No Limits

The McCain campaign continues its disregard for any limitations on campaign tactics with the release of a new ad suggesting that Obama is some sort of sexual deviant (he’s black you know, and you know how those black guys are about sex!). As I’ve said below, when winning is all you care about, then adhering to any principle that says that any absurd tactics are off limits in a campaign actually breaks the rules – when it comes to winning, the only rule is that there are no limits to what you must do to win.

As we move forward in this campaign, as the lying gets more blatant and the attacks get more perverse, we see the true nature of Bush Republicanism. This true nature is one where there are simply no rules but win or die. This will be how McCain governs if he wins. No rules. Ever.

This has a dark implication for the American Democratic Republic. To put it bluntly – authoritarianism reigns. The breakdown of rules and limits on the exercise of political power has allowed the private sector to be indistinguishable from the public sector. Lobbyists run GOP political campaigns. GOP staffers become corporate executives. Corporate executives become GOP candidates. The money, influence and graft follow them all. And at the end of eight years, you have endless war, epic corruption, and a wrecked economy.

The responsibility of governing has been abandoned in the pursuit of victory – electoral, personal, and financial. The nation’s infrastructure crumbles, its destitute citizens languish, and its influence on the world becomes toxic.

With the potential of four more years of Republican recklessness an unbearable thought, and with the GOP leaving no stone unturned in their attempt to destroy Obama, the Democrats are faced with having to descend into the cess pool in order to put a stop to the GOP. They’ll have to abandon all principle to win.

That leaves us with a choice between two parties that have now put winning at the top of the list of goals for this nation. Winning is everything, so there are no limits on power. The most fundamental motivation for the Founding Fathers to rebel against the English Crown was the belief that King George III was a tyrant – he and the Parliament had exceeded their power and violated the basic rights of man. From this belief came the thread which ties the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution of the United States – the power of the national government must be limited as much as possible or else despots would replace the People as the final source of authority.

And so here we are, less than two months out from an election that may well seal our fate as a People. Without question John McCain will try to rule as a tyrant, far exceeding even the outrageous lengths of George W. Bush. Can we possibly expect the Democrats to, once in power, place limits on themselves once they have gone to the lengths necessary in order to win? You cannot unbite the apple.

The legacy of the Bush Republican Party – fueling the transition of the American Democratic Republic to the American Authoritarian Empire.