The Sacrificial King...(Not Quite) a Fable...

[baby_mouse]

Imagine it! Imagine the massive catharsis! How GOOD it will FEEL! George will carry the sins of the Republicans with him off the stage FOREVER and there will be LOVE and FORGIVENESS.

Ah, how wonderful it will be! Republicans and Democrats will unite in harmonious hatred and remorse! "We WANTED to whisper with you behind the columns about how awful he was but we COULDN'T!" the pukes will say, dashing away manly tears and wringing their hands, "We had to stay loyal! Let's impeach him! Let's impeach him TOGETHER! Do you remember those wonderful arguments we used to have about Nader? WE'RE SO SORRY! SOB!" "We FORGIVE YOU," the Democrats will say, "For we are the MAGNANIMOUS PARTY and that is what we DO." And there will be wonderful hugs and niceness and everyone will have tea. It will be so LOVELY.

And everything will return to normal.

The silly, lovable old gays with their strange costumes and their high pitched feminine voices will go *on* being a political football! And the grrrrrr, manly don't-mess-with-my-rights crusty-but-benign blacks will go *on* being a political football! And the poor, poor cartoon character immigrants will go *on* being a political football! And women won't even fucking FEATURE! And the taxes will go on being cut, YAY, because we're FRIENDS with the republicans REALLY, and we mustn't be PARTISAN. "After all, the Republicans had to vote out thir own leader. What more could we ask of them? Oh, that Iraq thing, well, what's a war between friends, eh? We're all Americans TOGETHER. (Except when the Democrats are being partisan. But that's just the Democrats. They're a bit nutty. But lovable in a strange democratic way. How much fun we all have together in our lovely bipartisan arguments! Let's have tea!)". And the scary old healthcare insurance support will magically disappear as part of a BARGAIN to get the pukes to convict chimpo. And the Patriot Act will... well, you can see where this goes...

And the nasty people who TRICKED all those nice, ordinary Americans into hating liberals, the ones who actually *caused* all the trouble, the ones who got the silly sockpuppet elected in the first place, those nameless ones whose fates we never get to affect, will simply slip away, twirling their moustaches....

Until next time.

Just like in Batman.

And the Nixon era.





Unless, of course...

You go after THEM...




It would be nice to think that the Republicans have learned their lesson, wouldn't it? It would be lovely to think that Rush really MEANS it when he says he's tired of carrying water for them.

But that's all nonsense. What he really means is that he's changing position because otherwise he's out of a job.

Americans have a strange attitude towards their leaders. None of them seem to survive with their reputations intact. (With the one VERY notable exception of Bill...)

Republicans are switching to SACRIFICE mode. There will be a great ritual cleansing of the country with impeachment, PARTICULARLY of the REPUBLICAN PARTY, or so they will say (and some of them will believe it. These people are genuinely capable of believing whatever is necessary to gain power). But it won't really be a cleansing at all. It will simply be a big ritual PICTURE of a cleansing. "Corruption? What corruption? We IMPEACHED Dubya!"

Nothing will change in the Republican party if they get to point at George and say "It was all his fault!" God knows they are entirely bemused by the concept of collective responsibility, but the awful thing is, so are most of their supporters and considerable wedge of moderate voters, too.

If George becomes the focus, if the public consciousness is pointed towards WHAT GEORGE BUSH *REPRESENTS* ABOUT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY instead of towards WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS DONE, impeachment will rid the country ONLY of an IMAGE, and only the LATEST VERSION of that image at that.

Impeach, my dears, should you wish it. Toy with the bone the electorate has thrown you (if they HAVE thrown it to you...) I have to say I don't really think it's the best way, *I* think it's better to let him swing in the wind, babbling incoherently until the electorate have had a good long look at what they bought. But it's your choice, not mine.

Just DON'T let the Republicans convince you it's a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card....