Letter to a Friend

Dear Harry,

This morning I received a short E-mail from a friend from my days in California who now lives in Canada while holding dual citizenship. It read: “What should I do? Every time I see that bimbo on TV, I want to vomit! If Republicans pull this out I might have to surrender my US passport…. How has the country gone so low?”

That’s a tough question to answer. It does feel like we are living through the Endgame of what Oswald Spengler called the Late City Culture, the last stage of the “Decline of the West.” It is a time when the Circus dominates, a bimbo can be the Lion Tamer, and everything is topsy-turvy. I keep thinking of that line from “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” the pump don’t work/because the vandals took the handle.” I also keep playing Dylan’s “Desolation Row.” It’s where my mind is tending.

Yeah, it takes a lot of faith and plenty of will power to get out of bed these days. The John McCain who was once a respected figure on Capitol Hill is long gone, his honesty and integrity shot to hell by age, ambition, and Karl Rove’s Death Squad. Without his BABE McCain’s campaign would have been long gone too. Palin is keeping him in the game with her act, now with whip in hand, the scourge of Obama and his tainted friends and associates. The two of them have abandoned all pretense of having a program or fresh ideas; they are going for a negative assault the rest of the way in a last ditch all out attempt to catch and crush Obama, who currently leads by several points. It worked before, why not again? And it might, so many of the voters are sleepwalking or too preoccupied with survival to check the truth behind the lies and distortions.

All of the weaknesses of Democracy seem so exposed right now. The masses are so vulnerable to the “Big Lie” and to top-down government, with a strong leader with the “Big Stick.” How can a cranky ex-pilot and a dumbass bimbo even contend with two men of intellect and quality? How can she be the toast of the town in certain quarters? It is a sign of how low the Republicans have sunk. It is said that swing voters don’t like negative campaigning and smear tactics, plus if all the young people who have signed up to vote actually go to the polls to cast a ballot, Obama will win—and decisively. As for shenanigans or voting fraud, I asked my daughter in Florida how do things look there, and she said that a small army of lawyers has been all over the issue for months.

And then of course there is the big question: Will the voters who say they are for Obama actually vote for him? Or will they reconsider in the privacy of the voting booth?

Yours hopefully,

Jerry P