Keiserens nye Klæder

This election is truly interminable, and would be better settled by drawing straws or a Greco-Roman wrestling match or strewing poultry entrails on the floor of the Senate chamber. Last night the Donk upped the anty in the couple of minutes of speeches that I caught, raising the old "one of the most important elections of our lifetimes" with a mountain of "one of the most important elections in the history of our nation." What're we going to call 2012: the Second Coming? The Singularity? In fact this has so far proved to be one of the least significant campaigns I can recall, with the Democrats making broad, if milquetoast, appeals to some very vague and entirely rhetorical notion of social justice while striving to appear modestly less militant even as they pimp their chimerical toughness, while Republicans proclaim that the free-market rising tide will lift all boats, decry a non-existent Democratic socialism, and rattle the decorative saber at an increasingly uncowed world. These have been the precise dynamics of every American Presidential contest since Jimminy Cricket beat Pardon-Me Ford . . . at least. Saieth The Stiftung:

Nothing on Guatanamo, illegal and unconstitutional torture, nothing about Russia beyond platitudes about Neocon solidarity with Georgian freedom-loving activities, nothing about NATO expansion, nothing about China, India beyond a roll call of rising powers, and so on. No specifics about Iraq (and glossing over Biden’s vote for the war, too). No talk about restoring the constitution and balance between an Imperial Regime in both domestic and foreign affairs.

This must be moderately en plaisantant, because The Stiftung Strauss knows that on these issues the Donk shares the same bellicose know-nothingism as his cross-aisle rival. Democracy good; Putin bad. NATO = Democracy. China = TBD. Inda = N/A. In the eyes of Washington, Iraq is now thankfully winding down, and with fewer BOOM!s comes fewer headlines. Why would they mention something that The People are so ready to forget? The invisible masters have issued their directive to the new would-be managers: Make. This. Go. Away. As for the constitution and forswearing the Roman trappings of the imperial presidency, that is the least likely outcome of all.