On another dreary late evening in Austin, I was drinking, hanging out at the Dog & Duck Pub with my French friend/tutor Patricia. The statewide election returns were funneling in as George “Dubious” Bush (the future worst president in history) would unseat Ann Richards as governor, the very thing this coke-sniveling, drunken deserter needed to get catapulted on to the national scene. There were a few silver linings though.
- The governor’s job in Texas is more of a figurehead.
- The lieutenant governor runs the legislative agenda and a Democrat won. However, this is Texas, a statewide Democrat is a Moderate Republican otherwise he’s a Communist.
- Austin wasn’t gerrymandered…yet.
- The Texas statehouse remained in play, until it was gerrymandered by 2000.
It was a bummer too. All the Dems I met kept blathering on how Richards would coast into another term because Baby Bush was a political lightweight. Seems they had amnesia over how contentious Ann’s 1990 election over the GOP was. Plus they underestimated the Republicans’ hellbent nature to foster their Restoration since they felt Clinton robbed the mediocre Daddy Bush of his god-given right to be president for another four years. I mean, the guy did win the Gulf War while he let the economy go to crap. Had they foreseen how much Baby Bush would screw the pooch by 2007, maybe just enough people could’ve wised up to end Dubious’ political career, get him into painting sooner.
The best glimmer of hope was seeing director/writer Oliver Stone leaving the bar. I grabbed the opportunity to shake his hand and tell him how I enjoyed his movies. Not a complete lie. Heaven and Earth is pretty great, I felt Natural Born Killers was ridiculing the media spectacle America makes of some murderers (Bonnie & Clyde come readily to mind, same for Joseph Smith of LDS notoriety), giving them cultish celebrity status. I’ve never seen JFK nor do I agree with his “theories.” Platoon was mostly lazy stereotypes. Years later I did see Midnight Express which he wrote.
Some of you may be respond, oh you’re just bitter because your “team” lost. A tad. However, tonight to me is yet another demonstration in a long string of futile elections showing that American democracy is rigged as it often has been since the slave-owning guys with powder wigs ran the show. Either we’ll find a way to take “the club” off the steering wheel of true democracy or a military coup will “solve” the problem of voting.
Tonight much like 20 years ago doesn’t matter. Before the weekend rolls around, count on the next batch of Republican assholes to announce their candidacy for 2016 and the DLC DINOs will circle the wagons around Billary’s centrist bullshit.