The devastating Reuters/Zogby poll released yesterday confirmed three things about contemporary political America. The first is bloody obvious; the second, as well, has been steadily manifest for some time; the third is increasingly troubling.
Taking first things first, it's apparent that Americans' capacity for clear thinking lies only in inverse proportion to their leaders' stupendously transparent muddleheadedness. As the Bush administration sinks lower into the morass, the number of Americans who realize we're on the wrong track creeps ever upward.
That, of course, is a natural function of democratic sentiment. But what terrifies is the further realization of just how much it takes to trigger the public giant's synapses. Nothing has come to pass that wasn't predictable in the most elementary ways since 2001, from the plutocratic looting of America to the most blundering and imbecilic of foreign policies. Had Americans been paying attention, had they applied any real thought to the miserable paths being taken by the Bushies, the polling number of wrong trackers -- now at 66 percent -- would have been achieved six years ago. Yet it had to come to this.
The second and rather needless confirmation coming from the poll is that of the hard right's unshakable loyalty and solidarity. True, it borders on the pathetic to learn that any sitting president's job approval rating can plummet to the ignominious low of 24 percent. Looking at the number in another way, however, means that one in every four American adults you see on the streets actually believes, or at least insists -- after all the looting and all the imbecilities -- that George W. Bush is doing a boffo job.
One in every four, after all this. I could understand and accept one in every one hundred, or one thousand, or whatever statistic matches the frequency of severe mental illness among the general population. But one quarter? It chills the democratic bones, and indicates just how blindly allegiant is the right -- a steadfast allegiance whose recipient demonstrates his dementia on a daily basis, such as yesterday's demonstration: "We are making it very clear to Turkey that we don’t think it is in their interests to send troops into Iraq. Actually, they have troops already stationed in Iraq." Hail to the chief, and God help us.
The third confirmation arising from the Reuter/Zogby poll is, as mentioned, unsettling as well, and getting worse. As Reuters reported it, "A paltry 11 percent gave [the Democratic] Congress a positive grade, tying last month's record low." In brief, there is no confidence in any organized opposition to criminal dementia in the Oval Office, for the simple reason that there is no organized opposition to criminal dementia in the Oval Office.
At a time when the left, the left of center, the middle and even the right of center -- collectively, those three of every four irate Americans -- should be reveling in a Congressional cleaning and clocking of the White House, they are, instead, puzzled and despondent.
"They are giving up on this government," observed pollster John Zogby of his dismal findings. And that -- the perception as well as reality of no organized opposition -- leaves anarchy, paradoxically mixed with monarchical strains, and that famous dementia in control.
At a time when the great majority of Americans are yelling "Enough!," the abysmally disorganized opposition can't see, or refuses to accept, that impeachment proceedings are the only galvanizing solution to reversing a despondent public mood. They're sick of the administration's lawlessness, and the only meaningful starting point is for Congress to condemn it and remove it.
Congress wouldn't, couldn't be successful in the latter, of course, but movement toward it would solidify vast swaths of the left and center behind those elected representatives who finally, at long last, rightly agree that enough is enough. Some national blights must be excised -- or at least an honest attempt at excision must be made -- before other progress can be made.
That singular neglect, I am convinced, is what has the opposition at 11 percent. To turn things around, Congress must not so much oppose the administration, as it must simply support and confirm the Constitution. Without that, what's left worth fighting for -- and what solidarity is left, except that on the right?
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