The Rising Tide of Popular Discontent in America By kpominville

[Demeter]

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kyle_pom_070804_the_rising_tide_of_p.htm


I have noticed something recently, both around the "water cooler" at work and creeping into the public discourse. I keep hearing the same sentiment expressed in conversations between ordinary Americans: "things in this country are only going to continue getting worse until we have an armed insurrection." And it isn't just progressives and liberals. I have heard some conservatives say the same thing. Everyone is thinking the same thing; Are we headed toward another civil war?

A woman recently asked Michael Moore about this on Hardball...Also recently, Hugo Award winning Author Orson Scott Card wrote "Empire", a fiction about a near-future revolution in the United States between liberals and conservatives.

This thought is on every one's mind, because there are no practical solutions being offered. The corporate control of our government seems total and immovable without violent overthrow. The conservative world-view that government cannot do anything right and that only private, for-profit enterprises can do anything for America infects our media and therefore infects a great many Americans, to the detriment of all Americans. We are being polarized into classes again and the media is keeping everyone ignorant to that fact.

That is what John Edwards is talking about when he talks about "Two Americas". My brother delivered a truckload of relief supplies to the Gulf Coast after Katrina and afterwards he told me that "those people needed those supplied desperately... before Katrina had ever hit."


Protests have not worked.
Writing letters has not worked.
Calling our Representatives has not worked.
They just caved-in AGAIN and gave into Bush on his warrantless wiretapping.

And the rightwing is thinking about it too. They are waiting and watching for the straw that breaks the camels back. After Supreme Court Justice Roberts collapsed this week, rightwing radio host Michael "Savage" Wiener claimed that it was because of a "conspiracy by Democrats". This country is headed straight for another civil war. he signs are right under all our noses.

A Democratic victory in 2008 will only prolong the inevitable unless something radical happens and a real progressive populist is elected. That will only happen if enough concerned Americans get together and take back the Democratic party. A Republican victory in 2008 will only guarantee that the next American civil war happens sooner rather than later.




Authors Website: http://thesarcasticcynic.blogspot.com/

Authors Bio: I am a classic Gen x'er with a short attention span, high intelligence, low motivation and an overabundance of cynicism that the world just keeps re-justifying. At various points in my life I have been a Journalist, a Personal Trainer, a D.J., a Photographer, a Paralegal, a Waiter, a Pizza Deliverator and a Network Engineer...among other things.

[Stargazer99]

1. Amen....I have felt the possiblity of civil war since Bush

was first elected. I knew what his philosophy might lead to....and what I hoped it was just my wild imagination ..damn here it is

[Demeter]

2. You Aren't the Only One!

God help us all.

[Prophet 451]

3. I've heard the same rumbllings even here

I'm a Brit although I work with and for Americans. I live in England (the Midlands as it happens) so if I'm hearing these rumblings, something's up.

I can't back insurrection. Not yet anyway. Not because I have any great love of the Bushistas or even because I'm a pacifist (no, a long way from that) but because I don't think the situation is bad enough yet to warrant insurrection, not quite.

But it is bad, very bad. This administration has systematically removed all the restraints put on them, even given themselves the option of siezing dictatorial power. They have ignored the will of the people, ignored domestic and international law (the latter in ways which rise to the level of war crimes), packed the courts with cronies chosen for their canine fidelity to the administration's views, ignored subpoenas and rigged the game in ways that ensure they can't be held to account. In the words of Leonard Cohen "Everybody knows the dice are loaded, everybody rolls with their fingers crossed" but, for the moment, there are other ways of removing this stain: Impeachment, removal from office, impeach the judges (and then come up with some better way of selecting them). You could even wait them out but I'm not sure your nation can survive another eighteen months.

Problem is that teh Bushistas have set in place a system which allows them to sieze dictatorial powers (which includes presumably, the power to suspend elections) as soon as they decide a "national emergency" can be declared and they've done so more-or-less legally. Of course, with that system in place, there's no guarentee that impeachment would work either.

Still, I can't support insurrection, not yet. But if the admin excercises that option, grabs dictatorial powers, all bets are off.

[tbyg52]

9. I'm not sure your nation can survive another eighteen months.

Me either, and yet impeachment is "off the table."

[Igel]

4. Practical solutions are the result of politics. Good politics.

"If, in your anger, you reduce your opponent to the status of someone unworthy or unable to engage in legitimate exchange, real politics comes to an end."

There can only be a tug of war between two sides when both of them consider themselves to be intelligent, moral, and sensible, while also believing their opponents to be heartless, cruel, nasty, and at the very best barely human. Evidence is only viewed through the lens of confirmation bias: You get idiot quotes from the other side and they're taken as representative--but when they take idiot quotes from your side it's complete and total wilful misrepresentation. Each side finds honor in being the superior and yet wronged victim, in showing how inferior the other side is. But "you" and "they" in that sentence are completely arbitrary wrt which side they refer to.

Side A is therefore unable to understand why the idiots on side B don't admit the moral and intellectual perfection of side A, and side B has the exact same, mirror image, attitude.

Given that it's not possible to easily admit overlap--that would taint the uniqueness and distinctiveness of each side--we have deliberate misparsing, manipulation of Gricean maxims to suit our personal egos. "In public life, language is a weapon of war and is deployed in conditions of radical distrust. All that matters is what you said, not what you meant. The political realm is a world of lunatic literalism." (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine/05iraq-t.html?pagewanted=2&adxnnl=1&ref=magazine&adxnnlx=1186340793-XFzu7jAZmrRb2jAq1kOv8A) I find the quote to accurately describe the situation, by and large; fortunately he didn't say this was desirable, just that what is, is.

Under such conditions, conversation, much less dialog, is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. One presents another's view not to understand, but to humiliate; not to find ways to communicate, but to show that communication is not only impossible, but wrong, precluding any possible compromise. There is no good will, even if it must be denied by deliberate misparsing. This means compromise is both immoral and impossible (because it's not a goal to be achieved, but one that is to be avoided). And without compromise, there can be no liberal democracy, just attempts at majoritarianism. Politics as the art of the possible becomes war--politics by other means. But war is widely seen as failure.


And, to a very large extent, that is both Peter Wood's (the source of the quote) and Scott Card's point.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Throw Diebold/ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW! Analysis:

Here's what I think has happened, here's my prediction, and here's what I think we can do about it, short of insurrection:

1. What has happened

In October 2002, there were TWO pivotal bills passed by the Anthrax Congress. One is well-known, the Iraq War Resolution (IWR). The other, less known, but supported by even more Democrats than the IWR, was the so-called "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) These two bills are closely related. The IWR guaranteed an unjust, heinous war. HAVA provided the means to shove this war down the throats of the American people, by fast-tracking electronic voting systems all over the country during the 2002 to 2004--voting systems run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls (and no lobbying controls, to move it even faster). A $3.9 electronic voting boondoggle was created, which corrupted everything in its path--from the Congress critters who doled it out, to the state legislators and election officials through whose fingers it passed, to the local county registrars, who lapped it up, along with lavish lobbying perks (such as the junket to the Beverly Hilton, disguised as an electronic voting "conference" in August 2005, sponsored by Deibld, ES&S and Sequoia).

56% of the American people opposed the Iraq War way back at the beginning (Feb. '03). 56% would be a landslide in a presidential election (and believe me, it was). The political establishment knew that this significant majority would only get bigger--as the highly corrupt, wrongful nature of this war was exposed. It's now 70% against the war--a staggering majority. So they had to have a means of fiddling the election results, in 2004, in 2006, and likely in 2008. HAVA was the answer and it was kept well "under the radar" of the American people--the most 'black-holed' story of this era--by BOTH parties, and of course by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, as well as by the corrupted election officials who purchased these expensive, crapass, hackable machines.

Rigged voting machines have other uses, of course (in addition to forcing a Mideast war upon us)--tax cuts for the rich, gutting of corporate regulation, delaying desperately need global warming measures, packing the Supreme Court with fascists to protest corporate interests, etc. We've seem the gamut of them. We need to understand how this has all come about, against the interests and will of the people. Rigged voting machines are not the only thing that is wrong, but they the final kick of the fascist boot--the one that drains the life out of democracy itself, making a change of course, and recovery, impossible.


2. My prediction of what will happen next

What will happen next year is pretty clear already (if nothing changes--such as a fast-paced citizen revolt against the voting machines, or entry into the race of Al Gore). We will be given a "choice" of an outright fascist/nazi-type (likely Fred Thompson) or a disguised fascist/corporatist with a few lib positions on social issues (likely Hillary Clinton). The disguised fascist/corporatist will "win." That will lull people for a short while. Then the shit is going to hit the fan. The crash of '29, only worse. The collapse of our pension system. Crippled vets with no care. Millions hungry and homeless. Breadlines. Not just a drained treasury, but a treasury in grave debt for many decades to come. Darth Vader cops, Blackwater mercenaries and the U.S. military used to put down huge protests. CS gassing and rubber bullets for old grannies in wheelchairs and sick and wounded veterans. Basically, Germany 1930. Add to all this a military Draft to feed more cannon fodder to the continuing (and probably widened) Mideast war (not to mention the possible second front that may be opened in the Andes region of South America, to topple the democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, get their oil, gas and other resources, and re-impose fascist/corporate rule). A Draft will mean additional serious unrest on college campuses and among the young.

Then the real Hitler will arise, with all these fascist powers that Bush/Cheney have pioneered (and that Hillary, or whoever, will not have disavowed.) And you can take it from there.

The fascist/corporatist cabal is breaking this country in order to turn it INTO Germany 1930. It has been very puzzling to me how the Bush Junta has proceeded. They have not appeared to be building a great nazi war machine. They've permitted continued flight of major manufacturing and outsourcing of jobs. They've actually broken the U.S. military, part of which are almost in open revolt. I'm pretty sure they never intended to convince us of anything (unlike Hitler), but rather to create the ILLUSION of majority support just long enough to loot us blind. They seem like mafia and master thieves, not true-believers. You don't see Nazi Youth marching around seig heiling in the streets. SEVENTY PERCENT of the people oppose their goddamned war! So WHAT is the plan? Why are Bush/Cheney, who have absolutely no mandate, at this point, STILL asserting all these tyrannical powers, with the Diebold II Congress acting like their lapdog?

I think we need to look longer term--past 2008, to 2012 and beyond--to see where the current Junta and its collaborators in the political establishment are going. Also, bear in mind that our real rulers are financiers in Saudi Arabia, and China, the global corporate predators doing business in China, and the war profiteers doing business in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and points east, and in South America (mostly Colombia). Our debt, too, has been outsourced--to parties very hostile to democracy. What could this collective corporate cabal be up to? Total picture: Robbing America's poor and middle class of every last penny; destroying our power as a people to regulate corporations; hijacking our military for corporate resource wars, with no regard to any true patriotic or national security purpose, or world peace purpose; then, leaving the jackals to pick over our bones (the "terrorists" whom these policies have created). A Hitler arising in these circumstances might seem like a relief; would appeal to pride and former glories; and of course would build the war machine back up. THAT's when we might see "Nazi Youth" seig heiling in the streets--when all hope of democracy and middle class prosperity is gone.


3. What we can do about it

Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

Really. That is our biggest problem right now. We CAN'T elect a representative Congress, not to mention president. We can win here and there, by outvoting the machines--we can never get traction on real representation and reform. We need to START with restoring transparent vote counting.

But how, practically, can we do that, without insurrection?

I think we're going to have to suffer through the disguised fascist/corporatist's regime (Hillary?) before we can get it done. The current Congress is the harbinger of that "D" regime--pro-war, pro-corporate, a few little sops to the peons (minor tinkerings, like a slightly higher minimum wage), no reform, no disavowal of torture, spying or other tyrannical powers, a veneer of social liberalism, but repression rather than reform when the Bushite ravages start hitting the fan.

I think it will be VERY IMPORTANT, no matter what happens, to stay focused on our MAIN POWER: our vote. We must restore vote counting that everyone can see and understand--by means of a tough but doable long term battle in state/local jurisdictions. We will have one, narrowing window of opportunity to get this done--the disguised fascist/corporate regime, which must keep up appearances of being socially liberal and in favor of democracy. By 2012, we should be able to elect a Congress that will largely undo all this fascist crap--a real reforming Congress. We will also have done a lot of democracy work at the state/local level--for instance, throwing out corrupt state/county election officials, and achieving better governors and state legislators.

Protest does no good, if your representatives are under no obligation to listen to you--if they owe their power more to the righting corporations that control the vote count, than to the voters. Basic democracy needs to be restored. We need to be able to enforce consequences--removal from office--if they fail to properly represent us. It seems like a no-brainer. But it is VERY EVIDENT that that is where we are--we don't HAVE a democracy right now. We need to restore democracy's bottom line: transparent vote counting.

Our best chance of doing that is at the state/local level. It's already happening at the state/local level. Look what's happening in California--a voter revolt against the machines, election of a reforming Secretary of State (against all odds), and serious election reform. We need to protect such gains (and guard the backs of our reforming officials), and get this election reform movement happening everywhere.

I have great faith in the American people, and almost none in our political establishment. Empower the American people and THEY will put this country on a better course. I don't see civil war happening, at all. Good, generous, peace-minded, justice-minded Americans are by far in the majority. We would overwhelm this chickenhawk little fascist minority if it came to blows. They have been given a Big Trumpet in the corporate media, way beyond their numbers. We just have to learn to trust ourselves, to band together, and to think strategically about POWER. WE have the power, if we can restore our right to vote. And we most certainly have the ideas. They are bubbling up all over the place.

Once majority rule is restored, and the creative and industrious qualities of the American people are set free, we are going to reform this country as never before. The fascists will be relegated to the fringe, where they belong. The rightwing will return to its real numbers, a minority (the rich, some of the business community, and social retros), and may have ideas that need a listen, and may not. The rule of law, and the proper order of things in a democracy, will be restored. That's what most Americans want. The rigged voting machines were installed to prevent the proper order of things. And we need to reverse that artificial fascist power mechanism before it is too late.

[jonnyra]

7. Great analysis Peace Patriot

But I would submit this scenario: The fascists stand down and allow another attack on America by the scary terrorists and then send more anthrax out to whip a good amount of fear and then clamp down hard...I mean HARD. They have all the power they need to transform America into a total military state and, I am convinced, will do it the first chance they get even if it means allowing more Americans to die in another bombing.

It happened in 2001 and if given an opportunity the fascists will use another terrorist bombing to whip up fear and get Americans to go along with a total military state and solidify control. If/when that happens voting wont be an option with or without voting machines.

These are truly dark days in America and Im quite certain they will get much darker. We have not seen the worst of what the republicans have brought on this nation. Things are will get much, much worse before they get better. Better hold on.

[motocicleta]

12. This country is too physically large.

Woe unto them that try to clamp down hard. The USA will re-define guerrilla warfare with this much territory. Plus the fascists probably don't want control over everything; they likely just want chaos where they are not in control.

I cannot dispute anything else in your post, however.

[corkhead]

8. Wow, you should repost this in it's own thread. I wish I shared your faith in the American people.

We won't have a backlash unless they cancel American Idol and create ration cards for Budweiser. Generally speaking, "We The People" have grown soft and are too self absorbed to lift a finger to do anything about what is being done to us.

[lvx35]

6. A civil war between conservatives and liberals is exactly how a small monarchist elite could take

total control. They know they could never stand of to the people united, so they divide and conquer, or rather let them all kill each other over nonsense Fox news words while they watch and drink champagne.

[ClayZ]

10. K and R

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. The Republican's House of Cards...

...the card that will unsettle the Republicans forever, is not in the White House, but in their constituents home-ground. Look closely at their lifestyles and out it. These people live like dysfunctional communities are the norm. Expose their dirty little secrets and everything else they believe in, will evaporate.

Start with this fallacy about private businesses being the saving grace. It's a joke. Do you have any idea how much time and energy right-wingers spend doing crooked little things just to hold up that lie?

The right-wing idea of normal, is like having a family in the community with an autocratic father who beats his wife, rapes his daughter and everybody in Sunday church knows it, including his priest, but because he provides a great service to the community and donates lavishly at Sunday mass, they keep his dirty little secret.

If you're going to break-through, you have to show them that what they think is normal, is really dysfunctional. Look at what passes for normal, outside of New York City and Washington D.C.:

Private businesses provide few opportunities for people who don't own them. After 15 years of loyal service to a family-owned franchise, a person quits his job. No insurance, no other job. Quits due to burn-out because there was no chance of advancement as the top management jobs were going to family members of the business owner. Nepotism is legal in private business, and thus, private businesses are not the panacea that the right-wing will have you believe.

Life in right-wing circles relies on the kind of networking which has little to do with getting ahead, and more to do with just subsisting. The pals you drink with are the same ones who will expect you to provide free trade services to them and their family members. So, not only are you working for "the man" 40 to 60 hours a week, but the buddies you drink with on Friday or Saturday night, expect you to give up your weekends providing free services which don't get you any further ahead. Does this sound like the kind of American capitalism that Republicans want us to give up all our safety nets for?

And this is my personal favorite. To get ahead, you have to break the above cycle. You have to find prospects, where you have no business looking for them. Republicans have no ethical problem crossing their community service jobs with their private business. They'll use the former to look for prospects for the latter. And what happens if something goes south and they lose money for their client? They have no qualms using their community service jobs to give that client special consideration to make up for the business lapse. And if others who expect you to act in an ethical manner in your community service job catch on, they form cabals to bully those who challenge them. Does this sound like a good foundation for a community? Well, welcome to the Republican way of life.

The trickle down effect, at the lowest level, is ugly. People start doing things that they have no business doing because they have no safety nets, so breaching fiduciary responsibility becomes common. All the way down to the little league coach who expects you to pay more so that your kid can get more time on the field.

Those are the little lies you should expose. Republican's form of capitalism is ugly. It does not create communities based on trust. It teaches you to bend the rules, because that's the only way you'll really ever get ahead since there is no security. At the very best, Republican capitalism is all about the barter system. That's why they don't like government. Because there are too many rules that would expose how they really get by.

[tomreedtoon]

13. Demeter, Americans don't have the guts.

Who would take time away from their Wii's and internet porn to revolt? I get the feeling, reading the OP, that such cynical posts are just as time-wasting and hallucinatory as Wii and internet porn.

I would be less impressed by such statements than I would some kind of...let's see, I have to be careful wording this correctly...an actual physical example of a desire to this kind of armed revolution you seem to be promoting. Something a little more strenuous than, say, that guy from Florida who got naked and jumped over the White House fence, wanting to ask George Bush about the microchip planted in his head. (He obviously got naked so Bush could find the chip easier. I wonder how long the exam would have taken...hours, maybe?)