The new Civil War

Before you get started, read this, for laughs and to contextualize this post.

Have you contextualized? Good. Now, the author of the above screed gets some of his facts wrong, but I understand and sympathize with his sentiment. Blue staters are supposedly less moral, less down-home, less realistic, less useful, and more full of smarty-pants elitism than red staters. The fact that some of those red-staters voted for Kerry, and some blue staters for Bush, doesn't even register with the hysterical right-wing media.

I cannot stand this red state-blue state divide that's being sold by conservatives in an attempt to woo low-income voters with cultural warfare instead of solid economic policies. Let me give you an idea of just how fundamentally cracked the far right-wing view of reality is. I heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio pre-election, and he was saying that the Democrats actually wanted Kerry to lose. Why? So they could impeach George Bush and put Hilary Clinton in his place. Let's review exactly what's wrong with that assertion:

1) Nobody in Congress really wants to impeach Bush.
2) The Republicans control Congress, so even if every single Democrat actually wanted to impeach the Republicans could squash it.
3) If all of reality shifted and Congress actually did impeach Bush, Dick Cheney would assume the White House, not the junior senator from New York, aka Hilary Clinton.

You see, it's part of the conservative agenda to wail that liberals exercise a jackbooted control over America, even though Republicans control all three branches of the federal government. This gives conservatives a handy scapegoat for their failure to achieve anything of substance, such as getting health care coverage to the poor or enabling Americans to find living-wage jobs. The real pity of the situation is that Americans fall for it year after year.

Winston Churchill said that, in a democracy, people generally get the government they deserve. Well, you asked for it, America. Here it comes.