After years of a North American society subject to the whims of hard right wing fantasies, and as the Bush era in the U.S. is drawing to an end, this song is my attempt at closure and my own last judgment on what has happened. Although not about any one Neocon in particular, the narrator of the song is a compilation of people like Cheney, Armitage, Feith and Wolfowitz.
I think that more than anything else, this is a song about the denial of reality.
What’s Done is Done ( New Reality)
You can’t believe your lying eyes
You can’t read the writing in the sky
Clouds have gathered all around
As daylight fades
The wind is slowly rising in the east
You have become the beast we feed
By the guiding flame
With careful aim
We shot an arrow straight into the sun
If we go all in
We can twist and spin
There’s no time for regret
What’s done is done
So much more than meets the eye
In the fog of war, the con is where the truth lies
We know all you need to know
We call the shots as we give and go
We fix the game, we run the show
This is a new reality
By a blood red line
And a sacred sign
We fired a bullet straight into the sun
If we lose the race
We can still win the chase
There’s no room for regret
What’s done is done
There are no words my angel
For these things you cannot see
No tears to cry my lover
For what will never be
I see no pain or consequence
Or any reason to return
I’ll take the weight of what I’ve done
And all the glory I have earned
(The lessons we have learned)
(The bridges we have burned)
And all the glory I have earned
All my fine words have disappeared
Stop staring at me – nothing happened here
I can will this all away
If I threaten, if I pray
For another chance, a brand new day
I will write the end of history
By the guiding wire
Through the endless fire
We launched a rocket straight into the sun
If we lose the game
There’s no one to blame
There’s no reason to regret
What’s done is done
Politics is politics and how it all plays out is just the way the game goes. If there is to be no crying in baseball then for sure there can be no crying in politics. Still, one gets the sense that even as it all unfolds within the rules and structures, there are always those looking to subvert the process for a shot at their own wild eyed main chance.
Enter Gerrard Kennedy and Justin Trudeau.
I am pretty certain that the rules of the Liberal Leadership Race that resulted in the selection of Stephane Dion ( I was yelling “NO, NO, NOOOO at the time) were appropriately followed by all concerned, but as I watched Kennedy and Trudeau huddled together all shiny eyed, full of youthful adrenaline and excitement – perhaps even drunk with the power that fell into their hands – I remember the powerful feeling that I was watching a small slice of the disruption of a democratic process.
Not the end of the world or a threat to Democracy or anything like that, but all the same I felt saddened as I witnessed what appeared to be the first fault lines developing in what had been – seemingly up to the final few minutes – a shinning example of the democracy of the delegates in action.
Again, I am sure it all took place within the rules of engagement and I am not accusing Kennedy and Trudeau of a specific wrong-doing, but all the same, my sense was they reached in where no other hands were present and fiddled the results to their own (perceived) benefit.
In the Oct. 20 edition of The Globe and Mail, in an article entitled “List of Would-Be Leaders Rises from Liberal Ashes” writer Campbell Clark includes this brief reference to Kennedy’s chances as leader:
The fourth-place contestant from the last race, former Ontario cabinet minister Gerard Kennedy, 48, has not yet decided if he will run, those close to him said. Some believe Mr. Kennedy’s role as convention king-maker for Mr. Dion might hurt him now after a bruising election loss, however.
Bold added
Good.
In my view, neither of these two men carry the wisdom, gravitas or experience to so affect the outcome of a democratic election.
As it stands right now, Gerrard Kennedy and Justin Trudeau are not the kind of politician I would want leading the Liberal Party or this wonderful country.
Thanks for nothing. A three hundred million dollar vanity election – yes, you read that right – a three hundred million dollar vanity election involving the most inept and self centered political leaders that Canada has ever known has lead us to this most stupid, stupid place.
My friends know that I finally – after a lifetime of support -began to question who actually runs the Liberal Party of Canada and who exactly benefits from the decisions they make.
So by the time of the Liberal Party Leadership convention, I was already half-way out the door.
I believed, and wrote at the time, that the bizarre selection of the likable but bumbling and charismatically deficient Stephane Dion would pretty much guarantee many years of a Harper government.
I also said that Elisabeth May’s equally bizarre decision to run in a riding that she was all but certain to lose was not the bold, decisive act of a new Canadian political visionary, but rather a myopic short term news cycle wonder that would more than likely lead to May’s destructive self banishment from any national relevancy, political or environmental.
Gilles DuCeppe? Whatever.
The only leader that appeared to carry any gravitas was Jack Layton who seems to have gained some respect.
Stephen Harper should apologize to the citizens of Canada for this expensive, futile exercise in making little Steve feel better about his desire to turn Canada in a hard right direction.
What a buffoon.
Our so called leaders are fools and the only silver lining is that they have always been fools and in the end, that fact has never made much of a difference.
If, as legend holds, John McCain truly is an honorable man – and I am doubtful of that premise – then he has long ago missed his one slender opportunity of beating Barack Obama to the White House.
Had the honorable man, the old war hero, (or the image of same) stood on his principles in the face of a political onslaught and refused to make the compromises – first within his own party and then within his campaign – that have lead him to the precipice of disgrace, then he may well have had a least a decent shot at victory in the final weeks.
Instead we’ve had months of erratic pivot politics by “The Whirling Dervish Candidate” and the bizarre spectacle of a McCain campaign being run by a bunch of narrow minded egotistical buffoons with an under- developed sense of political morality, a tin ear to the electorate and the certainty – even in the face of all opposing evidence – that they are indeed, always the smartest ones in the room.
Even as fellow panelists openly laugh at at Ari Fleischer as he once again answers an unrelated question by Larry King with an opening reference to Ayers, the campaign will shortly pivot off what they must know is nothing more than a temporary diversion and lurch on to the next diversion and the next diversion after that.
I think that, at this point, diversion is the entirety of the McCain Campaign strategy.
Sarah Palin did much better than I predicted, that’s for sure. She spoke well. Her sentences were – for the most part – logical and understandable. So she passed that high bar. But that’s about all. I imagine her fans are pleased with her performance but I found her scarcely believable. She stared in a strange manner into the camera and spoke shallow premises in an oddly robotic voice. Virtually no substance. Biden was strong after an average start and his expertise and understanding was obvious. His direct attacks on McCain were powerful and I believe Biden won the debate fairly easily on substance.
Biden may have stolen the “magic TV moment” if the media outlets replay the moment when he choked up while talking about his family.
Sarah Palin will demonstrate a less than an acceptable level of worldly and political knowledge and awareness. She will also evidence somewhat less than an acceptable level of communication skills, specifically in the areas of simple logic and sentence structure. To most half-ways intelligent onlookers she will show that she is clearly and unequivocally unprepared to lead or to govern.
Many Republicans, through extensive use of magical thinking and willing suspension of disbelief, will be delighted by her performance.
