Neck Deep in the Big Muddy

The right-wing Real Clear Politics calls it the straw that breaks the Republicans backs. Tapscott has similar views. It is an op-ed article by Richard Viguerie in the Sunday Washington Post titled Bush's Base Betrayal. Bush's "conservative base" has been struggling in its harness for months. Viguerie is fed up beyond forgiveness. He is one of the biggest old-line, small government religious conservatives around. He suggests, "at the very least, conservatives must stop funding the Republican National Committee and other party groups. (Let Big Business take care of that!)"

The captain told us to ford a river,
That's how it all begun.
We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy,
But the big fool said to push on.

Far be it for me to try to delve into the conservative mind, the last time I was called a conservative wuss was when I inched across a moss covered log bridging a wilderness river. But, I know that conservatives like the Iraq War, no matter how badly it goes. The start was Hurricane Katrina.

It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging.
We'll soon be on dry ground."
We were -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.

The sight of the administration's helpless fumbling while New Orleans drowned was a sobering moment for even the most Bush-drunk neo-con. George Bush's incompetence had accomplished something Bin Laden had never even dreamt, the total destruction of a great American city. Never again could citizens reassure themselves that Bush was smarter than he seemed.

"All we need is a little determination;
Men, follow me, I'll lead on."
We were -- neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.

Harriet Miers and Dubai Ports followed. Us Americans on the left took them as more of the same from Squinty McChimp, Chronyism on Parade. But, right-wingers were surprised and grossly insulted. They had expected more and felt betrayed. They had expected some quo for all of the quid they had poured into Republican campaigns. They were being ignored. (Now you know how the rest of us have felt for the past five years.) The raft of Republican corruption leaves the morality wing of that party squimish. While conservatives still try to defend domestic spying, it is a hollow defense. Domestic spying is antithetical to all they believe.

All at once, the moon clouded over,
We heard a gurgling cry.
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by.

Now comes immigration, Karl Rove's wedge issue that would turn the election. Conservatives were expecting something spectatular - an Iron Curtain from San Diego to Brownsville or at least mass deportations in the spirit of the Final Solution. What they got was a few National Guardsmen who can sharpen pencils in the office but can't patrol the border, a small demonstration fence, and something that has all the duck qualities (looks like...quacks like) of amnesty. The wedge has exploded in Karl's face. President Bush is a man rapidly losing the last of his friends. Even the Nixon years were never like this.

Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
And the big fool says to push on! ~ Pete Seeger

tag: bush