By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
The world seems particularly complex these days, especially during a Mercury retrograde, which requires more detail-tending than usual. It isn’t helpful that tempers are short, there’s the smell of desperation in the air, and patience is worn thin. Standing back in awe at these grand cross energies that leave us bloodied and bruised, dazed and confused, the question I hear so often is, “How did this happen? How did we get here?” Those are appropriate questions, but because we have not been paying attention for decades, untangling the mystery seems too complex and overwhelming to contemplate. We turn to our historians and psychologists, looking for clues. One of the answers is simple: minnows.
Let me give you an example. In the summer of 2008, George Bush handed off to his underlings the emergency negotiations for an imploding economy that he had no intention of saving and focused on wrapping up his ideologically-driven presidency without losing internal gains. He had salted various departments with christocrats and radical conservative foot soldiers, and one of his special projects was making their appointments permanent. Eventually he rolled most of them over into safe government positions, guaranteeing furtherance of his stilted political viewpoint well into the future. Most of his interns were graduates of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell’s educational system, which produced a theocratic blend of dominionism and Christian reconstructionism. As it didn’t take a crystal ball to see the McCain/Palin ticket — and a campaign that legitimized radical religion — going down in flames, the faithful were told to hide quietly in the Democratic woodwork, which is where we will find them now.
At the time, I was screaming about tracking the placement of these right-wing critters and carefully assessing their actions. Zealots are notoriously disobedient employees, sticking their foot out to trip those with other intentions, such as actually making government work. I doubt that anyone ever heeded my warning though, because it’s evident that between the leftover Bushies and the Republican obstruction that has blocked Obama’s appointments, we’re left with a slew of little minnows, circling the body of government and nibbling away at the internal works. The nation was already bleeding when it was handed over to the blue party; the continued attacks, bite by bite, nibble by nibble, diminish our chances to restore stability and sanity.