Blog of Doom

Very few things have the capacity to scare me, especially on a lovely Los Angeles morning. But there is one thing that will always send an Arctic shiver down my spine:

The Russian nuclear arsenal.

Yep, Vladimir Putin has called for the resumption of the Russia-U.S. arms race, saying his cash-strapped country will focus on...guess what...nuclear weapons.

Over the next five years, Russia will "substantially increase the provision of strategic nuclear forces with modern long-range planes, submarines and launchers," Putin said.

[sings] Duck, and cover!

Yes, Russia is quickly becoming a very scary place, as fascism takes hold. Worst of all, I'm not sure what the U.S., or anyone, can do to prevent this. Neither Bush's first-term appeasement of Putin nor the hardening of his attitude during the second term seems to have produced any change in Russia's downward spiral. My only comfort is that Russia's population may be decreasing too fast for the country to pose a long-term danger to the world - that's what happens when you have too much sex and not enough kids.

But Crazy Ruskies aren't the only thing sending me to the medicine cabinet for a Valium (Oops, did the NSA see that? I was just kidding, I swear!!).

Also worrying is the seemingly inevitable conflict between the U.S. and Iran, which looks like it will be Bush's parting gift to the globe. According to this blog post by a former counterterrorism operative, the U.S. attack is unavoidable and already taking shape:

Even IF Chinese and Russian opposition to sanctions are overcome, sanctions alone would be unlikely to prevent an Iranian bomb. The loss of these “soft” options means that a military confrontation between the US and Iran is now unavoidable. The US military attack on Iran will, most certainly, be conducted with air power...[T]he objective would be to remove the clerical regime from power...Simultaneous with the air campaign’s suppression of Iran’s minority Persian government, the US will arm and actively support ethnic guerrillas (Kurds, Balochs, Azeris, etc.) to turn sections of the country into autonomous zones.

Of course, this will result in "rocketing oil prices, global terrorist attacks, and severe diplomatic fall-out," as well as "[the] collapse [of] the US-led post cold war environment."

Which means that, even as a new Cold War revvs its engines, the U.S. is losing the network of support that allowed us to win the first one.

My solution: Democrats to the rescue! With Republicans floundering in the polls, stuck like robots in automatic-tax-cut mode, Democrats have a big opening to seize the day, restore the international balance of power, clean up the country's finances, and strengthen our hand against the looming challenges. The only problem is that the Democrats can't even tell their head from their...um...They can't even decide how to spend their money.

Basically, Dean wants to pump money into the Red States, hoping to incrementally build up long-term Democratic support in those areas. Congressional leaders like Rahm Emmanuel want to spend that money now, when Republicans are at their weakest, to win the 2006 election. Normally I'd agree with Dean, since I think that the party's long-term success is more important than short-term gains. But in this case, I'm starting to side with Rahm, for three reasons:
1) The world, as noted in the first part of this blog post, is too scary right now to have Republicans steering our country any longer.
2) Howard Dean doesn't have a great record of getting electoral bang for his buck - in the '04 Iowa caucuses he poured millions into an army of door-to-door canvassers with body piercings who just ended up scaring farmers into voting for Kerry.
3) A better way to improve the Democrats' position in Red States is to retool our message, not throw money at the problem.

We need our local organizations in the Red States to show that we care about the things Red-Staters really care about - show that we have a plan for national security, show that we want to protect family-oriented culture (i.e. curb public sexuality), emphasize how patriotic we are, and show that we care about the working class. Conservative drift? Yes. But it's not the brand of conservatism the Republicans are peddling. And it doesn't have to be nationwide. And it's going to be decades before the South becomes liberal on its own (and it will)...and in the meantime, things may get extremely scary in the world if we don't get Democrats in power soon.

Of course, it'll be a rainy day in LA before anyone takes my advice. Time to go see about that Valium...