Its hard to write about US Politics or the Middle-East without making some kind of reference to the Really Bad Thing that nobody wants to mention. I'm going to mention it now so I can refer to the RBT occasionally without having to sound like a nutjob.
The Really Bad Thing is some variation on the idea that George Bush doesn't leave office in January 2009. There are as many scenarios for the Thing as there are paranoid left-wing and libertarian bloggers. That's a lot. Nobody who wants to be taken seriously ever discusses the Thing, but you can sense they think about it. I don't believe the Thing is planned, or will happen, or would necessarily succeed if it did happen. But the problem is; means, motive and opportunity have converged. So it can't be entirely ruled out.
So why bring it up at all? Because the GOP hasn't yet internalized the reality that they are going to lose in November. When that sinks in, people will get panicky. This administration is a lose cannon and could become dangerous in a storm.
This is the important part. I am not a conspiracy theorist. Vast conspiracies exist in books, TV shows and movies, not in real life. A burning smell is a lot more common than smoke, and smoke is a lot more common than fire. What I'm describing here is a burning smell, not a fire.
The key points are:
- The Bush administration are a bunch of crooks - if there's any justice, hundreds of them will go to jail, some for life
- The likelihood of a 1932-type Democratic landslide in November, increasing the chance crimes will be prosecuted
- A huge increase in the President's power to deal with domestic emergencies, including the powers to define and declare emergencies*
- A decrease in oversight and the evolution of a hands-off Supreme Court
Even if the Thing were to start, there's no guarantee it would succeed. Many people would be in a position to derail such a project. Besides, the key hallmark of this administration has not been lawlessness or corruption, but incompetence. Ritual, law and tradition gird the familiar process of handing over power. Going quietly into the sunset is the easiest thing. That's probably what will happen.
Now, that's done. No need to discuss it again. Sometimes, I will mention the RBT and link back here, but that's it.
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*Here's a semi-non-paranoid rundown
**In The Once Percent Doctrine, Ron Suskind reported that CIA analysts concluded bin Laden's October 2004 tape was intended to help Bush get re-elected. Why? Bush is the best thing that happened to radical Islam since the last Crusade.
