Fear

[c9]

Nothing I've read today, including:

• White House claims NIE doesn't say something it clearly does;
  
• Newsweek runs slightly different cover for US edition; or
  
• A Defining Moment for America: The president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture

has scared me as much as this.

According to two conservative websites, White House political strategist Karl Rove has been promising GOP insiders that there will be an "October surprise" before the midterm elections.

"In the past week, Karl Rove has been promising Republican insiders an 'October surprise' to help win the November congressional elections," reports Ronald Kessler for Newsmax.

It shouldn't scare me. But it does. It's things like this that just make me sad, and make me want to move back to Fredericton or PEI, where I can hide.

I read a scary comment in one of those progressive blog comment boards (a.k.a. echo chambers):

"Liberal democracy isn't a fluke occurrence that just so happens to have survived despite its drawbacks."

I'm not so sure about this.

While I'd agree to its virtues, I don't believe liberal democracy guarantees its own survival. Indeed, I fear that my grandchildren may not experience it.

What if democracy is really just a passing fad? We're taught that it's the way it is, but it really doesn't have that much history on its side yet. I am having dark thoughts tonight.

Comments

[lifein2x3.livejournal.com]

I hope (fervently) that's just Rove whistling in the dark.

I'm also hoping that, with all of the bad press lately (especially for George Allen here in Virginia), that the Republicans are running scared this year with good reason.

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

So maybe Democracy is a passing fad, there could be something better. There was something better than despotism and monarchy and plutorcracy (well, modern democracies are plutocracies, I suppose)... so it's perfectly possible that there might be something better than democracy.

Of course, out here on the east coast, hiding, I won't notice.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Martians could land and they wouldn't get to Fredericton for months! :)

[thespos]

Fear not, my cousin.

As long as there are people like you and me, our form of government will persist.

The bottom line, as far as history will be concerned, is that the US has been taken over through lies and deceit, and the people of the world will not forget this chapter. In particular, my hope is that when the pendulum swings in the other direction (as it often does), protections will be put in place to prevent this from ever happening again.

At least, I have to have hope about these things.

[friendofjack.livejournal.com]

I think Rove's "October Surprise" is bullshit. His plans so far this election season have fallen flat. The "October Surprise" is the $60 million that the GOP is planning to spend on negative campaign ads.

I think the United States has "jumped the shark" as a democracy. We're in a period of slow decay. In twenty years, the governments of the United States and the Peoples Republic of China will look more alike than different. I think liberal democracy may survive in some corners of the globe, but the United States is in the early phases of sunset mode.