Burning down The Can (Democratic Convention in Denver)

[Demeter]

http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/03/05/burning-down-the-can/


Well, well, well. Look at the snarling beast that’s threatening to rear its head this summer in Denver:



(Quote from Rick Perlstein on Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-perlstein/some-apocalyptic-observat_b_90096.html )

"Not to mention that there’s going to be a significant Iraq veteran contingent at the convention, ready to rock ‘n’ roll. We’ve already had planning meetings about it — we’re going about it the same way that we would plan any decent military operation.

Put it this way: if goes for the gold in Denver, she’ll have to claim the medal somewhere other than the Pepsi Center.
…
I can’t emphasize enough how potentially scary things could get — we’ve got folks working on the inside of the convention, and it’s all done on a cell basis, so that folks only know what they need to know.

I’m trying to keep everyone calm, as I just mentioned, but it’s getting harder and harder to do so. The mood’s getting ugly, and if we go to Denver without a nominee, the pressure’s going to be intense from without to nominate Obama. She can win the nomination, but it won’t be a prize worth having."





We’re all civilized, thinking men and women here, so it’s hard to argue with Rick Perlstein’s “categorical abhorrence of anyone who’d contemplate introducing violence as a variable in American civic life.” America, like all advanced societies, is a nation of laws, not thuggery.

Still, the anonymous veteran in Perlstein’s post raises an interesting idea. I mean, rule of law is a wonderful thing, but it serves those who make the laws. What if people who have simply had enough of the same-old-same-old were to run amok at the DNC like they did in 1968?...It’s worth noting that the elites in both parties have collaborated, for the past seven years, on the greatest campaign of terror the US has seen since McCarthy. Yes, al Qaeda gave Americans a good goosing, but their impact was nothing compared to the resulting 24/7 fearfest visited on the citizenry by the Republican and Democratic parties ever since. A terrified public has been good for the elites because fear makes people manageable, malleable, herdable. In short, we’re in an era where the people are afraid and their leaders are not.

How’s that working out for you, America?

The elites aren’t afraid because the worst that can possibly happen to them is that they get voted out of office and are forced to take jobs as consultants, lobbyists and corporate flaks making only five or six times more than they were before. They have, thanks to the marvels of the modern entertainment industry, constructed the most stunning array of Bread-n-Circus amusements, and as a result the public is so thoroughly pacified that the lot of them could be handily managed by an aging border collie with a bad leg and cataracts.

But hordes of angry rabble rampaging through the streets in protest, that would have to be at least a little scary, you’d think. And I wonder how a bit of genuine fear might impact the official actions of serial malfeasers (is that a word?) like Pelosi, Clinton, Reid, Reyes, and 99% of the Republican Party. Hard to say, but what are they going to do about it? Suspend habeas corpus? Conspire with their corporate allies to illegally wiretap the public? Start outing CIA agents? Invade nations that had nothing to do with 9/11?

[Gman]

1. Who the hell do these people think they are?

They act like Obama is already the presumptive nominee. And they claim to speak for "the people". Fuck that guy. If he and others try to take from Hillary what she wins, I hope Mayor Daily comes back for a visit. Never thought I would say something like this but these people do not speak for the people and it's arrogant to try to do so. If Hillary wins the nomination and he wants to do his thing, then Mayor Daily, go do your thing in Denver.