics has become a mass media game -- not of edification, but of making sure ONLY certain individuals go to the polls. Those inclined to be lazy are given the message, "ah, all of these politicians and parties are just the same -- the hell with voting, I want to eat my frozen pizza, tolerate my spouse and children, and watch Friends -- and maybe later some soft-core porn on Cinemax". There is the rationale for going negative. You get to make Kerry look like just another politician (and they are all the same) all while claiming simultaneously that if he's elected "YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE". Ah, sweet Inconsistency, how doth Karl Rove love thee. The combination of these two things have helped the Bush Administration make us into the title of this Blog, RISING HEGEMON. Yes, the U.S.A. is No. 1!! All f-ing hail us, we rule, blah blah blah. However, we were this long before the next to least disappointing child of George H.W. Bush (props to Neal) was anointed our 43rd President. The United States is SO FAR above every other nation in "power" both militarily and economically there is no point in debating it. Added to that, especially on say, September 12, 2001, we have supreme moral influence. We could very well have joined with our allies and even the ambivalent and come up with a global approach to dealing with the scourge of terrorism. The board was set for a long-term approach, philosophically, politically and militarily. We had a chance to really follow the Hans Morgenthau rules of international relations and create a better, more stable, safer world out of the ashes of this horrible tragedy. AND THEY F**KING BLEW IT, FROM THE START. As has been alleged by others and now reaffirmed by Richard Clarke a National Security, counter-terrorism expert during the Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II Administrations, they wanted to bomb the crap out of Saddam and Iraq from the very first. Damn them, damn them all to hell (and being an agnostic, I realize this may not be a realistic alternative). At least damn them to November unemployment (fitting enough) and see if they give up looking for work like several million others. But even worse is that many of us just let them blow it and cheered them while they did so, too many of our fellow citizens praised them with the simplistic platitudes and cheers of what would have resulted in a Nuremberg rally if Bush would have but bothered to ask them to get off their collective asses. And that is one thing that separates the Bush team from the National Socialists tactically, they don't even ask us to do anything (and I realize their are others, but its my blog so I get to come up with the examples -- Godwin's Rule be damned!) They are comfortable with us being lazy and not asked to make sacrifices. "You folks just take it easy, we'll handled the authoritarianism from here." It is like a pre-fab Dictatorship and the nation is letting them get away with it. The banality of it is the most frightening thing of all. Wow, do I wish I had a diagnosed mental condition (apparently they are all the rage, but I've never been too hip) then I could at least have some meds to make it all seem not so frightening. But at least I KNOW I will be voting.