Is It Denial Or Plausible Deniability?

According to President Bush, we are winning in Iraq and the GOP will win at the polls.  Black is white, up is down and we should be prepared for mainstream media to accept Karl Rove’s secret polls as the gospel while they reject the validity of their own.  This bizarro world is exhausting for those of us that reside in the reality based world, but it must feel more like a carnival ride to the suckers that buy this GOP ticket to ride and prefer to be shaken, not stirred.  I have a hard time believing that the rank and file Republican voters will stay on the ride willingly while they’re tossing their cookies all over themselves, but if they don’t, there’s got to be a way to shut the thing down.  Can’t we just say it’s for scheduled maintenance?  Where’s the fucking off switch?

I’m torn about this election and what to make of it.  I want to believe that the voters have had enough of this corrupt Congress and are as disgusted as I am with the slimy tactics they are employing in a desperate attempt to pull this thing out.  I want to have faith that the system works, but there’s just too much evidence to the contrary and my gut tells me that all this positive talk about the Republicans maintaining control of Congress is nothing more than preparation for their “unbelievable” last minute surges at the polls and plausible deniability that the fix was in.  I’m afraid that the best possible outcome is mass chaos at the polls, with malfunctioning machines, long lines and millions of voters turned away due to scrubbed voter rolls and insufficient identification.  And the worst part is, there will be no way to sort it all out without a paper trail.  

We’ve had an election decided by the Supreme Court, an election decided in a building in Ohio that was locked down by Homeland Security while the last remaining votes were tallied in secret, so I guess an election decided by the old schoolyard slogan, “possession is 9/10ths of the law” seems about par for the coarse!  I want so much to be wrong.  I want the public to exert their will and I want their will to be honored, but in this ruthless political climate and with so much of our system corrupted, I’m just not convinced it will work out that way.  I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it does, but emotionally prepared if it doesn’t.  I was caught off guard last time around and the fallout was ugly.  I have already mourned the loss of what I thought America was, now my only concern is salvaging what’s left and attempting to rebuild out of the rubble.

One thing I know for sure is that now is the time to engage.  I want these thugs to have to expose themselves, to rip off the mask that is hiding the ugly truth.  I want this election to be so one sided that it will strain even the most dogged Bush supporter’s conscience to defend their miraculous win.  On the surface, this election is about winning, but it’s also about cracking the veneer.  If the Democrats take over, it means digging beneath the surface and ferreting out the rot.  And if the GOP holds on, it means we the people will have to do it for them.  Either way, this election is just the beginning.  Vote, and then be prepared to back it up with action.  We’ve got a long, long, long road ahead.