(Up Here) American Power Shift 1 of 4

I have a good relationship with the United States of America.  I have travelled there.  I have some friends there.  Most important, I have a television that shows me America most all of the time.  I am Canadian and I live up here.  I am fairly close but not too close.  I believe these credentials leave me qualified to write about America.

I am reading that some of you people are on the edge of your seats, anxious for the Republican bad-asses to let fly that Obama has a lobotomy lab in the basement and three blood-stained screwdrivers in his briefcase.  I don’t see it.  That would be the old Republican behaviour and it’s already too late for the smearing hounds anyway.  Obama has already stolen a simple majority of the American electoral mob’s hearts and the mob will not tolerate negative vibes.  When a man loves a woman/She can do no wrong.  The mob will shoot the messenger with its vote.  Republican operatives know this and they’ve slipped into the shadows.  Ergo, the McCain v Obama bout will not feature the kinds of evil that some people anticipate.

Power ebbs and power flows and true power knows when to wait.

Robert Mugabe et al do not meet the test of true power.  The Republican party is no Mugabe.  Republican power knows something about waiting, and about the benefits of good timing.  Hell, even Diebold knows something about good timing.  The Democratic Party had not demonstrated the same wisdom for a good long time but that may be changed.  For example, Obama was on the talk show circuit for months and years repeating again and again that would not run.  Then, in January 2007 he said he would.  Was this a simple response to demand?  A demand amplified by the threat of scarcity and a response timed to perfection?  Looks wise from up here, or wily, at least.

But the wilier stunt undertaken by these not-your-father’s Democrats has been the crafty co-opting of the Grand Old Party’s message.  The Republicans slash moral (sic) majority (sic) have long been pitching up their traditional self-determination within the guidelines of a vengeful god’s wrath.  The fresh-faced Democrats have a better idea.  They’ve lifted self-determination – a real crowd-pleaser at any gathering – out of sin and guilt and tossed it onto the bed beside the philosopher king.  Climb on up here, take your share of the blame for the shitty state of affairs, and lets all talk about recovery.  Ah, recovery.

I have this urge to compare the pace and promise of Obama’s acceptance speech to an up-tempo New Orleans funeral procession with frequent breaks for applause.  But that’s not it.  New Orleans is a final destination and Obama’s acceptance speech take-aways weren’t about actually going any place at all.  They were about backing up into national self respect.  Let’s just get back to when we didn’t feel so damned bad about everything, can’t we?

And so score another point for those wily Democrats.  They’ve also co-opted that family values thing, which was never much more than a kind of Pat Robertson-issued bull to get thee back to another time when men were men and children didn’t bring guns to school and whatnot.

The Republicans left the car unlocked with the keys in the ignition.  The Democrats painted the car and rolled it around front like it was their very own find. Same car, though. It’s stuck in reverse but can you see just fine in the rear view mirror which is good because the stars and stripes across the windshield make it hard to see the way ahead.

Yes, the blame-sharing, shoulder-checking Democrats are holding sway and the righteous Republican pulpit pounding is in check.  Republican power ebbs while the Democratic power flows.  Of course, I thought the same was true last time around and I would have been right until Diebold engineered (sic) that audacious fake-out for GB Junior.  This time I’m totally right.

Later
–B–

My fellow Canadians, know this: Obama will become the next President of the United States of America in November.  Between now and then, do not be fooled by anything your read in any daily newspaper or see on any nightly newscast.  The reporters and editors and producers and advertisers need you to think there is a contest; an actual ‘race’.  There is no actual race but if you stop reading the paper and watching the news, everything falls apart.