James Kunstler -- Clusterfuck Nation
The Iowa caucus set into motion a curious self-reinforcing feedback
loop of inspiration -- that an African-American political leader could
win an important primary contest in a Wonder Bread state, and that all
Americans (especially white Americans) could "feel good" about living
in a country where such a thing is possible. This is an understandable
sentiment. Whatever else Americans have been conditioned to be lately
-- blubbery, debt-crushed, tattoo-etched, Jesus-haunted,
multiply-addicted TV zombies -- a residual kernel of fairness seems to
persist underneath all that cellulite and avarice. Catching a glimpse
of our formerly better collective selves, we seem moved to discover
that it's still there, although the element of self-congratulation gets
tiresome quickly.
In any case, it was satisfying to see Barack Obama whip Hillary
Clinton's entitled, presumptuous ass in Iowa last week, and by a very
healthy margin. All other things aside -- like, what he actually thinks
about the state of the nation -- Obama is a more reassuring figure than
the Lady Macbeth-like former first lady, with her retinue of policy
earls and thanes, and the creepy figure of her Mac-husband ever-grinning
upstage.
I could get behind Obama, if it comes to it, but these days
another feeling dogs me -- that we live in a nation where a lot more
people than just Hillary Clinton need to get their asses whipped (and
then some), and I like John Edwards a bit better in the role. On the
night of the Iowa caucuses, John Edwards made an appeal to the audience
that just seemed more reality-based to me than Obama's platitudes about
bringing people together.
Edwards seems to recognize that there are some people -- like the
health care executive he cited who retired from his job with over $100
million in the policy-holders loot -- who don't deserve to come
together with anything except a grand jury. Edwards is willing to gaze
past the kindergarten emotions of primary politics and see the
stupendous ugliness and unfairness of a land that is being sucked dry
by corporate vampires. I believe he will righteously kick their asses,
and that they need to get their asses kicked, so I'm more inclined to
support Edwards. I believe he means it, too.
I was impressed that night by the TV commercial that followed
Obama's speech. The commercial promoted a hydrogen car that General
Motors is pretending to develop. It was very slick, of course, since GM
can get the best TV production talent money can buy. It featured a
light-skinned African-American man (not unlike Obama) playing a sort of
Mr. Science Teacher role among a flower-strewn meadow full of
schoolchildren with a modest GM sedan at the center of the picture. Mr.
Science Teacher was telling the kids how this new GM wonder car would
run without any nasty gasoline, and out of its tailpipe would come
nothing but pure clean water, and wasn't the
future-according-to-General-Motors a fabulous thing! It was all very
heartwarming, except it was complete mendacious bullshit. GM will never
produce a commercial line of hydrogen-powered cars, and America will
never set up a supporting infrastructure of hydrogen production and
retail fueling stations. And GM knows all this.
General Motors deserves to have its ass kicked for misleading the
public so shamelessly. I think Edwards is the only candidate who would
kick their ass. I'm not quite sure how he would do it, or what he would
say, but here's how I suggest he should frame the issue. "General
Motors, can you take some of the money and human capital that you
devote to misleading the public about hydrogen cars, and see if you can
apply it instead to producing some decent up-to-date rolling stock for
the US railroad system, which we have got to get up-and-running again
-- or I WILL KICK YOUR ASS." Something like that.
I can see Edwards dealing effectively with Wall Street, too. As
president he would probably find that there are some agencies all
saddled up and ready to ride, like the Securities and Exchange
Commission, and certain offices within the U.S. Department of Justice,
which could be motivated to ask some of the questions that various
boards of directors have overlooked for some years now -- such as: How come Mr. Disgraced Executive is backing up his Lincoln Navigator to
the loading dock of Acme Banking and Trust, and piling in sacks of the
shareholders' money (after presiding over $10 billion worth of losses
in acting as counter-party to an illegal trade in his company's own
engineered fraudulent securities?
So, these are some of my own dark thoughts coming out of Iowa and
heading right smack into the New Hampshire primary. I'm reasonably
confident that Hillary will stagger out of the Granite State with a
stake through her heart. I hope Edwards can stay on his feet long
enough to make make a run going into the SuperDuper gauntlet of
primaries that follows. He may even condition Obama to toughen up some
and realize that bringing people together (to be chumps and saps for
the ghouls who sell them Cheesburgers) is not the sovereign remedy for
what ails Clusterfuck Nation.
I don't much care for the moment what happens among the
Republicans. Their party is doomed. They're the Whigs of the 21st
Century, and their grandees will be remembered in the same way that we
revere William Henry Harrison and Millard Fillmore (whose birthday is
tomorrow, by the way -- NY State employees take note!). It's been fun
following the adventures of Huckabee, but only in the way that it was
fun following Elmer Fudd as a six-year-old.
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