The State of the Earth

If the electorate of the USA could speak as one and make a State of the Earth speech at the UN in October, 2008, what would be its focus, what would be its message and what would be its recommended solution? That would depend on what happens to the earth, its peoples and Americans between now and then.

Will the State of the Earth be much the same as it is now, or will there be an event or series of events which alter it, incrementally or dramatically?

Will Bush attack Iran? Clearly he will not pull the troops out of Iraq. What about the Israeli/Palestinian volcano, will it be quieting down or erupting?

One would think that the electorate would react negatively to more aggression, but Bush rode the Fear Talk Express in 2004 to an astonishing re-election victory.

The political focus these days seems to have shifted from Iraq to the likelihood of a recession. This actually might be good for the Democrats. People are not especially forgiving when they are suffering from challenged checkbooks.

I don't see fear talk being particularly effective on this issue, though the GOPhers always try to scare people by painting the Dems as tax and spenders. But in bad times Dems are more likely to work to help people in financial stress than GOPhers, who usually find it more useful to mind their manners by sending bread and butter thank you notes to their gifters on the letter head of IRS stationary, with Form 1040 logo.

The Dems can point to the surplus Bush inherited from Clinton, which he quickly burned through by paying for a war now widely seen as at least unnecessary, if not tragic. At the same time he reduced taxes which benefited the super rich.

Tax and spend? The GOPhers increased the income gap between the rich and the Middle Class, by giving the super rich,, those they most identify with, their cronies and benefactors, tax reductions which many say they don't need.

Loyalty is everything to this corrupt crowd, what I call the elected mafia. The extended family is not only protected, but honored with the Medal of Freedom, and uber alles super lucrative and non-compete arrangements and contracts.

Dems can focus on the transparent cynicism of the privileged at the expense of the disadvantaged. This doesn't play as well when voters are not especially financially worried, but it does resonate in recession times.

There are other issues of course: For starters, the need to interrupt the alternating House of Bush, House of Clinton White House squatters, the secretiveImperial Presidency of Bush/Cheney/Rove, the invasion of privacy via illegal wiretaps, the obscene rift between executive and employee compensation, oil companies throwing their cash weight around, private contractors like Halliburton and Blackwater awarded licenses to steal and operate with impunity with respect to law and bald faced violations of the Geneva Convention, torturing of captives at Guantanamo and so-called Black Site prisons abroad.

Here is where I get on my soapbox to rant and rave. Where is the outrage that Lee Iacocca called for last spring?

As one who has studied and knows something about different approaches to life, individual psychology, I am aware that something like 75% of humans are more comfortable with modulating their emotions, doing better coping with life by not being carried away, as they would call it, by too much of the high or too much of the low. That should not be confused with not being aware or not caring.

It is my sincere, concerned, hopeful, angry and outraged wish that those who approach life that way will, in the privacy of their voting booth, kick King George the Whatever in the nuts, put him on his knees, reduce him to ridicule and send him packing back to being Sheriff of a small town in Texas. Talk about the Peter Principle. Actually, Rove and Cheney are the real criminals. Bush is their Barney puppet.

Then again, all of this might change and become irrelevant, depending on how The Universe Unfolds as it surely Will.


The Old New Englander has a recent post on his valuable blog about what kind of president do we want.

I would add to and build on that question with yet another question; what effect will the State of the Earth in November have on the electorate as they do what they can in the privacy of the voting booth.

Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper