Monkey King Monologue, Part Two

When last we spoke, I was sitting in the nosebleed section of Kentucky Theater for the Arts waiting for King George II, aka "The Monkey King", to commence his dialogue with us Louisvillians on the merits of creating private accounts for Social Security.

On stage, if you remember, were bleachers full of people, and one lonely guy in a wheelchair. I guess he was the chimp's token gimp; after all, W. doesn't have much of a chance to show off his compassionate conservatism, so sharing the stage with a disabled person is probably about as good as it gets. And all the guy had to do was sit there during W's dog and pony show and represent all the disabled people who weren't invited.

(Some weeks later I actually met the mother of this disabled veteran, as it turned out, who said that the Republican Party of Kentucky actually called them to ask if her son would sit on the stage. Turns out the poor guy wasn't even really a Bush supporter....just some poor sap who figured he'd get his 15 minutes of fame by sitting on the same stage as the President of the United States....).

Eventually G.W. swaggered onto the stage in that way that so many redneck guys have (no offense to any anti-Bush rednecks out there) that tells you he's thinking "every woman wants me and every man wants to be me". Well, that's "his" fantasy, anyway - it doesn't have to be true.

Of course, all the mindless automatons went beserk. You'd have thought it was God himself walking onto the stage.

To Bush's credit, he actually pronounced Anne Northup's name correctly (on a previous visit he had mispronounced it as 'Northrup') and then proceeded to let us all know that not only was she a supporter of his privatization plan for Social Security, but actually brought some ideas to the table. (Three months later, the citizens of Louisville and the 3rd Congressional District are still trying to get her to sit down and explain to us just what those ideas are....Inquiring minds want to know).

To the left and right of G.W. were two older men and two young gals who looked starstruck. I guess W's charm must have that effect on women, since they seem to like him so much even as he's basically telling them they don't have enough sense to take control of their own bodies and aren't capable of running their own affairs.

Well, I kept waiting for the "dialogue" to begin. G. W. began by talking about freedom and peace interchangeably - I guess he must take every opportunity he can to stump for the Iraq war - and it was apparent he'd learned that framing stuff well. Either that, or he was wearing an earpiece and someone was telling him what to say. Could have gone either way, but I was too far away to tell.

At any rate, after only a few minutes I felt that I was truly "in the belly of the beast". There's something intrinsically evil about that man.

Well, ole' G.W. kept going on about how we should be able to "own" our accounts and be able to leave our money to our descendents. Right. Like that's going to happen with 99.9% of the people. All he had to do was dangle dollar signs in front of these people, like a rabbit in front of a greyhound, and you could just see them drool. He could have just as easily have said "we're gonna steal from the poor and give to the rich" and they would have still clapped.

Now, there were a few dissenters in the crowd, people I knew, that had vowed to stand up and try to have an actual dialogue with G.W. Unfortunately, the accoustics in this theater are not conducive to this type of speaking, and although three people stood up and voiced their opinions, concerns, and questions - you couldn't hear what they said.

First of all, as I said, the accoustics were terrible. Second, those Republicans know exactly what to do at the first sign of democratic discourse - they clap and cheer and drown any dissenting opinion or questions out. And that's exactly what happened. But, I applaud their efforts.

As far as the "dialogue" with G.W., the only ones who got a chance to talk to him were the grandpas and their granddaughters on stage. And that was obviously scripted and rehearsed. There were no questions from anyone. And even though Bush had no plan to lay out for anyone, no one seemed to care. All they heard was "more money". G.W. told people he wanted to privatize accounts, period.

I could have stayed home for that.

One thing that did impress me though, was the giving away of bumper stickers and yard signs after the "show". I know the Republican party has more money than God and the Democratic party has virtually no money whatsoever in comparison, but Democrats need to start digging a little deeper and have comparable materials to give away, rather than sell. Selling this stuff just makes them look cheap.

I came away from this feeling cheated. It was "much ado about nothing", as far as I was concerned. It was like watching an old fashioned "tonic" salesman plying his wares. Ole' "Slippery George" was telling those tall tales almost as good as Mark Twain. He was the huckster, the trickster, and the hustler all rolled up into one.

And all I could keep thinking was, "why can't these people SEE THIS!" My only answer is that God has allowed scales to cover their eyes, and eventually they will realize that they have been selfish and greedy, and because of their greed, have been deceived. After all, it is written that "Satan is the father of all lies" - and G. W. , along with his cronies, just have to be related.....