Friday, October 08, 2004

Democratic Cannibalism: The Killing and Eating of Dr. Dean

Democratic Cannibalism:
The Killing and Eating of Dr. Dean

For the first time in recent memory, interest among great masses of dejected and depressed political melancholics was stirred and scratched, then struck again and again until a few sparks were clicked from mossy-covered rocks. A poorly prepared bed of dust, debris and other clutter caught some of the sparks and began to smolder. That smolder was exhaustively blown into a feeble flicker of flame, then carefully fed until it became a full-fledged roaring fire that melted the frozen reservoir of the Democratic National Party and brought that mass to a roiling boil, complete with a hissing head of steam! Dr. Dean is solely responsible for this remarkable feat, something the Democratic establishment could never manage on its own. And they are running around screaming FIRE! FIRE! and throwing buckets of water and sand on the stunned doctor. His democracy is not that of the Democratic Party, he doesn’t understand the needs of the party. Just who in the hell does he think he is? And where did all this riffraff who surround him come from - his hodge podge of dormant democrats, indolent independents, rebellious republicans and cute kids? Yech! Where are the union bosses, the financial funders, the tired old senators, those who have learned the trade, earned the rank, those concerned with the party pecking order?
Gore had gone, leaving Gephardt and Lieberman to inherit the party’s greatest honor. Iowa belonged to Gephardt, New Hampshire to Lieberman; after that the campaign would begin. But by the time Iowa cranked up, Dean was a heavy favorite in both states, and it looked like he would kill his only two rivals in the month of February. Gephardt knew he would lose and grabbed Dean and dragged him toward the mud pit; Dean willingly shoved him in, sliding in on top. Then a really strange thing happened. Lieberman, who did not even run in Iowa, came to take part in the Iowa debate! Immediately it became clear that he had come solely to destroy Dean. He attacked him about his having some governor’s records sealed, and went on and on again and again about that single issue. “That doesn’t satisfy me!” he retorted to Dean’s replies. Lilly white, he leaped into the pits. The result was not even a fair fight, Dean easily destroyed both of them and crawled out of the pit screaming. But he had fought and won the wrong fight and could never again be the candidate who would carry the flag of his party.
Meanwhile Clark smiled down on the democratic party, like a newly risen planet, featuring terms like “Electability” and “National Security.” Dean was being eaten away. Gephardt had eaten the labor vote for Dean. Edwards ate away the issue of jobs and morality while Dr. Dean was down in the pits, and Kerry was later seen to wipe his lips with a snow-white napkin and shout out into a crowd, “You have the power!” Lieberman was seen to steal away with something hanging heavy in a brown paper bag, but we never found out what it was. Best guess is he accidentally got Dean’s scream, but we’ll never know because Lieberman’s lips are sealed.
Well, there’s an old saying, “You are what you eat.” Maybe so. Maybe not, but the democrats were in no shape to take on George Bush, he would be way too powerful and mean and tough. But now, after having fought and killed and eaten Dr. Dean, it seems to be a new party, revitalized, redirected with new recruits and a new loud voice, not quite a scream, but a voice strong enough to make a great call to engage the enemy.
This campaign will be a battle for America’s soul, and may very possibly destroy the nation. A new civil war may well be beginning. We will need more than fighters; we must have women and men of vision, honor, integrity and endurance. The legacy of Dr. Dean may be one of America’s best, we may remember him as a “booster rocket” who lifted the country out of the heavy gravity of the lower atmosphere and single-handedly carried it to new heights. Where we will wind up though, will depend on what we do after this.

It’s not just the killing and eating of Howard Dean - there’s more. Think back a few years. In 1995 it was Pat Buchannan who tore apart Senator Dole in New Hampshire. The party immediately bolted to Dole’s aid, and destroyed Buchannan so Dole could claim the prize that he had “earned” through many long and tedious years of dutiful support of his party. Not once did any Republican question why anyone would even think of voting for Pat. Pat was not eaten, just left over on the right-hand side of the road. In 1999, again the Republicans had a similar problem, this time it was clear that Bush was the choice of the party fathers, yet McCain destroyed him in New Hampshire. Did the Republicans seek to find out why the voters of New Hampshire had rejected their pick? No, they simply banded together and destroyed McCain, party with innuendo about his wife and daughter, never clearly brought forward.
Once again here in 2004, it is made stunningly clear to those able to comprehend that the concept of the democratic dialog in America has been hijacked by two private corporations, the Democratic National Party and the Republican National Party. They are NOT our government, and should have no part in it, yet it is they who direct America; they control the land, its resources, its people and their work, their education and entertainment. It is they who choose where its young men and women will go forth to kill, they select what will come to be considered “important,” they decide who will be chosen to run for office, and which “unauthorized” candidates will be hounded, if at all possible, into submission and a sense of rejected shame.
In all three of these cases, there was a substantial portion of those who would be members of the party if only there were some changes. One might say that the large body politic had found a sickness. Medicine was refused, therapy was not received. Finally surgery was conducted and a transplant provided. Then the body rejected the transplant sensing it to be a foreign and alien object.
© John Womack, 2005, All Rights Reserved.