A bit of a wandering rant

So I read this little gem, which leads to Ted Rall's bit, which has little nuggets of truth that are just a pain to dig out from all the anti-Bush anti-American anti-West rhetoric. Eventually I end up on Warblogger Watch, which certainly provides plenty of evidence of Charles Kauthammer's clarification of the differences between how Conservatives view Liberals and vice versa. Namely: "Conservatives are mean, Liberals are stupid." Other posts over at The Watch illustrate and support Christ Weinkopf's list of "What Liberals Hate Most."

While scrolling through the Watch's postings (and wondering, "Well, who watches the watchers?"), I found this one which, in turn, has this little quote:

It's really not much of a democracy anymore, is it? Shouldn't we own up to the fact that the US is governed by an oligarchy? Such an admission would at least begin the process of clearing our political language of cant.

So, I had to make sure I understood what he was trying to say. Thus, the Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001, defines oligarchy as essentially a "ruling elite." Its definition also includes this interesting little note:

In practice, however, almost all governments, whatever their form, are run by a small minority of members. From this perspective, the major distinction between oligarchy and democracy is that in the latter, the elites compete with each other, gaining power by winning public support. The extent and type of barriers impeding those who attempt to join this ruling group is also significant.

Which all leads to something any mean Republican or Conservative can tell any stupid Democrat or Liberal:

We (as in the United States of America, for worldwide clarification) don't live in a Democracy; we live in a Republic.

Accepting the oligarch aspects of our government, it seems that it has been ever thus. Decades upon decades ago, when I was much younger, there were a given set of politicians in office. They're still there today. Ted Kennedy is still a US Senator. In the California scene, at least Willie Brown is no longer in the state assembly, but he's still in politics (as mayor of San Francisco, my home town). This pair always leap to mind for two reasons: 1) I was raised by Democratic parents, so we always paid attention to Democrats. 2) "Professional politician" is all their job resumes read.

I laugh my ass off every time someone points at [name a Conversative or Republican] and says he's never worked a day in his life, can't possibly understand the needs of "the working man," etc. etc. etc. As if any Liberal/Democrat is any different! Possibly worse, because they're certainly more subtle about shilling for Big Corporations. Just take a gander at the bills Hollins and Berman have presented on behalf (and at the behest) of the ever-more-monolithic media industry. (More complete coverage via previously mentioned article by Farhad Manjoo, Sour notes, or Dan Gillmor's Hacking, hijacking our rights.) They literally want to take control of your home computer, yet no squawks. Stock market takes a dump, though, and it's all because Bush is a pawn of Big Business. In fact, that's why we bombed Afghanistan! Blah blah blah.

Back in the early seventies, while I laughed at all the fools in their cages -- er, cars -- because my motorcycle got over 40 miles per gallon and I could fill the gas tank for less than a buck, there was this little matter going on called "Watergate." Yet, what got the bigger headlines and put people in a real uproar was the oil embargo and the rising price of gasoline (it soon took a buck and a half to fill my gas tank, damnit). Liberals -- at the time self-identified as "radicals" -- lamented that people were more concerned about the price of gas for their cars, than an assault on their freedom. (Why? Because the personal automobile is a tangible expression of that freedom. But that's another rant.)

The reverse seems true today, only it's clearly driven by ideology. There is opposition to what Bush v2 does simply because he's a Republican, and therefore must be mean. On the other hand, many of these same people ignore a Liberal, government-sponsored, direct assault on what has become the second great icon of personal freedom in our country, the personal computer (flavor of your choice).

They must be stupid.