Inappropriate Content: Timeline

My post on my USDA internship, below, is nearly two weeks behind reality. In fact, I have nearly finished the internship I was writing about. I also have two nearly complete posts on what has happened recently in the works, including at Bot Mitzvah and several 50 in 05© posts. I urge all my readers—both of you—to pretend that I finish writing in a timely fashion and simply post from an alternate universe that is several weeks behind your own.

In any case, Quilly notes:

The Democrats bellowed with joy at the poll numbers which showed that many Republicans opposed the action by Bush and Congress to intervene in the Schiavo case. They see it as a split in the party. It is not. That Libertarian streak has been in the party for quite sometime. The glue that holds the Republican Party together is the fear of what the hard leftists in the Democrat Party will do if the leadership on the GOP is not supported.

Unfortunately this is exacerbated by the noise of Talk Radio. The dominant stock in trade of the top two hosts, and not unfairly, is pointing out how the Deaniacs will lead this country to Armageddon. There is little real debate on the more substantive issues.

While, obviously, I think Quilly's “hard leftists” are less scary—slightly—than their counterparts on the lunatic fringe of the conservative movement, he is correct in that fear of “the liberals” is the strength of the Republican party. It will be difficult for Democrats to counter those fears of a Deaniac-spanwed Apocalypse—some real, most imagined—by presenting the positive alternative of a fiscally liberal, culturally libertarian America. And while the nut-ball conservatives are equally as dangerous as the freak-show liberals, the GOP is simply superior to the Democratic party in fear-mongering.

Both these things could change, the first as charismatic and non-insane leaders emerge in the Democratic party—insert obligatory kissing of Barak Obama's ass here—the second as the Democrats aquire their own highly capable, morally bankrupt, fear-mongering sleaze-bag politicos, like the apocalyptic Dr. Dean, whose skill I admire more and whose ethics I regard less highly with each move he makes. He was a wise choice for a party chair, although he would be more at home, I think, in Tammany Hall.

What will not, unfortunately, change, is America's reflexive revulsion at the sight of “real debate on substantive issues.” We haven't had anything even appraoching that since the birth of the man who truly ushered in the Apocalypse, at least when it comes to American politics, William Randolph Hearst.

By the way, all of my Utah-based readers should mark out March 31st—tommorrow—to attend this:

A Little Less Conversation...
University of Utah Modern Dance Senior Concert One
March 31, April 1, 2; 7:30 PM
Hayes-Christensen Theatre
Marriott Center for Dance
Tickets available through ArtTix
$7 students, seniors, U of U faculty; $10 general