Hoping

Contrary to the right-wing view, neither I nor any liberals I know or read have wanted the Iraq war to fail, because failure (we still don't know, and may not for decades) would mean even more death and disaster for millions in the area, and for the entire world. As horrible and self-evident a mistake as it was, as predictably disastrous from before the beginning, once having lit the fire one can only hope for an acceptable quenching.

On the other hand, damn right I hoped Bush would fail in his attempts to abrogate the Constitution. Absolutely, I prayed for failure of his agenda of transforming the US into a theocracy. Without question, I railed against his economy-destroying tax cuts, even though they helped my personal bottom line.

There's an obvious distinction to be made, and it's amazing that people on the right can't see it. I refer, of course, to Limblahblah's overt desire to see Obama fail, and the lining up behind it of virtually every Congressional Republican. Those few who took meek exception repented in less time than it takes Oxycontin to dissolve in a generous gut. By the longest of shots, it's not the same.

I assume it needs explaining to a couple of my readers, so here it is: it's one thing to disagree with policies (it's even a better thing, when doing so, to propose useful alternatives.) In a time of general well-being, what's a bitter disagreement or two among friends? But this is different. It's as different from that as carcinomatosis is different from a skinned knee. If the state of the markets, the world-wide economy, the soaring unemployment numbers, the failure of actual countries and the near-failure of several of our states haven't convinced everyone that this is a precipice, then a few words won't, either. But it's all I've got (left).

When Republicans, walking happily in Rush's large shadow and taking advice from Joe the Whateverheisatthemoment and inspiration from a thirteen-year-old, agitate overtly and with churchly glee for the failure of Barack Obama, clearly they are hoping for the failure of this country. I'd love to ask them -- and, in fact, I wonder why none in the so-called liberal press has -- what, exactly, would their holy grailly failure look like? How many more unemployed per month than the six hundred thousand in each of the last few? How many more businesses gone? Life savings lost? Suicides? What would be the effects of Obama's (our) failure across the planet? How many additional people would starve, get sick, die? And, having witnessed this failure with the joy of contemplating end-times (meant quite literally: what's more appealing about the rapture than the idea that you'll be fine and all those people you never liked much will burn in oil for all of eternity? While you get to watch?) what, do they think, are the odds of being able to rebuild. And at what price?

Maybe it really is a faith-based belief that those who suffer deserve it, and their god (Republicans,' not the sufferers') will take care of them, the righteous; screw the poor and hungry? Sort of a reverse Jesus thing?

Or is that they, like Rush Limbonobo, are so fabulously wealthy that it just doesn't matter to them one damn bit?

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