Iron Cory or limp-wristed Wonderbread?

Ok, they’re whining now. Yuck.

Face it: George W. Bush very well may get this election stolen from him because he didn’t throw down the gauntlet early enough or steadfastly enough. As in, early last week. GoreLieberman’s ploy was easy to see from the start.

If Bush had stuck his neck out, made a pure populist play and announced that he would consider any electoral monkey business null and void, then GoreLieberman would have to contemplate the prospect of a virtual civil war if it pressed its nefarious agenda.

Instead, the GOP walked down the garden path, only to discover that–oh, big surprise–it can’t beat GoreLieberman at its own game.

The spectacle is atrocious to behold, but what really caps it is the recent wave of deluded whining from the Republican party. Sorry, guys, you wimped out. Republicans should have taken to the streets last week. Now, you’re reduced to this pathetic judicial wrangling, which is a sorry sight to behold.

The intellectuals with Republican sympathies are cranking out all sorts of mealy mouthed slop about how “right will prevail in the long run,” etc., etc. Uh, yeah. That’s a bit naive, don’t you think? Tell anyone who was stomped, burned, or shot to death in 1917’s Russia that right will prevail in the long run.

And 1917 is a comparison we’ll start hearing some day. The Bolsheviks are merely more sophisticated these days, and the masses far more passive. Public education and the mass media have already biased most people in favor of socialism. And, perhaps more profoundly, the minority who oppose socialism in the United States are still far too comfortable to risk their cable TV and subsidized Prozac and Ritilan prescriptions to do anything vigorous about the putsch. If you tried to overthrow the government in the Philippines or Korea, you’d have a nasty fight on your hands. In the United States, the populace would merely–and meekly–seek additional psycho-therapy.

So, in this sense, the Republican party is part of the problem, not part of the solution. I have no sympathy for anyone who stands still for a butt-kicking. If Dubya couldn’t whip his supporters into a rabid frenzy over the GoreLieberman coup, then Dubya should perhaps hire Jessie Jackson. Jessie could do it.

Or, maybe, the Bushies could hire Corazon Aquino, the iron lady of the Philippine democracy. Cory has more guts than any blow-dried, blue-suited, limp-wristed country club Republican. So maybe the weakling Wonderbread people in the stateside GOP should consider spicing things up and introducing some Asian tenacity into things. I’m all for that.

In the meantime, dear GOP, the time to stand up and to be heard, the time to dig in your heels and draw a line in the sand, was last week. Maybe Bush will get lucky, but I doubt it. In any event, stop whining.

Stephens is an economist with Stephens Corporation, a professional organization in the NMI. His column appears three times a week: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Mr. Stephens can be contacted via the following e-mail address: ed4Saipan@yahoo.com.