If I had had a time machine back on January 20th, 2001, and I could have looked forward and read this mornings’ New York Times I would have been…well…I would have read the stock reports and I’d be the richest man in the world right now. But, if I had read the unsigned editorial on the state of our nation…I might have used all the money to raise a new happy band of patriots filled with Nathan Hales and Nathaniel Greenes. Because this would have just been shocking:
The Bush administration’s assault on some of the founding principles of American democracy marches onward despite the Democratic victory in the 2006 elections. The new Democratic majorities in Congress can block the sort of noxious measures that the Republican majority rubber-stamped. But preventing new assaults on civil liberties is not nearly enough.
Five years of presidential overreaching and Congressional collaboration continue to exact a high toll in human lives, America’s global reputation and the architecture of democracy. Brutality toward prisoners, and the denial of their human rights, have been institutionalized; unlawful spying on Americans continues; and the courts are being closed to legal challenges of these practices.
Fascism creeps along at a snail’s pace, it doesn’t come in one swift blow. I am now conditioned enough by the last five years that I am not shocked to read this from the staid New York Times editorial board. I find that more frightening than anything else. Impeach.
King George’s Stamp Act was nothing compared to this George’s Patriot Act.
This sentence is beautiful and bears repeating:
The editorial also addresses one of my pet peeves:
The worst feeling is that those we put in office to be on our side are enabling this rot. Vichy Dem has never been more true.
I have changed my mind.
Let’s impeach Cheney. That would have three important effects –
How do we start?
I agree. Cheney is more powerful than Bush, and if we could bring him down it would be a TRUE show of power. And Bush is nothing without Cheney et al.
IMPEACH CHENEY.
When the even the New York Times starts sounding like Justin at antiwar.com or Patrick over at CounterPunch then you know the country’s gone quite far enough down the path of soft fascism.
Abu Gonzales is too busy to answer the Dems in Congress. Dubya believes he can ignore laws at will. Cheney is accountable to no one. Meanwhile, Reid and Pelosi are more worried about the perceptions of which side “owns the responsibility of this war.”
Short of an election process for show, what really qualifies America as a democracy at the Federal level anymore?
But… but… yesterday Bush went down to Alabama to comfort tornado victims. How can your heart be so stoney?
We need to perform a clean sweep.
Impeachment of Gonzales, Cheney and Bush — announce the beginning proceedings of all three, to prevent / thwart the use of
ImperialPresidential pardons, and then begin with Gonzo in earnest.Great piece, BooMan. We’re becoming insulated against scandal; far too insulated to do any good. It’s time to begin the clean sweep and reset our national standard for acceptability.
From someone who saw it happen in Germany. As quoted by Joe Bageant in his piece “Carpooling With Adolf Eichmann”.
You might also watch (or rewatch from the vantage point of a year or so) the movie “Vendetta” if you get a chance.
Operatic?
Over the top?
Of course.
But the same message is implicit in many of the monologues.
It creeps in on little cat feet, this shit.
And then one day…suddenly… a tiger’s got YOU by the tail.
AG
I saw V for Vendetta 8 times in the theater, at full price, and I NEVER do that. But the film was so masterful on so many levels I just wanted to memorize every inch of it, every line, every character nuance, every placement of light and shadow –
It’s a work of art.
And a powerful warning.
That passage was written by a University Professor whom Mayer interviewed as part of his investigation of the lives and mindset of ordinary Nazi’s. It’s chilling exactly because it reflects what happened to us. I reread that book a few months ago. Mayer wrote it at the height of the McCarthy scare. I think that’s what gives it such contemporary relevance. It was relevant in 1954, too.
Oppression is ALWAYS relevant somewhere.
It’s just our turn in the barrel..
May you be born into interesting times.
AG
I only wish we could get the television networks to even say the F word.
Booman, what you say is true. However, think about it for a minute. If on January 20, 2001 you had read that NYT editorial, would you have believed it? After all, when Bush came into power I don’t think the average American thought much of him, except maybe as GHW’s son, governor of Texas and just another politician. The WTC attacks (the Reichstag Fire of the Bush administration) hadn’t happened yet. There was as yet no reason to think that Bush and Cheney would start in on a power grab. It’s only with the benefit of hindsight (September 11, the Secret Energy Task Force, the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act, the AUMF, rescinding of habeus corpus) that we can really chart the creep toward fascism that this country has made.
And unfortunately it wouldn’t have been any better if tomorrow I were to invent a time machine and send you back to the first
CoronationInauguration Day. Speaking only for myself, I would have looked at a time traveler from 2007 coming to spread the news about the imminent takeover of America as someone who’d gone off their meds. It took me a full two years to figure out that my rights were being eroded right out from under me. Maybe I’m just not the sharpest crayon in the box (which I will enthusiastically go along with), but I think I’m not the only one who would in early 2001 have disnissed the idea that our country was about to go down the tubes.To continue this thought experiment for a lazy Sunday morning, if I had the power to do so I would study the markets, work out an optimum strategy for it, and come back to 2001 and start investing like mad in whatever would make me the maximum amount of money. (Why I wouldn’t just find a way to keep the September 11th terrorists out of the country or make sure Bolton and his goons didn’t go terrorize the Florida election office is a good question.) Then, about 2003 or so, I’d start finding ways to fund alternatives to the Mighty Wurlitzer. The time would have been right about then — Lakoff’s “Don’t Think Of An Elephant!” had come out and people were actively talking about the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Anything we did then might not have gotten Dean (or Kerry or Edwards or any other Democrat) elected, but it might have set a counterweight in motion and we could be doing something about impeachment right now instead of talking about it.
Yes it’s 1939 and yes you are in Berlin Germany.
What are people doing besides preaching to the choir here at BT to stop fascism?
Seriously. If all we do is note this to each other – how will that prevent it?
What are you doing? What should we be doing to stop the slow creep of fascism in America???
Well, Real History Lisa, I guess — after reading Chris Hedges’ AMERICAN FASCISTS outstanding take on what is actually happening here…and why — we could join the first writers in starting with Cheney’s Impeachment (there’s good evidence, to begin, already existing in the Libby trial)…..and then go from there. I do think we need to let the Pelosi’s and Reid’s that it is NOT ENOUGH to make scattered attempts to begin investigations. To question WHY impeachment proceedings are off the table? For 2008 protection? NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!! We need to be stepping up the pressure.
P.S. Chris Hedges’ book, American Fascists (see ad at left of screen) is a must read as far as I’m concerned.
Thanks, Sandy. I think if we raised a coordinated, uniformed cry in the blogosphere Pelosi and Reid might pay attention.
I also think we need to go beyond that. In local Democratic clubs. In state resolutions. We need to cry out at every level re this.
A rapidly growing network of organizations including the Green Party, CodePink, the N ational Lawyers Guild, Campus Antiwar Network, Progressive Democrats of America, and many others has launched a major new campaign to push for the immediate impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney. The Impeach07 campaign is coordinating a series of initiatives over the next two months that will culminate on April 28 with a nationwide day of protest in towns and cities across America.
George Bush and Dick Cheney have committed high crimes and misdemeanors including misleading the nation into an aggressive war, spying in open violation of the law, and sanctioning the use of torture. These are a betrayal of our most fundamental values of truth, freedom, and justice. Far from being a partisan political quest impeachment is a self-evident moral imperative. Additionally, an investigation into the lies used to sell the war against Iraq may be the best way to increase pressure for withdrawal, and to prevent a new war on Iran.
If you’re ready to stand up for truth, freedom, and justice, please visit http://www.a28.org to get involved. And please help spread the word. There is enormous public support for this, but with a veritable mainstream media blackout on the issue it is crucial that we use the power of the internet to put accountability back on the table.