Tomorrow

Here's the choice tomorrow, the same one we faced in 1992. As Bill Clinton phrased it then, "Change Vs. More of the Same." More catastrophic incompetence, more fiscal irresponsibility, more expansion of executive power, more choosing of party ahead of country, more choosing fear versus hope, more divide-and-conquer politics rather than honest attempts to persuade, more intellectual dishonesty over actual debate. The country has been given two main messages this season, both ugly. The Democrats marry each candidate next to Bush and feature prominently what percentage of time the incumbent Republican voted with the president. The Republicans have little to offer but to say that the Democrats are even worse.

Bill Clinton while campaigning in Virginia today for Jim Webb told a little story which I listened to while laughing at the sad truth behind it. He said (paraphrasing- cannot find transcript):

"Imagine I'm on their side for a second. (crowd boos) No no, come on. What is their message this time- well, sorry we never caught Osama bin Laden, sorry Iraq seems to be not going well, I wish we had never appointed that guy from the Horse Commission to be head of FEMA before Katrina hit, I know we've spent all this money and rang up a huge deficit. But if the Democrats get into power, they'll mess up even worse. They are going to tax you back into the poorhouse. But while you're on the way to the poorhouse, you'll see a terrorist at every street corner. And when you turn to run from the terrorist, you'll trip over an illegal immigrant who just got off the boat and doesn't speak the language and is here for your job. If you keep on running, you might crash right into a gay wedding."

The crowd laughed and applauded because they knew this was sad but true. Theirs has been the politics of fear- fear of terrorism, fear of illegal immigrants, fear of higher taxes, fear of homosexuals, fear of (as it is so often) the "other."
Don't believe me? Take a look at this mailer from (via TPM) the New York Republican Party below.



If the Democrats win, some dark-skinned person will rape your nice white daughter. When they take a break from "destroying" our values. Well, many of America's best values are destroyed more by that piece of literature than by an increase in the minimum wage, universal health care, and a change in policy in Iraq. These last few years have not exactly been a watershed for American values. We torture, we lie, deny and stand by when questioned about it. It's our way or the highway, and if the rest of the world or if some Americans do not like it, screw them. They must not be "on the team" or they don't "share our values." There's that word again...values. That image above is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen in American politics. As Andrew wrote today (in a post called "Even Lower") after viewing the image above- "You know what? I just found out nothing about Democratic values. But I learned a hell of a lot more about Republican ones."

Me too. Tomorrow, please vote for change. If you cannot bring yourself to vote for your Democratic nominee, abstain. But please don't reward this record, this Administration, and these tactics.