Carroll Todd For President

Saturday, Sept. 4, 2004 -
Ap�sl�min ida corbalanyrtne 'ls�o rohl'daathi�m v� nen�a iroyss�rd.

Floodtide (You remember him, dontcha? The nude guy.) has met President Bush. He sez Bush the Minor is articulate, even witty. I've long suspected the simple tongue-tied Christian cowboy is just an act Bush uses to endear himself to simple Christian Americans, who vote with some kind schmaltzified illogic they believe is heartfelt. I know it's anatomically impossible for this dubious intuition to come from the heart, but I almost believe it does, since it's an obvious waste of brain cells.

What a con man is our Prez, and he's so blatant about it. Sometimes I feel like I'm caught in another ill-advised re-make of The Music Man, and Bush has been cast as a maladroit Harold Hill. His supporters like him much, much better than Robert Preston because he doesn't talk rings around them and he won't be playing an old pouf at the end of his career. The American people are cast as Shirley Jones and the River City Iowans who must love Bush and forgive him because he tells 'em what they wanna hear and he makes 'em feel good about themselves. Besides, there's nothing to forgive. After all, in the end, there is a band with shiny instruments and shiny uniforms. Never mind that the instruments and uniforms cost only five cents for every dollar Bush scammed. Never mind who pocketed the other ninety-five cents. Never mind that the band can't play in tune. Never mind that after the big happy Hollywood finale, the lights come up and you gotta go home and live in a world that's a lot bigger and scarier than a fake corn-fed town in the mythical heart of America.

What the people who will be voting for Bush don't understand is what makes the real world bigger and scarier also makes it a helluva lot more interesting and exciting and intricate and subtle and challenging. And so terrifyingly beautiful. A world that is an altogether more worthy place in which to spend a human life than any illusion Bush can offer.

But it's not a world for the faint of heart, and it's not for sale, so that puts it out of the reach of most Republicans.

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Ap�sl�min ida corbalan� 'lse nesgla ugar�-cham sa cru ogrulho bat�oltha al�mv�sde.

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