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Just last week I was reminded of the words "When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die." and, from some years later, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." It would be self-important to think that Eleanor Roosevelt or Martin Luther King Junior would care what I am up to here in 2004, but I sadly feel like their admonitions direct a questioning glance from the past at how I feel this November.

At my age, I have scarcely more than a decade until some sort of retirement at age 65. Actuarially, the "mean" Jim is probably good for another dozen years after that, but I have never been of the mind to wear out my welcome. What is it about "Do Not Resuscitate" that you don't understand?

Five years ago, a gent approached me at the check-in desk at the Puerto Vallarta airport and asked if I would kindly carry his Social Security paperwork back to LA and drop it in the mail. I remarked to myself that he was me 20 years hence and gladly took his envelope.

The fact is, though, that I will probably manage some sort of retirement, even if it involves a diet with a higher than average proportion of rice, beans, and Negra Modelo. Sadly, I am afraid that is a lot better than what many of our younger Americans here on the BBS, whether from California, Texas, Michigan or Pennsylvania, have to look forward to. So me? At this point, I guess I can afford to become silent, begin to die. What about you?

When cruising along the Interstate highway system in their SUVs, Bush conservatives rarely remark on the ability of a government (a Republican administration and, granted, in the name of defense) to get off its lazy, taxpayer-cheating ass and build highways hither and yon for the Semi-trailer and SUV culture to come. Big-L Libertarians close their eyes while driving the Interstates and pine for privately-operated tollroads. Mass transit? Bush conservatives have little good to say about mass transit. No station in their town or enclave. The Big-Ls refuse to ride the subway on principle, at least until it is privatized. It would seem that Bush conservatives only offer comment on the Interstate highway system when they bend an expensive 18-inch rim on a pothole.

The preceding transit rant is a bit of a metaphor. The point being that most of us have grown up in a post-FDR/LBJ era where things like Interstates, Social Security, Medicare and a long list of government services and programs were just part of the insensible landscape -- things that we no longer notice or value. So, in some respects, it is easy for professional naysayers like moralist-cum-drug-addict Limbaugh (or closer to home a corrupt tax revolt asshole I can think of) to rail against *any* governmental activity just on principle. All of those things like Social Security just sitting there in the background? I think our pitiful brains have just gotten to the point that we can ignore what societal accomplishments they represent, warts and all. All this at the time that candidate Bush has the fucking *gall* to mention FDR during his campaign; given the opportunity, I am quite sure that FDR would rise up from the grave and stuff a pretzel down Shrub's windpipe.

If the post-game analyses can be believed, congregants listened to the instructions of their pastors on October 31st and voted on November 2nd on 2.5 issues: gay marriage, abortion and (the 0.5 issue) assault weapons and handguns.

Well, for those of you among the faithful who Karl Rove so astutely herded, I have some shocking news: You've been had. The "moral issues" as you so narrowly define them? That ain't what it is all about. If the 2nd Bush administration leaves office in 2009 without having overturned Roe v Wade and without achieving a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, well, I don't think they will lose so much as one night's sleep. It was a great tool, though, wasn't it?

So, what are they about? Oh, you haven't been paying attention. I don't want to bore you, but it is about reducing non-military government through duplicitous "reforms" and the unfunded mandates once decried by the likes of Mr. Gingrich. The Social Security that some of you 20 and 30-somethings were thinking about? Gone. With the 3 billion trillion national debts that Bush II intends, programs like SS will just need to pack it in, won't they?

A friend emailed on November 3rd and asked "is it just intellectual laziness?" Now, I know that "intellectual" has become a dirty word, but I could not immediately answer back with "No, it ain't that, Bubba!". Hmmmm, what I do know is that Bush voters have practically and publically said that incompetence, deceit, malfeasance and many other bad things don't matter -- just those 2.5 issues. How many Bush voters read something like John Dean's "Worse than Watergate" in the past few years? Zero. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that "the blessing of heaven is upon him" and those 2.5 issues.

So what does Bush's duplicitous "compassionate conservatism" accomplish? Well it sure has been good for the rich, hasn't it? Some of you here on the BBS are planning to become part of the ultra-rich, so you will like this. People have remarked on the merits and demerits of the large state of Texas. I think that the influence of the state of Texas on recent US political history is actually underrated. I think that the ghost of freebooter William Travis has marched up the Mississipi valley with a bible under his arm and Enron shares in his outstreched hand. Those of you outside of the US will hardly believe this, but textbooks in Texas are routinely shot down for -- gasp! -- sins such as including a picture of a woman with a briefcase. We all *know* that Texas is home to many fine, fair-minded people, but there is no escaping the narrow-minded "Don't mess with Texas!" braggadocio that would cause me to relocate should I have been born there. "Don't Mess With Texas!", though, is a great mantra for those insular, anti-government enterpreneurial Americans who aspire to ultra-richdom. Freeboot 2004.

2.5-issue Bush voters who manage to ignore Bush administration incompetence and deceit tend, I think, to take complacent comfort from the thought of smaller government that leaves many more social tasks in the hands of families and religious institutions. One question that always occurs to me is "Why aren't *all* fire departments volunteer fire departments?" I mean, volunteer fire departments work well, don't they? Why aren't *all* fire departments volunteer?

Without having thoroughly answered that question, 2.5-issue Bush voters have seemingly complete faith in the ability of their post-Bush, non-govermental, social institutions to provide for them and their loved ones. At church next Sunday, I expect that you'll be able to identify the members of the congregation who are adept at maintaining your local Interstate, but will you easily be able to pick out the crew that will provide 24-hour nursing care when your loved one falls victim to a disabling stroke or who will track down the source of an e. coli H7:0157 outbreak when one occurs?

Prior to November 2nd, I felt a certain compulsion to post things to this BBS and to relatives saying "Hey, have you seen this?" with links to the likes of Seymour Hersch. I am not feeling that need as much now. "Jesusland" as it is now known has made its presidential choice, so what's the point? Reading stuff like Hersch is obviously too complicated and doesn't have any bearing on the *real* (2.5) moral issues. Now, I have decided, I will likely manage to enjoy some quiet time reading fiction and drinking beer on a beach in some small town outside of Puerto Vallarta regardless of the encroachment of Jesusland. But what about you? What about *your* family? What is your future world looking like?

It is astonishing to me that so may Americans should willfully ignore the incompetence, deceits and disastrous arrogance of the GWB administration and turn out in record numbers to elect him, but that is just me. I am also increasingly convinced that the American "2.5" electorate is blithely willing to sacrifice some number of poor Marine SOBs in foreign countries, notwithstanding a much larger number of (primarily women and children) casualties, so long as the latter are not God-fearing white folks.

Soooo, I have been trying to identify the upside:

- As mentioned before, it will be hard for Rush to shout "those stupid Kerry people!" when there aren't any Kerry people. That is a comfort.
- With Bush in power, I get to listen to BBC newsreaders pronounce his name "Booosh" That is always a bit amusing.

Hmmm, that seems to be it for upsides. Anybody have any other ideas?

Term number two? The lying has already started.