Father Guido Sarducci says he has the solution to illegal immigration from Mexico. Simply give Texas back to Mexico, then the Mexicans would have to drive all the way to New Mexico to enter the country illegally. I don’t know what that means, and the good father didn’t say what to do about the other three states that border Mexico, so Arnold stepped up to fill the void. "Close the borders!" he shouted, as though it were so simple it just evaded everyone but him. As his press secretary scrambled to tell everyone who heard it that he didn’t really mean it, Arnold made his exit, only to be back in front of the cameras the next day explaining that he only meant "secure" the borders. Just like every other time the governor has discussed illegal Mexican immigration, he didn’t explain exactly what his plan might be, because of course, any increase in border security would involve spending some of the state’s money, something which Arnold claims to be against. Maybe if we push him a little harder, we can get Schwartzy to revive the old thousand mile fence plan.

Was this just an exuberant, spontaneous generalization, or was it perhaps carefully calculated? Whatever it was, it secured the votes of all the people who really would close the border if they had a chance. If at the same time, everyone else sees it as just a naive, inexperienced politician running his mouth before his entourage has a chance to stop him, then he looks charming and cultivates the image he desires, even while nailing down the votes of some people who are way out in the far reaches of reactionary right wingedness.

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That seems to be the standard Republican operating procecure in these days of elephants dominating while donkeys roll over in ineffectual confusion. Last Sunday, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Bill Frist, delivered a televised speech blistering Democrats for opposing some of the Bushwhacker’s judicial appointments. He went so far as to say that Democrats are not people of faith. Where did he deliver this message? In church, of course. He was speaking to 2000 Christian fundamentalists at a church in Louisville. It was broadcast directly to several hundred churches and on TV and radio stations owned by religious groups. That’s how the Bush administration gets it’s message out to the country.

Republican pandering to the religious right proves that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but you don’t need to. You don’t even need to fool 50% plus one if you’re tight with the people who count the votes. I mean, does anyone really believe that people like Don Rumsfield, Dick Cheney and even Dub himself are "people of faith?" I’m not asking if they darken the door of a church occasionally; I’m asking if they live their lives by Christian principles and values. They lie, cheat, and kill for money and power, then they go to church and tell those who congregate that their political opponents are not "people of faith," and they get away with it.

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I read a piece a few days ago about a couple of guys who have shaken up the environmental community with a little 36-page opinion piece called The Death of Environmentalism. Two guys named Ted Nordhaus and Mike Shellenberger dropped this thing on a convention of big money movers and shakers in the environmental movement. Forgive me for being too general about this, but the gist of the piece is that environmentalists are too fragmented, negative and inclusive of groups with agendae which don’t appeal to the mainstream. It compares the message which the mainstream gets about the environmental movement to Martin Luther King’s best known message. King said, "I have a dream." The mainstream hears the environmentalists saying, "I have a nightmare." The majority of the people gladly call themselves environmentalists. Hell, even the people who want to pave the planet in search of oil call themselves environmentalists, but voters continually elect the pavers and reject the greener candidates.

I hate to be one of those people who, when all else fails, blame the media. But that’s the point in the article of which I speak. It’s all in the image, and unfortunately, the mainstream gets its images in sound bites. The environmental movement is portrayed as radical when it’s not because it hasn’t learned to manipulate the media. The Republicans have learned to manipulate the media, and they’ve convinced a lot of people that they’re Christian people when they’re not. Actually, I’m not convinced the average voter is all that interested in the deeds of the people they elect. The Bush administration announced even before it took office that the economy was about to go south, and it did, but few people seemed concerned. Then the Bush crowd released it’s definitive foreign policy statement which proudly proclaimed that the goal was world domination, and the average voter seemed to say, "Fine with me." Following that policy, the U.S. set about dominating the Middle East by colonizing Iraq with a military occupation, and middle America responded by sticking ribbons and flags on their cars and saying, "Hooray for us!" How many people still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for taking out the World Trade Center?

Even the nomination of John Bolton as UN Ambassador falls into this discussion. The nomination is so outrageous it not only defies belief, it defies satire. He’s a warmonger of the highest order, and he doesn’t even believe the United Nations has a right to exist, but all the media wants to talk about is the testimony that he treated security analysts and subordinates badly when he worked for the State Department. The guy who thinks he’s President wants to send a guy to the UN who wants to destroy the UN. The irony seems lost on the great middle class. Sure, learning to manipulate the media can help anyone’s cause, but a new image won’t change a situation where the voters don’t believe any information that isn’t confirmed by Time, Newsweek and the network news.

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Did you see the federal government’s new standards of nutrition? I’m sure glad those reporters were ready to explain it to me, because I couldn’t tell what I’m supposed to be eating by looking at that striped pyramid, although I did notice that there wasn’t a stripe for all that stuff the White House has been trying to feed me. Here’s a quote from one of those "man on the street" columns asking people if the new standards will change their eating habits: "Do you really want the folks who allow 45 million to go without health care and put psychiatric patients out on the street bringing nutrition to your home?"