Mandate my ass!

The other day on Air America’s "Unfiltered" the hosts came up with a resounding response to a post-election myth hatched by the reality-challenged Dick Cheney who alleged that the Bush regime now has a mandate to further advance their far-right agenda. Mandate my ass! As was pointed out on the radio show, no such mandate exists. The numbers are all about population growth and an increase in voter turnout, not about any sort of landslide for the present occupants of the White House down there in the rabbit hole where nothing appears as it truly is.

In addition, and more importantly, any "win" by rightwing extremists in last weeks election may well have been the result of a combination of voter suppression, fraud and error in electronic voting, and a whole host of Repugnican dirty tricks. This was barely mentioned on "Unfiltered" and is mentioned even less so by the mainstream media, once again in lockstep, embedded with the Bush regime at its war upon democracy.

Thankfully, longtime monitors of voting fraud like Greg Palast and Black Box Voting continue in their efforts at being guardians of democracy, even while most of the Democratic party and their followers cave-in to the illusion of unity. The infamous 15-second American attention span strikes again. We tried on that old brown shoe of unity the last time around when Al Gore and the U.S. Senate bailed on their public trust. The lie of "compassionate conservatism" was then summarily dropped on the threshold of the White House door as the extremists poured into the Oval Office trashing every social and environmental program in sight. As we speak, they continue hacking away at the very Constitution they and their friends in the Supreme Court claim to hold in such reverence.

Recall it was Palast and others back in the year 2000 that shined the light of day into the dark crypt of Repugnican politics. Be thankful these vampire hunters continue their gruesome work. The ghouls of the far right increase their ranks daily, praying on a pliant U.S. public that grasps for every straw even vaguely reminiscent of the fantasy of good old days, perceived morality, or the often fabricated security that comes from the end of a gun.

As for Repugnicans capturing the White House with an appeal cloaked in morality, the corporate media once again has turned its collective back on the real story: the Bush regime’s morality is snake oil, pure and simple. I probably don’t need to tell you that bearing false witness is immoral, nor that torturing prisoners (or condoning torture), targeting civilians in a war zone, and putting criminals to death while claiming to be "pro-life" is the height of hypocrisy. Yet all of these immoral acts and more, so many more, are stock and trade for the present occupants of the White House.

Red State voters appear to be focused solely on gay marriage and so-called family values at the same time arrogant oligarchs stalk the halls at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, bibles in hand, making a mockery of the Ten Commandments. The mainstream media must shoulder the blame for not making these outrageous examples of duplicity the story of the day. The Bush administration makes the Nixon administration look like mere vandals. The Democrats didn’t lose the election, the corporate media did.