US Wrestling Federation SmackOut

Are You Ready to RUUUUUMBLE?

U.S. Election day is almost here, and proud Americans are able to participate in that most precious right: the right to choose their government officials.  Presented as consumer products by advertising agencies, the electorate is carefully manipulated by disinformation propaganda toward emotional confidence in one candidate or party, and emotional aversions to opponents.  Religion, which makes a virtue out of ignoring evidence, is an excellent way to get a large percentage of people to shut off their logical thinking, and we see God frequently invoked. Admittedly, monotheism was a great advance in understanding reality at the end of the stone age, but now?   It makes some of us wonder about whether we are smart enough as a species to survive much longer…as our entertainment, religions, and political rituals demonstrate; But it's no use whining - perhaps we should just wade into it:

In this corner, weighing in at billions of dollars and backed by businesses of all stripes, these enthusiastic supporters of religious fundamentalism and military extremism are dynamic, fear-mongering, war-loving ideologues.  Proud and patriotic, their accomplishments include the most dramatic successes of the Nazis: unbridled executive power, contempt for international laws and treaties, repeal of internal prohibitions against torture and reclassification of certain people as not-human (or in the words of Paul Wolfowitz “another breed”) in support of gruesome medical and psychological experimentation, closely aligned with theories of racial superiority and purity.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Mavericks of Marketing and the Momma Grizzlies, the Elephants of Elections, and the Pachyderms of Politics: Lady’s and Gentlemen I give you...the REPUBLICANS!  (Cue cheers)

(Restless murmuring)

In this corner, weighing in with billions of dollars and backed mostly by big businesses, these enthusiastic supporters of religious fundamentalism and military extremism are dynamic, fear-mongering, war-loving ideologues.  Proud and patriotic, their accomplishments include the most dramatic successes of the Fascists and Imperial Japan: unbridled executive power, contempt for international laws and treaties, legal cover for gross violations of human rights, war crimes and crimes against humanity, vast surveillance and psychological warfare operations against their own population, and industrial scale killing of more innocent civilians even than their "tough" opponents with an iron fist, while while stroking millions of supporters with a facade velvet glove.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...the DEMOCRATS!  (Cue cheers)

In truth, I'd like to say that our Founders would be horrified, and yet if our income disparity is any measure, then recent administrations have succeeded in the “first purpose” of government: “protecting the minority of the opulent from the majority” (James Madison).  One might even say that making the minority smaller and more opulent by increasing the misery and poverty of the majority is an improvement, if one were sufficiently pious to see things "properly", such as Glenn Beck.

I just read about a dilemma in Connecticut, where a former professional wrestling executive is running for political office and logo gear from her league is used to express support for her as a candidate, making it campaign speech.  Since campaign speech is prohibited within a certain range of voting places, it has been suggested that shirts and other "messaging" that is understood as partisan should be prohibited.  The problem is that not all fans who wear such gear are making a political statement, so should we allow the freedom of expression defense to allow abuse by partisans, or should we allow the balloting protection defense to restrict freedom of speech?  Unfortunately the question is probably moot, since merely a color (red vs. blue, for example) can be as easily used to represent such speech, and in a winner-take-all system, fairness and long term viability of functioning democracy within a republic is in the interest of no one of consequence.

Its amazing that such a state of affairs is widely considered to be a model of democracy and freedom.