Article...RADICALIZING THE GOP...
THE AL GORE COUP
etherzone.com
By: Justin Raimondo
We may be losing our old Republic as the courts and the lawyers hand the election to Al Gore, but – in the spirit of the holidays – let's look on the bright side: Republicans are getting radicalized. The whole nation saw, yesterday, a sight that I never thought I would live to see – Republicans, many of them in suits and ties, conducting a sit-in at the site of the Dade County election canvassing board. Oh, how Abbie Hoffman must be rolling over in his grave. Is that the spirit of Chicago in '68 hovering over us, the ghost of a national crisis past whose laughter rings eerily ironic?
TOO MUCH, TOO SOON
It all started when the Dade County canvassers decided to take the ballot-counting out of public view, bar most of the media, and retire to a small side-room of the county administration building to count only the disputed ballots, rather than – as previously voted – recounting all of Dade County's returns in full public view. The Dade County canvassers had arbitrarily barred the public and the media from most of its deliberations, and this latest ploy was the last straw for Republicans. As the Los Angeles Times put it:
"The stunning flip-flop that changed the momentum of the presidential race Wednesday came after a horde of shouting, shoving protesters – many wearing suits and ties – stormed an upper floor of a downtown skyscraper here. An elections department receptionist fled her desk in panic as angry Republicans pounded on the door. Nearby, a cordon of police guarded the county Democratic Party chairman. With mayhem breaking out all around, the besieged elections chief, David Leahy, switched off the vote counting machines."
NOSTALGIA
Dade County Democrats, never all that eager to go into the vote-manufacturing business at the behest of the Gore campaign, backed off and decided to stick to their original ruling: since they couldn't meet the Sunday deadline for a complete recount, they weren't going to conduct a recount at all. The scene in Dade County brings to mind – and this is a generational thing – that old New Left slogan so popular in Chicago during the riots that marked the 1968 Democratic Party convention: as cops beat the antiwar demonstrators to a bloody pulp the protesters would chant "The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!" – their gleeful accusatory tone confident in the knowledge that the whole world was indeed watching, and what they saw wasn't very pretty.
A GHOST RETURNS
Today, William Daley – the son of the mayor who unleashed those Chicago cops on unarmed demonstrators and more than a few reporters – runs the Gore coup operation. His blunt, thuggish features, like those of his father, perfectly embody the ruthless machine politician for whom the law is an instrument of corruption. As he deploys armies of lawyers and political hacks to steal what he could not win at the polls, Daley II reminds us of that old saw of Karl Marx's that history does indeed repeat itself – the first time as tragedy and the second as farce. This is one farce, however, that seems never-ending.
MUSIC TO MY EARS
This Thanksgiving – and I write this when most of you are just about to tear into that turkey and scarf up as much gravy-laden stuffing as you dare – we have at least one thing to be grateful for: the Republicans, it seems, have finally begun to understand the enormity of what is happening, and have gone on the offensive. Since my last missive jeering the GOP leadership for their pansy-like passivity, they have appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, the Florida state legislature, and launched lawsuits in 13 Florida counties demanding that overseas military ballots be counted. What's more, they have done everything but run TV ads denouncing the Gore coup no uncertain terms. While Bush has largely retained his "above the fray" presidential airs, the rest of the GOP leadership has come out swinging. It may be too late, but nevertheless the rising cries of "coup," "putsch," and even accusations of the Gore camp's treason is music to my ears.
EXTREMISM – NO VICE?
It is no longer considered impolite or even "extremist" to come right out and say the 's'-word: congressional Republicans are not hesitating to say that Al Gore is brazenly stealing this election, and conservative leaders are even angrier. When Bill Bennett said it on CNN's Capital Gang, Mark Shields, Al Hunt, and Margaret Carlson erupted in fury, as Bob Novak smiled and looked on approvingly. David Tell's analysis of "The Gore Coup" in the Weekly Standard fumes that, even if Bush manages to triumph in the end, look "how close we will have come to having the central processes of our democracy upended by the fanatic ambition of a single demagogue." This is truly an amazing turn of events: the neoconservatives, who once derided the "theocons" and the Buchanan Brigades for their revolutionary populism and fiery rhetoric, have finally seen the light! What's next? – will Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter now organize the Upper West Side Militia?
TRIVIALIZING THE COUP
Gore's plea that "both sides tone down the rhetoric," besides being part and parcel of his "presidential" pretensions, is a shrewd tactical move, because not naming what is going on is key to a Gore victory. Such a prohibition can work only to the Democrats' advantage, which is why Gore's fellow coup-plotters in the media are now taking up the question of conservative-Republican "anger" and its apparent dangers. A Los Angeles Times piece by Steven Braun is entitled "Conservatives Dust Off Impeachment Outrage," and subtitled: "Incendiary comments have even some on the right fearful of the effect it will have on votes." Who are these "some"? In support of the headlined thesis, Braun cites an obscure figure whom practically no one has ever heard of, one Marshall Wittmann of the Hudson Institute, who somehow manages to trivialize the overthrow of the American republic: "This is impeachment, the sequel." Wittmann avers that "There is a shared sense that the rule of law is being undermined." Well, uh, yes, in the sense that perjury and an attempted beer hall putsch both violate the rule of law: but then, a pickpocket and a murderer are both considered criminals. The Times piece goes on to cite Wittmann as saying that "he understands the visceral need for conservative thinkers to give air to 'their real feelings. There are good reasons for doing so. But the rhetoric on both sides also contributes to a deepening cynicism about Washington,' Wittmann added. 'You wonder a little where the adult leadership is.'"
A THANKSGIVING PRAYER
If it is "adult" to pretend that this is a tea party, and not a life-and-death struggle for the survival of the Republic, then conservatives and all who would resist the Gore coup should treasure and glory in the spirit of youthful rebellion that yet lives in the breast of those well-dressed Republican demonstrators in Dade County. Without them, Gore would have certainly stolen this election – although he may succeed in stealing it yet. The sort of conservative likely to be consulted by the Los Angeles Times may be horrified by the populist and frankly revolutionary air of Republican rhetoric, but the rest of us are encouraged – and perhaps moved to think and feel that all is not lost, at least not yet. The New York Times trotted out old Nixon hack Leonard Garment to denounce "both sides" for "playing with the rules" and employing populist "will of the people" rhetoric – but none of this is very convincing. You don't denounce someone who is chasing a thief down the street yelling "stop, thief!" for being "divisive." Or do you? In the world Al Gore and his minions are readying for us, no doubt this is the case. But we aren't there yet – and we can thank God, this Thanksgiving, for that. |
