Kali Yuga

As a Minnesotan, I thought I might comment on Michele Bachmann, as to why she's so popular, rising so impressively in the polls. There's a straw poll in Iowa coming soon, and it looks like she might be in a position to win it, or at least come close. Doing either would put her in a strong position to win the state, in the lead into the primaries. Doing so would put her in a good position to win New Hampshire and South Carolina. Winning all three would practically make her the Republican nominee. At this point, after the budget debate, Obama will be running as the I'm-Not-Actually-Republican candidate. I'm inclined to think Ms Bachmann might just be the first female President of the United States.

That she is blind to at least half of herself is no matter, at least not to those who will vote for her; because they are just as likely to be blind to half of themselves. If the core of Conservatism is responsibility, then the core of Liberalism is caring about people. It isn't either actually if you only care about people who look and talk just like you.

Listening to her, one might gather that no Conservative has ever contributed dime one to the national debt. To listen to her conception of the national debt, one might begin to think we ran a surplus in every year of a Republican Presidency. As if a tax cut at the beginning of two wars, with the addition of a broad Pharmaceutical giveaway, never happened. As if it were only Fannie and Freddie that were responsible for fraud in the Housing Boom, Banks being evidently blameless. As if people need protection from foreign and bureaucratic predators, and not business and financial types. Meaning, she believes that what she thinks is good is good, and what she thinks is bad is to be destroyed. (Which is exactly what you might say about many a Liberal.) That we each have the whole, inside us, is a concept as foreign to her as reincarnation, or corporate efficiencies in the face of record profits, or empathy for everybody and everything.

Blind to the spending of PGWB, the malfeasance of bankers, or the consequences of her stance on the debt ceiling; it is no matter, apparently, when you are the only major candidate speaking to the concerns of the middle class. She articulates conservatism better than any of the men running, the only major candidate of either party, aside from 78 year-old Ron Paul, who doesn't seem entirely beholden to monied interests, repeating emotional phrases better even than Obama (who seemed to lose much of that gift soon after he was elected.) She is able to turn Reagan into a god as well as any. When she gets to ranting about "The Liberals", she can even sound like Nemesis, not the kind of popular imagination, but more like the Greek goddess of divine vengeance, speaking unconsciously to people's core. Her husband might be into humiliation, but she's got the kind of looks that will draw the weak minded, wide-eyed and gaping, even as they are devoured. And, she's Teflon-like, like Him. If someone were to tar and feather her like I suggested would be appropriate for Grover Norquist, it would undoubtedly turn her from candidate into the President of the United States of America. (I can imagine elements of the Tea Party plotting now.)

Her presence on the scene actually reminds me of arch public-enemy #1, Casey Anthony. Not one thing did I know about Casey Anthony, the death of her child, or her trial - until I felt America's reaction to the not-guilty verdict. Wow! My god, the righteous anger. I have not seen Americans react so violently, since 9/11.

Word is, Jabba-the-Hut (Larry Flint) has offered her $500,000 to pose naked for Hustler. If she's smart, she'll demand not less than $3 Million. Because that will be the best selling Huslter in the history of the magazine. I saw a series of pictures from her Facebook page, on Huffpost. Know this about Casey Anthony: she is a knock-out - about as good looking as a mainstream middle-class girl can be. Flaunting her vapidness, partying away the end of this fossil-fueled existence, as if a murder had not just taken place? That our lifestyle has rested on the back of many people and many nations and the Earth is not a thing we have come to terms with. That we see Casey Anthony in ourselves is not a thing we care to reckon.

By contrast, Ms Bachmann is like a pure child - or at least she appears so to her followers. Like a snake-oil preacher of the Word, she can call to the Bible, or the Constitution, or the doctrine of capitalism, without having any clear grasp of any of it; the point not being the facts but her passion. And these are passionate times. Half of America at least thinking the Universe might be eight thousand years old. If we are that unwilling to accept the vast mysteriousness of space and time, and we are capable of pouring that much energy into the Casey Anthony trial, we are certainly capable of electing Michele Bachmann President.

Two aspects of the dark goddess, come to destroy America, to reflect us back at ourselves. I'm actually considering voting for Ms Bachmann, if she makes it that far. Republicans, up and down the ticket. Let us see once and for all what the GOP path truly is. About 30% unemployment (officially), a last mad dash to exploit everything, rampant predatory behaviors of self-interested greed, and finally the last decline into fossil fuel scarcity.

And let us hope, the end of this Age of Degeneration, the end of the Hindu Kali Yuga. The birth of something that embraces the whole, that is healing for the Earth, and every human.

Even Michele Bachmann. Even Casey Anthony. Even Bankers. Even the American middle-class, who have been so complicit in the trajectory of American Empire.