Ezra asks:
[C]ould it be better that Kerry lost and the Democratic Party didn't have to take responsibility for all the messes Bush created?In a word: Yes.
Yes, it's better, in retrospect, that Kerry lost. But not solely, or even primarily, because of some benefit to the Democrats. It's better because it will, I suspect, hasten the demise of the current thread of conservatism wreaking havoc on America (and elsewhere).
Granted, a lot of shit has happened in the interceding year under Bush’s second-term leadership. As outlined by one of Ezra’s commenters, there was the “hurricane Katrina f*&k-up, another deficit-busting budget, Patriot Act renewal, billions wasted on crony contracts (here and abroad), FDA screw-ups, Supreme Court nominee follies.” But it’s foolish to think that after the Bush-led gutting of FEMA, a President Kerry could have had it back in working order in time to significantly lessen the resulting Katrina crisis, and it’s even more foolish to think that a President Kerry could have appreciably minimized the legislative shenanigans of what would still have been a GOP-controlled Congress—a hostile and antagonistic GOP-controlled Congress to boot. In reality, his constant wrangling with an extra-rancorous opposition and trying to undo the damage of Bush’s first term would likely have undermined his focus on new policy initiatives. After four bitter years, I imagine he would have been tossed out, replaced by another conservative Republican; he would have been little more than a mere hiccup in their ascendancy, delaying but not derailing their supremacy.
The only thing, and it is, admittedly, not a small thing, on which a President Kerry would have made a world of difference is Supreme Court nominations. A thoroughly conservative court will be bad for most of America, but, again, if he had only managed to serve as a stop-gap measure against conservatives reaching the zenith of their 30-year climb, a conservative court may well have been an inevitability at some point, anyway.
Conservatives have been doggedly pursuing this moment for a generation, and I don’t think anything was capable of stopping them, except for what’s happening now—an exposure of their radical and heartless agenda for exactly what it is. It’s not just that Bush is incompetent (although he is), but that the conservative philosophy is fundamentally flawed and irreparably ill-suited to a liberal democracy. Only in its wanton and unchecked application were its intrinsic defects and hypocrisies laid bare to the average American; it’s wise to remember, the first widespread revolt against the current power-holders centered around a woman named Terri Schiavo. She was the beginning of their (domestic) end, long before a hurricane named Katrina.
The conservative movement reached its ugly pinnacle, pulling America along with it, and now it’s starting its long fall, taking America with it. Appropriate, I suppose, we’re hitting rock bottom with a dry drunk leading the way. Hopefully, on our way down, we’ll collectively learn something about this particular brand of conservatism, and be a bit more wary of its vile purveyors in future.
