Quote of the day, hands down

Michael Berube says of progressives who won’t vote for John Kerry:

Maybe you’re fond of speaking of the “corporate duopoly” of American politics– and I admit that the phrase does roll nicely off the tongue. Or maybe you like to imagine that there’s a groundswell of hundreds of millions of people around the globe who believe that Kerry and Bush are just two different brands of detergent, even though actual polls show wide margins of support for Kerry in other nations. Or maybe you just think it’s smart, cool, and alternative to dismiss both guys as “millionaires” or “Skull and Bones men,” because you know better than to buy into “the system.”

But your political stance really means one of two things. Either:

(a) you are unaware of the extent to which the Bush crowd consists of kleptomaniac Contra-funding retreads, neo-segregationists associated with Confederate outlets like Southern Partisan magazine and the Council of Conservative Citizens, and Christian fundamentalist jihadists who believe themselves to be the instruments of God; or

(b) you are sublimely indifferent to the fact that the Bush crowd consists of kleptomaniac Contra-funding retreads, neo-segregationists associated with Confederate outlets like Southern Partisan magazine and the Council of Conservative Citizens, and Christian fundamentalist jihadists who believe themselves to be the instruments of God.

To the progressive young lady who sits next to me at work and refuses to vote for Kerry — are you listening?? Damn it, wake up. They are not the same.

The link is from the Poor Man, who goes on to make his own interesting observations.

The Discussion: 4 Comments

It would be nice if all young ladies would wake the hell up and vote Bush out. The Right believes that abortion should be banned in all cases that don’t involve saving the life of the woman. And now it’s becoming accepted amongst them that oral contraceptives are abortifacients and should be banned as well. I could see it happening if Bush is re-elected — conservative groups are already lobbying to outlaw The Pill based on “protecting women’s health”. But are young women ready to accept this huge change in their role that being forced to use unreliable contraception will bring?

October 20, 2004 @ 9:55 am | Comment

To put it another way:

The chance of a major progressive legislative initiative (e.g. single-payer health care, a Federal living-wage bill, whatever) becoming law during a Kerry presidency is approximately 1%.

The chance of same during a second Bush presidency is precisely 0%.

1% is more than 0%. Infinitely more, in fact.

And another point: If Kerry wins, we don’t entirely know what we’ll get.

But if Li’l George “wins,” we all know PRECISELY what we’ll get: four more years of Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Rice, Perle, Wolfie & Co. And massive deficits. And at least three ultra-conservative theocrats on the Supreme Court. And more unprovoked wars. And possibly even the death of secular democracy itself.

Under those circumstances, only a complete moron would fail to choose “the devil we don’t know” instead of the devil we most definitely do.

October 20, 2004 @ 10:22 am | Comment

Devi, of course young women are not ready to accept such a change. The tragedy is, they just aren’t thinking about it. If they’d open their eyes and see what shrub really stands for, they’d be fleeing in horror.

Vaara, I couldn’t have said it better myself — and that’s the highest compliment I can ever give.

October 20, 2004 @ 11:38 am | Comment

Devi, of course young women are not ready to accept such a change.

Unfortunately, conservatives are telling young women that if such a change does occur, men will suddenly all be responsible and stick around and take care of them if they get pregnant. And let me tell you, young women are lapping that fantasy up.

October 20, 2004 @ 7:29 pm | Comment

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