Criminal Intent

[Zhade]

It isn't the 50,000+ missing absentee ballots in Florida. It's not the Democratic voter registrations disqualified in Ohio by Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell for their lack of heavy paper, or the ones ripped up and trashed by a Republican-funded group in Las Vegas. It's not the minority voter intimidation, confusing ballots, malfunctioning and broken machines, or randomly-reassigned polling places in poor urban areas nationwide. It's not the now-twice-made-infamous felon voter purge lists in Florida authorized by the current president's brother. It's not even the proprietary-coded-by-a-computer-felon, unauditable, unaccountable, owned-in-part-by-defense-contractors touchscreen voting machines that can be hacked with a Palm Pilot and leave no paper trail or chance for a recount. It's not that John Kerry conceded before fighting to ensure that "every votes counts".

No, the fraud and manipulations inherent in this election pale in comparison to the true crime: a majority of Americans do not disagree with their government's actions.

They don't disagree with going to war against Iraq, a country that did nothing to us, never attacked us, and was not in league with those who did attack us.

They don't have a problem with the fact that we were told one thing - we must go to war because we are in imminent danger of being attacked with weapons of mass destruction - and then another, and another, and another (ad infinitum) about why we actually invaded.

They seem to find it just ducky that 100,000 Iraqis have died in the continuing war. The 1100+ American deaths don't appear to give them pause, either.

Did somebody say Abu Ghraib? To half of Americans, torture must be A-OK, because they sure don't seem too embarrassed to brazenly call it "pranks" and "harmless abuse".

Half of the half who voted for George W. Bush have likely suffered under his economic policies. Do they fret, and reconsider their support? Heck no, them gays are runnin' rampant and must be stopped! And 11 states answered the shameful call.

"But remember 9/11!" Ah, that's right. There was that terrible day that changed everything. If only the tragedy could have been avoided! If only Clinton had warned the incoming Bush administration that "in my opinion, the biggest security problem was Osama bin Laden." If only Rice had given Bush a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In United States" on August 6th, 2001! If only there had been warnings to Attorney General John Ashcroft to avoid commercial airlines, thus tipping him off to a plot!

Many Americans must enjoy police-state powers, no health care, enshrining intolerance, corporate conservative-owned news, a dying planet, and hatred of our policies around the world. They seem to thrill to the idea of empire, and argue ceaselessly to justify our place as the premier consumer of the planet's resources at gunpoint. They have no problem with the Bush administration outing a deep-cover CIA agent to punish her husband for telling the truth about one of the administration's many, many lies.

I can think of no other reason, save this: half the American people, having heard even small parts of these stories on the evening news, approve of the way our government is operating. They are Good Germans, ready to give their all for The Cause - even if that cause is, at heart, illegal, fascist, and criminal.

Enjoy, Bush backers! It is your government now. When you destroy the world with your ill-gotten, illegitimate power, just remember that we tried to warn you. When you lose your job because Bush-friendly corporations move jobs overseas, just remember that you voted for the man who doesn't give a damn about you and will sell you out in a minute if you stand in the way of a buck. When your kids get drafted, just remember that you voted for the AWOL chickenhawk who lied us into war for Halliburton and Israel. When your kids die in yet another resource war, just remember that you crowned the man who thinks nothing of wasting your kids' lives for his own personal monetary and political gain.

When you finally wake the fuck up, you'll realize, as I do, that you no longer belong in today's Imperial America. Sadly, through your own actions, you have ensured that it will be too late to do a damn thing about it.

Posted at my blog.