APOCALYPSE
SOON
INCOHERENT EXPRESSIONS
By: Sean Scallon
There seems to be a new apocalyptic mindset settling
into a certain segment the citizentry. I can see it in my neck of the woods. I read Letters to the
Editor from various small town newspapers in northwest Wisconsin, old men writing about
how Obama's re-election will mean not just the end of American, but probably the end of
the World too. Par for the course I guess. Who knew the Mayans had predicted the
Presidency of Barak Obama?
I see it in fellows I know who are small-town journalistic colleagues, men who I had
thought of as not particularly political or ideological who rant and rage in their
editorials about Obama. Incoherent expressions of cursing at a dying light and the warning
of the fires which will soon upon us if Obama wins. I ask myself if I know such men
anymore. Where were they the last eight years, the last 12, the last 16 and 20? Asleep at
the wheel? At the casino? The country changed so much that someone named Barak Hussein Obama could be elected President and
they still in a state of shock. They feel like fools and so they act indignant because
nobody told them what was going on or they were told as was well until it wasn't.
Of course if you read Chronicles magazine during this time you would
know and Obama's election was entirely predictable. But these are people who voted for
Roosevelt, Truman or Kennedy or Johnson and then discovered Rush Limbaugh later in life.
News comes slowly to them. One such fellow journalist I know of, who likes to reprint
sections of Charles Krauthammer columns in his own column as a font of wisdom, I quite remember
saying a week after Obama was elected that regardless of what differences we may have with
the new President his election still proved that only in America could Obama get elected
and it proves we are still the exceptional nation. Don't laugh; I seem to remember they
were saying something similar Election Night on Fox News too.
A month ago there was quite a bit of lauding of one William Jefferson Clinton for
giving a masterful convention speech. Here was arguably one of the most dishonest men ever
to sit in the Oval Office, a dishonorable, cynical man who used the White House as one
used the back seat of '60 Chevy, and yet now, like Reagan, he is the Great Communicator.
Even "conservatives" were saying this. What happen to murderer of Vince Foster?
The drug dealer of Mena? The Draft Dodger? The
murderer of Ron Brown? The Rapist? The Impeached One?”
But as George Carlin once pointed out, liars usually win elections and
become popular Presidents because "we like it when our leaders lie to us." The
truth is just too painful. |
Was this in the end just all rhetoric? The exaggerations of the
apocalyptic made in another era? The typical fundraising pitch of Conservative INC. to
make those who rage believe they are actually doing something by shelling out money they
don't have? If Clinton's sins can be expunged and forgotten two decades after the fact,
then is it an exaggeration to say Obama, as tedious and unremarkable an executive as has
sat in the White House since Gerald Ford (and it's his supposed allies who say this), will
be too long after he leaves the Presidency? Especially given the family life he leads is
far more of a good example than "Bubba's' ever was and certainly better than some
talk show hosts. And if Clinton and Clintonism are now fashionable and nostalgic, then why not vote for Obama's
re-election since a good portion of West Wing and Cabinet are made up of Clinton allies
and flunkies in the name of party unity? That way their screw-ups can continue well into
the second term of Hilary's Administration!
Am I unreasonable to fear some good men may take their
lives on Nov. 7 if Obama is returned to the White House, the way Hunter S. Thompson's
despair got the best of him? Only because they've been encouraged to do so. They rage and
fear because that's what the rest of us are doing. When we cannot provide them stout
arguments or good candidates to beat back those in power and are left with "Obama's
mother was whore!" 'Obama's father was really some black Communist writer!"
"Obama is gay!" what are they to think of the nation and its people who vote to
re-elect him? That it's no country for old men? For some it may well be, that's why they
leave to go to Mexico. Drug war or no drug war, at least there are no Obamas I guess.
"Published originally at EtherZone.com :
republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."
Sean Scallon is a freelance writer and newspaper reporter who
lives in Arkansaw, Wisconsin. His work has appeared in Chronicles: A magazine of American
Culture. His first-ever book: Beating the Powers that Be: Independent Political Movements
and Parties of the Upper Midwest and their Relevance in Third-party Politics of Today is
now out on sale from Publish America. Go to the their website at www.publishamerica.com to
order a copy. He is a regular columnist for Ether Zone.
Sean Scallon can be reached at: pchsports@rivertowns.net
Published in
the October 12, 2012 issue of
Ether Zone.
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