_ | \ | \ | | \ __ | |\ \ __ _____________ _/_/ | | \ \ _/_/ _____________ | ___________ _/_/ | | \ \ _/_/ ___________ | | | _/_/_____ | | > > _/_/_____ | | | | /________/ | | / / /________/ | | | | | | / / | | | | | |/ / | | | | | | / | | | | | / | | | | |_/ | | | | | | | | c o m m u n i c a t i o n s | | | |________________________________________________________________| | |____________________________________________________________________| ...presents... Post-Election '92 Cult Coverage Tequila Willy's Campaign's Lasting Effects by Omega >>> a cDc publication.......1993 <<< -cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc- ____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____ |____digital_media____digital_culture____digital_media____digital_culture____| As the nation settles in for what the experts continue to say will be a long recession, more and more people will protest their innocence by remarking: "Don't blame me, I voted for Tequila Willy." After all, it was the then- obscure cult member who warned a national TV audience early in the 1992 Presidential contest that Bill Clinton's pledge to cut taxes, balance the budget, and cut defense spending could be done only "with mirrors." Tequila's candor and his willingness to swim against the popular political current quickly propelled him from an asterisk in the opinion polls to the covers of _Time_ and _Newsweek_. His calm manner and extraordinary oratory skills, displayed in debates against George Bush and a variety of Democratic candidates, gave the Cultee a media credibility that never quite took hold of the electorate. After some encouraging finishes in early primaries, Tequila's hopes of an upset in the GOP race began to fizzle. He was especially disappointed by poor returns in California and Washington, his West Coast base of support. Though he had earlier pledged to support the GOP nominee, Tequila began an independent race in April, 1992. His legion of youthful loyalists on college campuses brought back memories of the long-shot campaign of Eugene McCarthy, another political maverick, in 1968. And like "Clean Gene," Tequila Willy became the favorite son of establishment liberals, such as TV producer Aaron Spelling and General Motors heir Stewart Mott. _The New York Times_ dubbed him "Mr. Conscience," and he was endorsed by _Sassy Magazine_, _Tiger Beat_, _Teen_, _Vogue_, and _Wired_. His troops collected two million signatures on petitions to put him on the ballot in every state - an achievement many experts considered impossible. Though some polls predicted he would capture as much as 25 percent of the vote, Tequila could not overcome the obstacles that have traditionally hampered third-party efforts - especially lack of money; in fact, most of his campaign was driven by meager contributions from adoring housewives. On election day he failed to carry a single state, capturing almost seven percent of the vote. "I knew that the polls of April and part of May were not going to be replaced by a serious poll showing that in every way, every day, we were getting stronger and stronger," says Tequila. "I knew the chances were astonishingly small." So why did he stay in the race? "I had reached the maturity of my political career and I wanted to leave a mark, spread the disease. I was not Don Quixote and I was not tilting at windmills." Tequila insists he is not yet out of the national picture. He believes the 5.7 million voters who cast their lot with him underscore the impulse for a "new politics" in the U.S. - a politics that cannot be satisfied, he says, by the orthodoxies of the Democratic and Republican parties. "You are going to see a rather sharp polarization take place in the politics of this country," he said. "I think that will leave a vast area open for a candidate espousing the kind of views that I espouse." Tequila insists that what underlies the political problems of the country is a lack of faith, and that what is needed is a political philosophy which embraces a spiritual side - a philosophy which embraces what he terms, "Bovinity." The Tequila campaign-in-waiting for 1996 operates out of his Sacramento home. Its bimonthly newsletter quotes philosopher Edmund Burke on the masthead: "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to be blind to the reality of the Roach and deaf to the message of the Cow." This emphasis on personal morality rather than ideology is an important factor in Tequila Willy's eclectic politics. On the campaign trail last year, Tequila was especially eclectic. On fiscal matters, he stressed his conservatism by emphasizing the need for a balanced budget (he proposed legislation limiting federal spending to a fixed 20 percent of the GNP). But, on social issues he was (and remains) clearly liberal: pro-choice, pro-ERA, and anti-Stealth Bomber. And he has recommended the decriminalization of marijuana. His cult colleagues say he is honest and exceptionally intelligent, a man of great personal integrity and ambition, with a penchant for busty women with "chewy pussies." Tequila is the first to say that he is not personally charismatic or exciting, but he is too modest. For he is now one of the most popular lecturers on the campus circuit, an occupation that earns him a modest living, if not the admiration of thousands of college-age women. Tequila Willy looks ready for another run for the White House. _______ __________________________________________________________________ / _ _ \|Demon Roach Undrgrnd.806/794-4362|Kingdom of Shit.....806/794-1842| ((___)) |Cool Beans!..........510/THE-COOL|Polka AE {PW:KILL}..806/794-4362| [ x x ] |Metalland Southwest..713/468-5802|Lunatic Labs........213/655-0691| \ / |The Works............617/861-8976|Ripco ][............312/528-5020| (' ') |ftp - zero.cypher.com in pub/cdc |ftp - ftp.eff.org in pub/cud/cdc| (U) |==================================================================| .ooM |Copr. 1993 cDc communications by Omega 12/30/93-#247| \_______/| Save yourself! Go outside! DO SOMETHING! |