Nation of the State

On the U.S.... The state of the nation is that it is a nation of the State, with the State being an essentially non-governed entity that moves through time of its own accord. The State was initially created with a government, by and for the people, but the government no longer runs the State. Granted, the people still elect representatives to this government, but the power of those representatives has been eclipsed by the momentous and independent forward roll of the State in its own dimension. Witness:

1. When Barack Obama was elected President, there was great excitement and "hope." Within days, he began to fulfill one of his campaign promises - presumably one of the reasons for excitement - to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. Four months later, the U.S. Senate passes an amendment to block the funding of prisoner transferral out of Guantanamo, while congressional leaders the country over use the NIMBY argument to prevent prisoner transferral to any of the "legit" maximum security prisons in their states. The President alone cannot solve our problems. Especially when he or she gets vetoed by the rest of the elected leaders. A president can make things worse on his or her own, but often needs the rest of the State to help him or her make things better.

2. On May 26, Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court - because of her qualifications, and presumably, to appeal to his growing Hispanic constituency, as she would be the court's first Hispanic Justice. While it may please many Puerto Ricans, this nomination, a politically-savvy apologia, actually obscures the position of other Puerto Ricans who want complete independence from the U.S. They don't want one of their own in the courts, because they don't want the courts at all. For those Puerto Ricans interested in complete freedom from colonialism, this nomination will not help their cause.

3. Last night, unless something catastrophic happened, the Texas Young Professionals hosted a reception at Threadgill's in Austin, at $50 a head, to raise money for the Al Franken Recount Fund. This may seem like satire, but I'm completely serious on all acounts. What the fuck? With all the possible causes that could benefit greatly from fundraising - food banks, natural disaster relief, homelessness, poverty due to war, AIDS research, cancer treatment, MS, equal-opportunity education, recycling, etc., et al - these assholes are wasting their happy hour to send money up north so that other poor suckers can count more ballots? People, this is not reality. This is a cruel masquerade designed to make you sink deeper and further back, into fantasy, months and months after an election, until you find yourself stuck in a sketch on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s. Here's an idea for a fundraising cause - one that should be supported after the abovementioned causes and many others - but before the Al Franken Recount Fund:

Phil was telling me about a fountain in Spain with a perpetual flow of wine. We were walking around UT the other night at dusk, passing one of the great geyser fountains found on campus, when the setting sun hit just right, and we imagined a magnificent fountain of Pinot grigio, to swim and play in. Please, if nothing else, donate your money to the Bacchanalian Wine Fountain Fund. We'll even set it up in Minnesota, for just one night, and I believe the inhabitants of that state will gain much more in general quality of life than they ever would have by counting pieces of paper one more time.

Ballots or sheep... what's the difference?