The miraculous ritual vote can even absolve penitent Republicans:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/your_take_22.php
"In the past, I wouldn't have classified myself as anything even close to resembling an "informed voter" and as a result, cast two votes for George Bush. Now being rather ashamed of those decisions, but more importantly, furious at what the last administration did with those votes, I vowed to change. This cycle, I kept as informed as one could and proudly cast my vote for Barack. It was as though the guilt of the past eight years was lifted."
Some scholars claim that once the ballot paper is put in the box, it actually becomes Obama's flesh.
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:30 AM, Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009, ken hanly wrote:
>
>> Watching all the hoopla re the inauguration and all the marketing hype re
>> Obama as president and the mass uncritical acceptance of Obama I am reminded
>> of all the criticism in the west of the Stalin and Mao cult of personality.
>
> On a slightest alarmist note, Patricia Williams thinks at a lot of it can be
> attributed to:
>
> <quote>
>
> a kind of Wizard
> of Oz-ish fizzy relief about George W. Bush's exit--as in Ding Dong,
> the Wicked Warlock is melting into a nice little past-tense puddle.
> There's a giddily celebratory sweeping out of the indubitably,
> absolutely, completely, very worst president in our history. So many
> bad things have happened in the past eight years that it's hard to
> keep them all in one's head at one time. Another friend says he hung
> a list in the hallway of his apartment building, tabulating all the
> really awful things he blames Bush for. Other neighbors added to it.
> At first, he said, he was going to use it to host an inauguration
> party at which people would knock back a shot for each phenomenally
> inept executive flub. But then, he says, "I realized we'd all be
> drunk for a year."
>
> In any event, it's a great list; the sheer length of it reminds one
> how dizzyingly mismanaged the executive office has been. Here are a
> few of the highlights, to get you in the mood of groveling gratitude
> for the new course we are about to embark upon:
>
> http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090202/williams
>
> Pax Americana and the aspiration to consolidate a global American
> empire. The Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive warfare. Hurricane Katrina
> and "heckuva job, Brownie." The explicit rejection of the Geneva
> Conventions. John Yoo's and Alberto Gonzales's redefinition of
> torture. Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank subsidizing his
> girlfriend. Ahmad Chalabi. The FCC allowing greater consolidation of
> media. The outing of Valerie Plame. The manipulations asserting that
> there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The addled handling
> of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. Opposition to
> stem cell research. The looting of the National Museum of Iraq, and
> the burning of Baghdad's National Library. Donald Rumsfeld's remarks
> that rioting in Iraq was the sign of a liberated people and that
> Iraq was no more violent than some American cities. Stacking the
> Civil Rights Commission with conservatives, like Abigail Thernstrom,
> who want to overturn sections of the Voting Rights Act. The shooting
> death of Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari and injury of
> journalist Giuliana Sgrena at the hands of American soldiers. The
> appointment of ultraconservatives John Roberts and Samuel Alito to
> the Supreme Court. Cheney filling his friend with birdshot. The USA
> Patriot Act. Doing away with habeas corpus. The National Security
> Agency's warrantless wiretapping of citizens' phone calls and
> e-mails. The notion of an unchecked, unaccountable "unitary
> executive." The failure to keep official numbers of dead Iraqi
> civilians. The forbidding of photographs, or even visibility, of
> American military dead. The multilayered, high-level lying about how
> football hero Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. Halliburton
> taking kickbacks from Kuwaiti oil suppliers. Paul Bremer dispensing
> billions of dollars for contracts in Iraq, which disappeared, never
> to be accounted for or recovered. Blackwater mercenaries accused of
> murdering Iraqi civilians. "Military tribunals" established outside
> the military justice system, with no due process or right to an
> attorney or to cross-examination or even to know the charges. The
> silly disparagement of the national anthem sung in Spanish. Bush
> talking directly to God. Abu Ghraib. Profiling Arab, Muslim and
> Latino immigrants. Guantánamo. Extraordinary rendition. Lousy
> veterans' benefits. Lousy veterans' hospitals. The failure to
> provide soldiers with reinforced armored vehicles ("You go to war
> with the army you have," explained Rumsfeld). The refusal to
> recognize post-traumatic stress disorder as a legitimate condition.
> Monica Goodling's political litmus tests in hiring for nonpolitical
> posts in the Justice Department. Expelling Helen Thomas from the
> White House press room and putting in fake reporter "Jeff Gannon" to
> throw adoring softball questions. John Ashcroft's draping of
> bare-breasted sculptures in the Justice Department. His subpoenas of
> more than 2,500 records of abortions performed at public hospitals.
> Gonzales firing US Attorneys around the country for political
> reasons. Oh, and did I forget the economy?
>
> <end excerpt>
>
> Michael
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>