The Biggest Assault on Our Democracy Is Coming from the Center of Our Own Government

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/biggest-assault-our-democracy-coming-center-our-own-government

"America no longer has a functioning democracy. This invasion of privacy has been excessive, so bringing it to public notice has probably been beneficial —President Jimmy Carter

Millions of Americans will face a basic question in the coming decade: how much loyalty do we owe a U.S. Executive Branch which extracts huge sums from us to spy upon and lie to us, on the false grounds that doing so is protecting us? Or do we owe our moral allegiance to the ideal of democracy, which requires us to fight the Executive which is its enemy?

Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden recently issued an urgent call to "rein in this omnipresent, ever-expanding surveillance state", warning that "if we don't do it now our generation's going to regret it forever". Wyden and his colleague Mark Udall - who have revealed that even as Senators they have been consistently denied information, lied to, treated like children unable even to take notes, and are even now muzzled from revealing far more massive Executive subversions of democracy than is known - have become the canaries in the coalmine. They warn us that though still largely odorless, colorless and invisible to most of us, poisonous Executive power is slowly destroying what remains of a "functioning democracy" in this country.

The meaning of an ex-U.S. President’s astonishing statement is clear. For the Executive’s threat is not only to "privacy" or "civil liberties" but the very structure of democracy itself. As Wyden and Udall have demonstrated, the Executive Branch has unilaterally seized power since 9/11, behind a curtain of secrecy, in a way that has destroyed our constitutional system of legislative and judicial "checks and balances" on its power.

This threat has been ignored by many because it so counters our childhood beliefs that our government fights for democracy against foreign enemies. But the evidence clearly indicates that it is the U.S. Executive Branch, not foreigners, which is today U.S. democracy’s main enemy. And it also clear that saving our liberties will require a new pro-democracy mass movement as unprecedented as the Executive's post-9/11 power grab.

[stonecutter357]

1. "America no longer has a functioning democracy.

Yes it does!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. Except when large majorities say

they don't want a massive omnipresent surveillance state protecting us and then our masters pat us on the head and tell us it's for our own good.

[truedelphi]

14. Those of us who love America love those warm and affectionate little

Pats on our heads.

And it is for our own good, isn't it?

[cantbeserious]

4. In Our Collective Dreams At Best

eom

[Dustlawyer]

9. When your Representative would rather "Represent" Big Donors" rather than the people

in their District, you have a problem. When most of the Washington politicians work that way, the people have lost their Representative form of government. We lost that way back down the road!

[dotymed]

2. Thank you xchrom.

Now we need to get this message (repeatedly) to the masses.

Ideally this should be a daily PSA on all TV channels, in all media, written and broadcast. Unfortunately, they are owned by the same corporations who depend on our government to keep them as the real PTB.

Maybe Anonymous could hack into the tee vee shows that get the most viewers and show the clip of Carter warning us of this coup.

Whatever it takes, we must get this message out, sooner rather than later.

The few politicians who are not owned subsidiaries could hold news conferences and play this clip.

After this is widely disseminated then it will be time for average Americans to work hard to change the fact that we are not a democracy.

Constitutional Conventions, which are written into our constitution must be held, and strategies made and implemented to
end this coup.
They have quite a head start on us and, unfortunately, all of the power.
This is not a D&R battle. It is a we-vs-them battle that we can no longer afford to lose.

[another_liberal]

5. I was floored by your last sentence.

". . . saving our liberties will require a new pro-democracy mass movement as unprecedented as the Executive's post-9/11 power grab."

That is the dream. We have to make it real.

[Cryptoad]

6. The biggest Assault on our country is coming,,,,,,,,,,,

from the Teahadist and the Demhadist! !!!!!!!!

[Bluenorthwest]

10. I stand with President Carter and with my duly elected US Senator, not with some name flining

internet twit. Just so you know.

[geek tragedy]

12. "some name flining internet twit"

the irony, it burns

[Cryptoad]

13. Truth burrs the ass of Many!,,,,,,,, nt

[Fumesucker]

16. Congratulations, you seem to have coined a new slur

I couldn't find any "Demhadist" references on Google, evidently yours is a phrase that has heretofore not entered the minds of even the most depraved people.

[Cryptoad]

18. Some lead

some follow

[Autumn]

7. Recommended. Great article.

[marmar]

8. k/r

[geek tragedy]

11. Another armchair revolution. Meanwhile, the Koch brothers giggle at this nt

[truedelphi]

15. Uh tonight I think they are nervous.

Seventy two percent of Americans did not fall for the "It's for the children" orchestrated event.

[geek tragedy]

17. Only crazy people think Obama and the Koch brothers are allies. nt

[truedelphi]

20. Says who?

Although Obama announced in 2008, while campaigning that he was NOT DLC, his actions have betrayed his statement.

And then there is this:

http://www.democrats.com/node/7789
But the Kochs have been working both sides of the fence. As Bill Berkowitz writes, the Koch brothers have also been funding the Democratic Leadership Council.

According to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, the brothers are "leading contributors to the Koch family foundations, which supports a network of Conservative organizations and think tanks, including Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Manhattan Institute the Heartland Institute, and the Democratic Leadership Council."

Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute in 1977, while David helped launch Citizens for a Sound Economy in 1986.

This is no less stunning than if Scaife or the Coors family were funding the DLC. So do the Kochs just throw money at the DLC -- as long as the Council supports a free-market" (i.e. unrestricted/unregulated corporate power) agenda that the Kochs generally agree with. Or is it more than just that -- does this really buttress what Greens and other disaffected liberals contend -- that the DNC has just become a party of "Republicrats", thanks especially to the DLC? They would say that corporate backers like the rightwing/libertarian Kochs have co-opted the Democratic establishment -- a hostile takeover of (what was once) the opposition. (continued)

[geek tragedy]

21. Says anyone who's been paying attention to politics since Obama got elected.

The Kochs have spent massive amounts of money attacking Obama and his agenda.

The DLC is defunct, but remains the favorite bogeyman of Green Party types.

[jsr]

19. Recommend