A Day That Will Live in Ignominy

A Day That Will Live in Ignominy
Sin to Win becomes Pray to Stay
The Old Man and the Sea
The Green Flash

The Sound of train not running
Has been keeping me awake…
- Chris Knight w/ Del McCoury: Moneyland


Yesterday, September 29th, 2008 was a day that will live in ignominy.

It was a barrel of bad whiskey for the American soul, a bonfire of the “vanitas”, a rebellion without applause. It was a double-armada of “Big-Bopper” plane crashes hard into the spotted liver of the American Dream. Like all good plane crashes it was caused by a 500 mile an hour mixture of bad weather and deranged addiction.

The addicts are still stumbling through the smoldering ashes like zombies, many are headless or limbless but they all retained a single finger to point. As with all hard-core junkies their words fail to mask their obvious, light of day desperation for another fix. One party in particular, but both to degrees, have burned down main street as they over dosed on that powerful re-election heroin.

It is about the economy, stupid. Mark the (ex) Cowboy’s words, they were wrong and YOU were wrong. We are all in the smoke now. An army of rusted bagpipes are firing up dirges, but this time the flag may well ride down main street inside the pine box.

Nancy Pelosi is getting (justified) blame for bad leadership but let’s be realistic. The Republican Sin-To-Win machine hit is nadir yesterday. They deployed the Vietnam strategy and are stuck now crying that they had to destroy America in order to save it. The complaint that Nancy Pelosi threw gas on a fire cannot escape a greater truth. The fire in question was a dirty nuclear bomb. 65% of the GOP did not hesitate to place their partisan and personal re-election greed so far ahead of our nation’s security that our future stability is not even visible behind them on the horizon.

The Republicans also managed to destroy their core, and I mean really deepest core, ideology. Which is where you complaining GOP voters get to share some blame. Most Americans remain skeptical that the bailout crisis is real. Most voters, conservatives especially, are unable to process the desperate, massive, terrible downside to the Paulson Plan’s failure. The real intel, as they say, is as bad as bad gets, and no average joe can comprehend it in a day or a week.


I heard a GOP guy at the gym say that we should allow the economy to collapse to teach the other party a lesson. That’s everything you need to hear about Republican patriotism in one sentence. This crisis is not about avoiding a few bad years, kids. The BEST CASE scenario is now that we have the hardest decade in any of our lives ahead.

(Consider this: After recent meetings with Paulson the White House confirmed orders that place forward elements of the 4th Infantry Division on alert for “training” under a Northern Command program to control civil unrest inside the united States.)

This is not a celebrity re-enactment of the great depression, with bottled water and fresh sushi to help us stay the course. This is worse than that, this is the civil war; this is Washington drowning in the Delaware River on that fateful Christmas eve. That hard to accept reality is why the Republicans failed so ominously.

They are the party of representative government. All campaign balderdash about Elitists in the DNC aside, Republicans, by historical definition believe that an elite, educated, informed and upper crust layer of society should control the critical power and leadership. They hold that the masses, the temperamental and emotionally charged mob of the citizenry is not qualified to make life-or-death decisions.

In this case, the GOP abandoned that premise like a wounded dog on a rain swept highway. Congressional Republicans bowed, in slavish election year desperation, before an archetypical case study of a shocked, ill-informed, prejudiced, angry and fearful mob. Everyone who voted “no” yesterday was unpatriotic. This regardless of what Nancy Pelosi said to hurt their little feelings; regardless of what your and my main street sentiment is; Regardless of whether they would get re-elected next month.

The sun also sets tough guy.

Yesterday was the end of the Post 9/11 primacy for the Republican Party. Even if they bring the head of Bin laden home as their “October Surprise”, even if they bomb Natanz, Iran. The (ex) Cowboy watched closely yesterday and saw the great burning orb of Republican fire fall down below the horizon. There was a piercing Green Flash and then only an ear-ringing silence remained.


Ignominy:
(n.) Public disgrace or dishonor; reproach; infamy.
(n.) An act deserving disgrace; an infamous act.


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