Presidentista Bush jokes around about our current and future state of economic chaos as if his own government hadn't enabled and encouraged the invention of those wonderful new kinds of even-more-addictive money-flavored alcoholic beverages he refers to as creative investment vehicles.

What the Bush regime (well, it actually began with Reagan and Clinton before him) did on Wall Street was the equivalent of wiping out all auto safety requirements, repealing all speed limits, wiping out the state patrols of every state and all prohibitions and penalties for driving while intoxicated, turned off all the traffic signals and now, that the financial life of the country; of everyone from those in poverty to the investors of the country's largest banking houses has been turned into one gigantic multi-car pileup that stretches from sea to shining sea, he has the audacity to joke about it with his wealthy friends as if he were Bart Simpson saying, "I didn't do it!" to Krusty the Clown

Of COURSE he did it! There were many voices, over many years saying this is where we would end up if we followed the policies the Bushistas were promulgating, but, hey! The "free market" said there was money to be made out of nothing for anyone smart enough to grab it! Until it was all lost...

Meanwhile, the entire country is forced to swallow the "red pill" and see just how deep this rabbit hole goes ("Zion" from the Matrix movies looks fascinating but I don't think I want to live there. Still, what choice will we have when the surface of the earth is too damaged to support life).

So far in these posts the most interesting dynamics of the X-files have been ignored. First that Scully and Mulder were quite role reversed in terms of traditional gender - Scully being the logical, traditional, unexciteable one; Mulder being the intuitive, emotional, impulsive one.

Second there was a powerful underlying message of the series (while Scully and Mulder were the main characters). Scully was planted by the establishment who knew that Mulder's ideas and the discoveries that backed them up were just too dangerous to be allowed to continue. Her assignment was to take him down with science and logic, but over the course of the series, her eyes were gradually opened to the realities contained in Mulder's perspective.

We, the viewers were drawn into the relationship of two beautiful people who came to care about each other a great deal. Week after week, we were given increasing permission to realize, with Scully, that there's a lot more going on around us than we might have previously noticed. In other words, the show not only amused and fascinated, it opened it's viewers up to the possibility of wider realities.

In electing (or at least voting for) GWB in the past two elections, I believe we had large numbers of people whose underlying perception was that they had been left out of the prosperity bubble of the 90's by "libral elitests" who were conspiring to keep them down (thanks to conservative talk radio, weasel news, and right-wing religion). They liked GWB because he was able to project the same attitudes, answers, and faith perspective (and the same inability to look in the mirror for the source of some of his troubles) as themselves.

Now, after they see what eight years of government run amuck in the U.S. and across the face of the planet while GWB was (or was not) in charge has gotten us, I suspect these folk are ready to finally, quietly, probably as invisibly as possible ask that smart guy down the block (Obama), the one they usually resent, make fun of, feel threatened by, and don't like very much because he IS smarter than them, for advice on what to do to get out of this mess.

At least for this moment in time, they don't want one of their drinking buddies or the rich, old blow-hard with bragging rights to heroic deeds of the last war (which everybody suspects are not quite true, but nobody would ever challenge) in charge anymore, because it's clear (at least right now) that leaders like that usually only help themselves while messing things up for everybody else.

It seems likely (if we're lucky), however, that just as with the military, the Republican party will continue to "fight the previous war" in this election. Believing themselves to be right about everything and believing that with their limited, warped view of history, that same history is firmly on their side, they will continue to try to convince the public that only they, themselves understand what's going on in the world, while John and Joan Q. could care less and will remain unmoved by that narrative, nor any attempts to attack Obama.

They already don't like Obama. They already don't quite trust him. But they're ready to give him a chance, anyway, because things are such a mess, and they suspect that mess is way bigger than they're being told.

With Wall Street's emphasis on NOTHING but quarterly profit figures and it's penchant for punishing any company willing to sacrifice short-term profit for long term planning and preparation, is GM's current sorry state any surprise? The real questions are - how many of the rest of America's major corporations have been operating the same way in response to Wall Street's demands and how many are following very closely on GM's heels? The vast majority, I fear. When will we finally realize that the way Wall Street has been operating for the past 20+ years was and continues to be a cancer on American Business, American Banking, and the American Public?