IT’S THE FOURTH OF JULY of a Presidential election year. Time for Silly Season to get underway–except that it’s been going for some time now.
On the Presidential end, we’ve got another of what Michael Moore likes to call “Tweedledum and Tweedledumber” pairs. Their economic and other policies are virtually identical.
Both Albert Gore fils and George Bush fils (heart symbol) big corporations, “free” trade, megamergers, and (despite occasional posturing otherwise) lobbyist-financed campaigns.
Each proclaims himself to be the one to lead America’s booming-as-never-before economy to even further heights–despite the several early-warning signals that the overheated economy’s starting to cool off, and despite the reality that the vast majority of folks have barely stayed economically even (or fallen behind) in these recent years of downsizings, manufacturing-job exports, stagnant wages, real-estate hyperinflation, and potentially dangerous stock-market speculations.
Should the stock markets (and the highly-speculative tech stocks in particular) continue their recent downward step-stumble, should gas prices remain high, and should interest rates stay up, the question will change from who’ll best continue our economic course to who’ll best redirect it.
And since both candidates got their respective party nominations due to heavy up-front campaign donations and backroom influencing by the corporate crowd, don’t expect either to have any real ideas in that realm.
Instead, look to Gore and Bush to each continue his appeal to his respective party’s faithful based on what we could call market-segmentation partisan issues.
Gore will make the requisite half-sincere pronouncements about health care, the environment, women’s and gay rights, transit, arts funding, and protecting abortion rights.
Bush will make the requisite half-sincere pronouncements about turning Social Security over to the stock market, landowners’ rights, developers’ rights, family values, highway building, prison building, and repealing abortion rights.
The message of each candidate will be that he’s a big-money whore, but he’s our big-money whore.
Here in The Other Washington, meanwhile, we’ve a somewhat clearer choice in chief-executive wannabes.
Since right-wing Democrat Dixy Lee Ray’s single term ended in 1980, our state’s been governed by one centrist Republican (John Spellman), one true liberal Democrat (Mike Lowry), and two corporate Democrats (Booth Gardner and Gary Locke). Locke has caved in on health care and stadium subsidies and virtually every other issue on which corporate bucks have applied sufficient pressure.
That would make Locke vulnerable to a strong opposition candidacy by a progressive Republican of the old Northwest Dan Evans/Tom McCall school. To Locke’s luck, they don’t make that kind of Republican anymore.
Instead, the GOP’s handing its gubernatorial nomination to John Carlson, talk-radio demagogue and all-around power-grubbing twerp.
I’ve had more to say about Carlson in the past, and am sure to have more to say about Carlson later this election season. But for now, let’s suffice to say that, by giving Carlson the nomination, the state GOP has written off Seattle (heck, Carlson used to proudly proclaim on his radio hatefest how much he detested Seattle and its voting population), along with anybody elsewhere in the state who’s not part of the religious right or the Limbaughist religious cult.
All Locke will have to do is pick off enough votes from sane Republicans across the state, folks who might love entrepreneurism and hard work but who don’t particularly care for the scarier parts of the Carlson camp’s agenda.
Carlson’s role will be to simultaneously hold onto the cultists while insisting to non-cult members that he’s still normal enough to be trusted with the governor’s office.
Carlson’s proven himself to be a cagey, slick operator. But this task might be too challenging even for his duplicitousness.
TOMORROW: What the heck isMicrosoft.NET anyway?
IN OTHER WORDS: There won’t be any cherry pies served at the RR Diner for a while; bummer.
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