At last the other shoe drops
A lot of people opposed to capitalism in general, and the Bush administration in particular, have pointed out that those now in power have no particular love of democracy. Some of us have even made wild allegations that the Bush regime is simply fascist, and looking to dismantle what little democracy we presently enjoy in the U.S., and have been dismissed as hysterical for our trouble. Hold that thought.
Enter Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Ridge follows the administration party line, unsupported by any evidence, that the September 11th attacks were motivated by hatred of democracy (as opposed to anger with American foreign policy). Ridge now asserts, again without presenting any evidence, that al Qaeda plans a terrorist attack to disrupt the U.S. elections this November. The political convenience of this claim is obvious: more terrorism fear is good for Bush, and if al Qaeda’s supposed target is the electoral process itself, then the terror will increase right up until election day.
But why stop at that? If they can postpone the election, they can prolong the terror, and just such a postponement is being openly contemplated. Bush may be permitted to put off the election until the time of his own choosing—i.e., whenever his propagandists have managed to turn around his poll numbers.
Let’s do the math together now: we are assured that the threat of terrorism is unending, therefore the so-called “War on Terror” is unending, which means the threat to disrupt the elections is ongoing, so therefore we may have to postpone the election for a long, long time. We’ll get back to you on that.