What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
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   Friday, November 04, 2005

   JUST GIVE IT TIME

Exactly one year ago, near-insane from the results of the 2004 American election, I wrote this:

I know, in the long run, that things are getting better, that reason and fairness will prevail, and that these people will grow up and stop lashing out in fear all the time. But how do we deal with the short term? How do we deal with four more years?

Quite well, as it turns out. Less than a year into his second term, George W. Bush is now what's called a "lame duck" President, mired in ethics scandals, massive deficits and his botched war in Iraq. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll says that,

George W. Bush's approval ratings for handling his job, Iraq, terrorism and the economy are all at career-lows. Sixty percent of Americans disapprove of his work in office overall, a level of discontent unseen since recession chased his father from office.

Finally, people are rejecting this pathetic excuse for a leader and his terrifying pack of oil-company cronies. And it only took the deaths of 3000 people to do it (nearly a thousand Louisiana citizens and over 2000 soldiers sent to Iraq, but who's counting?).

We're even starting to learn how we got to this sad point to begin with. For instance, the Senate is currently investigating a sleazier-than-usual pair of Republican fundraisers who swindled $66 million from Native American reservation casinos by enlisting Christian voters:

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." The brilliance of this strategy was twofold: Not only would most voters not know about an initiative to protect Coushatta gambling revenues, but religious "wackos" could be tricked into supporting gambling at the Coushatta casino even as they thought they were opposing it.

This is the oldest, most successful, most disgusting game in politics -- if you talk about Jesus loudly and often, you can get away with just about anything. The combination of God and Money is so irresistable to most people that they'll line up to support your swindle, your Presidental candidate or even your war.

But only for a little while. As a far, far better President once said, "You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time."

Labels: George W Bush, religion