What is neo-conservatism, you ask?

It is the plutocracy telling the uneducated "We can protect you from those who would harm you - and there are a lot of those!"

A question - if the neo-cons keep control of the Republicans, will a new "second party" form, or will something split off from the GOP to form the new opposition?

Elect Obama that is...if he wins the Nation could be polarised further along racial lines. If he does'nt win there would be lot of disgruntled people who would blame it on racism.

But in the end one has to look at the lesser of the two evils. One thing is for sure and I personally dont see any good in it( just see the political disarray in my country of Birth India): the demographic shift that is hapenning in the USA will only create pluralities that will cease to see eye to eye down the road. Homogenous countries tend to do better as far as legistlation goes and getting things done.

What America needs is a leader who can bring everyone with varied backgrounds under the common idea of "America" itself.

Maybe Obama is the one. Only time will tell.

That grey graphic of an elephant sinkin' down 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, is a work of art that not even Rembrant could equal. Goddamn gorgeous.

Right on Roger. It was actually the Libertarians (about 4 years ago) who enlightened me to the truth regarding Republican spending and the outright lie about "tax and spend liberals". The Libertarians have studied the phenomenon in some depth. Turns out the Dems seem to actually believe in government and its goals so they have a tendency to balance the books. The Repubs simply see what they can ship home to their constituencies while not bothering to find a way to pay for it except with debt. I'm told its a verifiable pattern for all of the last century.

I won't believe the Reagan Era is done until Fox News is forced to announce that Obama won. Until then, I continue to fear that the GOP has one last card to play: massive voter nullification to flip a few key states or at least muddy the waters.

The key event to finally removing the public's blinders about Bush and the GOP was not the economy, but Katrina. When the nation and the world watched in horror as American citizens were allowed to die and an American city drowned before our eyes and the Current Occupant did nothing to help, people finally realized that the GOP didn't give a damn about any of us.

John McCain is in favor of the Bush tax cut for the already super wealthy, the top 1 percent of America. If you like the Bush economy, if you like the Bush tax cut and what it has done to our economy, making the already wealthiest people wealthier and the average middle and upper-middle classes struggle harder, then John McCain is going to give you a third term of George Bush.

If you like what has happened to oil prices in recent history, the Iraq war, a COSTLY war with no end according to John McCain, John McCain is going to continue that policy. If you like what you see about health care, John McCain has no health care plan = you are on your own.

If you enjoy financial turmoil, banking deregulation and corruption, Keating Five scandals, Enron lobbyists, John McCain will bring that.

...including who wins the presidential office, is secondary to the decline of the educational system of the country since 1970.

I was in high school when Reagan was elected governor of California, and I saw first had how class size grew and standards declined. This corrosive process, clearly the intention of the conservative aspect of policy makers, has netted us the rejecton of Jimmy Carter in 1980, 8 years of Reagan, and 12 years of the Bushes. Even Bill Clinton was and is considered a liberal. That's the same Bill Clinton who gave us Nafta.

As a nation, we are not educated enough to make the hard, selfless, evenhanded choices that will be needed to right the intertwined ships of the enviornment, the economy, and social justice.

When well meaning (I believe) people like Gore, Kerry and Obama stick their necks out because they have faith in America and Americans, it should come as no surprise that it's cut off.

Anyone who thinks that McCain and the Republican party are toast is in dreamland. These people and their agenda are fated to ongoing success by the world they created in society's womb...the classroom.

Don't forget the enormous problem the G.O.P. is going to have reconciling its racist history with the ongoing demographic shift which will make non-whites the dominant culture(s) by the middle of this century. It's tough to campaign before an audience whose votes you've spent 50 years trying to suppress. The Republicans and their repugnant, racist ship can't sink fast enough.

..on the gerave of the GOP eother but would sure love the chance to piss on it, like the East Germans do to Honecker's grave. But then considering the usefullness of urine as a fertiliser it would be a real waste. As for Bush and his fascist cronies they should all do the honourable thing and follow Hitler's example and shoot themselves then we can all dance around their burning corpses.

..this was very good. I guess it's nice to see how this particular explanation of current events is turning into something else than "just a narrative" in american media terms. In the sense that arguments suddenly describe something real - so the arguments turn substantial, instead of just accusatory.

But then - what does "substantial" mean? In this case it means documenting the one thing that envigorated american political culture in a non- violent way since Vietnam, which is the meltdown of the right.

And unfortunately, what the vast majority of you are still doing is passively describing what is going on - in the same way that the previous eight years were described - and framing every single event within the bubble of american political life, without actually analyzing the events or the context you're in.

That, Kamiya, is the failure of the Right - to be unable to describe their own context and change when it (inevitably) fails - just as you accurately describe it.

But then, the first step to healing yourself is pointing out the failure in others... or something. That's what my crazy aunt used to say, anyway.