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Cuckoo-Land
by
John Chucman
October
11, 2003
California
has just elected an adolescent fantasy as governor. One imagines fans, used to
paying for Schwarzenegger's image projected on a screen, leaving rallies
feeling blessed at having glimpsed him in the flesh - dyed hair, induced tan,
eyebrow-waxing, capped teeth, and all - much as winners from a church bingo go
home feeling blessed.
The
model for American society is fast becoming a set of gigantic lotteries, the
final reduction of the American Dream. While I dislike most nonsense about
dreams and visions, at least the line about the American Dream did recall an
epic struggle in a brave new world with its waves of vibrant, migrant
population.
For
years now there has been a growing view in America that opportunity consists in
every citizen getting a lottery ticket for some dazzling pay-out. It's an idea
implicit in think-tank pamphlets and in the behavior of many American
corporations. Of course, lotteries only work because almost everyone loses, but
they are fun along the way, taking your mind off unglamorous reality, and
anticipation is hyped-up for each new draw.
The
lottery-society idea now has been extended from the economy to government
itself. The people of California voted to eject as governor a perfectly
competent man overtaken by a wave of adverse economic change. Never mind
allowing him to make changes and adjustments - that is, allowing him to govern.
Never mind orderly government. He's a loser, get rid of him. We want it all,
and we want it now. In his place, bets are placed on a celebrity whose every
utterance is a cut-and-paste slogan from the Internet site of some American
think-tank.
And
it doesn't seem to matter that his past is littered with nasty behavior. The
right-wing is like that: ceaselessly preaching morality, but when one of its
own is caught, as it were, with his pants down, he always somehow still
qualifies to govern.
The
current President had a history of substance abuse and rich-boy drifting, but a
few mumbled references about the Lord made him a Christian warrior-President.
And so Schwarzenegger's life-long lousy behavior towards women and past
Hitler-admiration are swept away. I don't know that he ever mentioned the Lord
during his campaign, but clearly he is needed for the Lord's work.
Despite
the tired slogans of his campaign, Schwarzenegger's opening gambit, as of this
writing, is to demand money from the President for California's financial
plight. Now there's an original idea. I wonder how many drawling, sputtering
Republicans over the last thirty years have excoriated liberals about money and
"the damned fed'rah gov'ment"? Well, this is a sophisticated new
breed of Republicans. They've discovered a magic formula: it's okay to spend
more, lots more, as long as you also cut taxes.
Of
course, Schwarzenegger will have an entrée at the White House the former
Democratic governor could never have had, but it does seem an awkward time to
ask for money. The new Governor may have to stand in a long line of diplomats
from countries seeking early installments of their War on Terror bribes, from
Pakistan, Turkey, and Poland to some thirty or forty others. There are scores
of corporate representatives lined-up, wanting their first bloated payment for
screwing in light bulbs or replacing taps at American headquarters in Iraq. There's
also an impressive contingent looking to donate to the President's upcoming
campaign, providing some understanding over contracts in Iraq can be reached.
Well,
Schwarzenegger probably will get in ahead of some of these people. Bush does
want a warm greeting in California during the re-election campaign. Could it be
that the principled Schwarzenegger is using political leverage for a bribe? No,
this is the business of the nation, as conducted between Republican
governments.
Well,
a no-account, ranting, army-nut drifter in Germany about seventy years ago did
set Germany back on the rails from the Great Depression, just before he
proceeded to blow up the entire rail system.
People
do get the government they deserve, and California has elected a circus,
complete with heady whiffs of elephant manure and an obscene cabaret act. My
God, there's even America's Political Gothic, the ghastly Borgia clan from
Massachusetts, taking bows as toothy, sequined performers, drawn to new sources
of power the way vampires are to fresh blood.
Oh
well, they can always have another recall, can't they?
John Chuckman lives in Canada and is
former chief economist for a large Canadian oil company. He writes frequently
for Yellow Times.org and other publications.
* Hope Against
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* The
First Two Years of Insanity
* The
Perfumed Prince and Other Political Tales
* A
George Will Follies Review
* The
Painful Horrors of Political Autism
* Enron-Style
Management in a Dangerously Complex World
* The Real
Clash of Civilizations: Liberals Versus the Crypto-Nazis
* Banality,
Bombast, and Blood
* Through A
Glass Darkly: An Interpretation of Bush's Character
* Of
Blair, Hussein, and Genocide