November 27, 2004

Fictitious state visit

The fictitious President of the United States is about to visit Canada. And I am not talking about Martin Sheen. Sure, it is possible that this time Dubya did win the popular vote, despite the very serious signs of voting fraud, and he may even legitimately win the electoral college vote. But, like Michael Moore and many others, I often have the feeling that Dubya is the fictitious President of the US, and one of these days the real President will stand up. . . . Surely this can't be the best that America can offer!

His doubly-fictitious (not yet confirmed by Congress) Secretary of State will be in tow, the one who ended up on Bush's team because of the fact that she couldn't find a real (non-fictitious) job. She had been granted the fictitious job of Provost at Stanford, as her doctorate was, you guessed it, fictitious; it had been given to her despite the execrable quality of her academic work.

Now the two of them play at being powerful politicians of the most powerful country on earth. Except that real people, in their tens of thousands, are getting killed. And hundreds of thousands of others are getting maimed for life.

Like Moore, I often have the feeling the last four years have been a dream--have been fictitious. Recently, while watching a documentary on younger Dubya, I realized who that dream/nightmare's protagonist reminds me of. Dubya is James Dean, he of "Rebel Without a Cause" fame, sort of gone to college by the grace of having a very rich father, and become President of the United States, again for the same reason.


2 comments:

Kristy said...

*Sigh.*

It's all so true...and so very sad. The only silver lining I can think of is that the GOP won't be able to pin the failures of the W's first term on Kerry b/c W will have to live them down... And that doesn't cheer me up much.

Al S. E. said...

Thanks for your comments "Lefty." I'll tell you something that may cheer you up. In the space of the next four years, if Dubya and the gang haven't blown up the world, we may have figured out the answer, or at least a part of it--despite them and also because of them. And, to paraphrase a well-known US liberal, what will sustain us is that we are right, and they are wrong! You have some interesting thoughts on your blog. Keep it up, and cheers!