Have Americans lost the guts for democracy?

[kliljedahl]

Gene Lyons
Posted on Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Every time George W. Bush gets caught in a tight spot, he does the same thing : He plays the 9 / 11 fear card, wraps himself in the flag, emits jawdropping falsehoods and all but accuses his critics of treason. So it is with the stunning revelation that the White House has ordered the illegal, warrantless wiretapping of American citizens in brazen defiance of federal law and the U. S. Constitution. If allowed to stand, Bush’s actions will have taken the United States a long way down the road to military dictatorship. Indeed, that’s essentially what his legalistic enablers, starting with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Vice President Dick Cheney, argue : that in wartime, the commander-in-chief can take any action he deems appropriate to protect the nation, bypassing Congress and the courts to assert the primacy of the presidency until declaring victory in the “war on terror.” As terrorism is not an enemy, but a tactic—a vile, cowardly tactic, but by definition not subject to being defeated—the metaphorical war against it could last indefinitely. And as long as it lasts, the commander-in-chief rules by fiat. Our constitutional rights exist at his sufferance.

If the president, any president, can unilaterally declare the Fourth Amendment forbidding unreasonable search and seizure null and void, why not the First Amendment protecting a free press ? Why not the Second Amendment ? We can’t let terrorists have guns, can we ?

Far-fetched ? Today, maybe. Tomorrow, maybe not. This drugstore cowboy won’t be president forever, you know. Anyway, I take it to be roughly those things that Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam war veteran, meant when he emphasized that “I took an oath of office to the Constitution. I didn’t take an oath of office to my party or to my president.”

But there are a great many Americans who either don’t comprehend what’s at stake or cannot bring themselves to believe it. And many in Congress, Democrats and Republicans, who hesitate to order breakfast without consulting opinion polls. That’s the reason for Bush’s deceptive sound bite during a recent visit to an Army hospital in San Antonio, where he claimed that the only communications the National Security Agency monitors are from foreign terrorist cells to the United States.

Adopting a pseudo-folksy tone that makes him sound as if he’s reading “My Pet Goat” to third-graders, Bush allowed as how “If somebody from al-Qa’ida is calling you, we’d like to know why.... I think most Americans understand the need to find out what the enemy’s thinking.”

Well, no kidding.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Time for change]

1. Exactly -- Most Americans cannot bring themselves to believe it

Bush has appointed himself King, and that should be blatantly obvious to everyone:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2069007

[billbuckhead]

3. Good government requires a lot of work and we're too busy

It's easier to put a Chinese made flag decal on your truck and become a Walmart patriot.

[Ron Green]

7. You said it! The role of "consumer" has eclipsed the role of "citizen"

for too many Americans.

[CrispyQ]

4. Thank you for this link!

I printed it out & will read it in full tonight, but looking through it quickly, I see many of the "14 Signs of Fascism" in there. I am sad & scared at what my country has become.

[Time for change]

8. My main thought in writing that post

was that I believe there is an almost universal feeling in this country that "it can't happen here".

Yet it seems to me that in many ways it IS happening here. That's what drew me to this thread -- the voicing of that concern and fear that I share.

I think that one of the first steps in making sure that it doesn't happen is to realize that it COULD happen if we don't take steps to prevent it.

[kliljedahl]

20. You're exactly right

It IS happening here.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[calico1]

12. Too many Americans these days are ill informed,

and busy shopping, watching reality TV, etc. A lot of the natural curiosity and skepticism that I remember from years ago seems to be largely gone. As long as th favorite Tv show is on all is well. And people are passive rather than proactive with regards to news. They rely on dumbshits like O'Lielly to keep them informed. Most Americans are in a semi-comatose state.

[roseBudd]

21. They are ill informed and I am reporting for duty to help educate...

The flyer below educates and persuades.

Right click and choose Save Target As:
http://bushcheated04.com/impeach.pdf



My handiwork in situ...

[kliljedahl]

22. That's great, one more for my arsenal

There are "Freeway bloggers" with big signs, & "mailbox bloggers", I'm one of the latter.

Don't forget the poop flags: http://www.madeyouthink.org/





Keith’s Barbeque Central

[roseBudd]

23. Actually I think it is illegal to stick anthing in the mailbox that didn't

actually arrive via a stamp or postal fee. I don't stick my garage sale flyers in the box, I tuck them in the door. I agree. Freeway blogging is too abreviated. I need more than a few words as I think it is important to attempt to prove my point. Also much riskier as you can't just blend in with the masses like I do as the cop drives past right after I got done tacking a flyer on some freshly sprayed 3M Super 77 spray adhesive.

The windows of the free tabloid boxes are great because someone can take it with them to read and it's easy to find empty ones to adorn.

[kliljedahl]

24. They don't go in, they get put on the side

Do them at the drive-up boxes about 4:30, facing oncoming traffic. All the people depositing mail on the way home from work see them. Sometimes they're still there the next morning.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[roseBudd]

25. you mean rural mailboxes?

Do you do it on foot?

[kliljedahl]

27. No., I mean at the Post Offices

I haven't done the main PO downtown, but have done most of the outlying smaller ones. Saturday PM, after they've closed is a good time too. Just put it on the nd box facing traffic. I really like the poop flags too, in my earlier post.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[kliljedahl]

35. Kick

[CrispyQ]

32. Very nice!

I've saved it & will print out copies. I had not thought about posting in some of the places where you have posted, but there are a bunch of newspaper stands just a block away & I'm always up for an evening walk! Thanks!

I also stuff things like this into those pre-paid credit card app envelopes. :)

:yourock:

[petgoat]

13. Bush has appointed himself King

Not just any king, either. In seeking to abrogate habeas corpus he wanted to have
an absolute power not enjoyed by British monarchy since the Magna Carta was enacted
in 1215.

[cspanlovr]

16. as a people, we're so broken, so tamed ,

so complacent and apathetic, its disgusting. "our rights will always be there, won't they? always have been. i think. duh. uhum. yea. sojustshutupaboutitalready."

[CrispyQ]

2. from another recent article . . .

After 9/11 Fear Destroys What bin Laden Could Not
by Robert Steinback

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/13487511.htm

snip...

One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help.

If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.

Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.


more...

Is that America's highest goal -- preventing another terrorist attack? Are there no principles of law and liberty more important than this? Who would have remembered Patrick Henry had he written, "What's wrong with giving up a little liberty if it protects me from death?"

=====

I love that Steinback references Patrick Henry's famous quote, "Give me liberty or give me death." Unfortunately, I believe that today, American's have lost the guts for democracy. Too much comfort has led to complacency & apathy.

[meganmonkey]

5. “If somebody from al-Qa’ida is calling you, we’d like to know why"

That line drives me nuts. If someone from al-Qaeda is calling me, then FISA would approve a fucking warrant for the bastards to eavesdrop on me, follow me around, dig through my trash, or whatever.

Aaaargh! That's been bugging me so much I wrote a LTTE about it today! Hope I get printed :)

[fooj]

11. We'd like to know why you flew the House of Saud out of the country...

BTW- while I'm at it...why the hell are they STILL OCCUPYING OUR HOUSE???

peace.

[Cults4Bush]

26. true that! sing it loud sister!

Hope you get it printed to!

[Burning Water]

6. Off topic, but

that's a nice website. I'm assuming that it's yours.

Got any advice on doing direct heating as opposed to indirect heating spare ribs in an offset smoker? You can PM me if you choose to answer.

[kliljedahl]

9. If it's offset, it's always indirect

You should do them by indirect method no matter what cooker you use.
Yes that is my site, I built it myself, thank you for the compliment.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Burning Water]

14. Thanks, I will visit

it from time to time. Bookmarked now.

[Just Me]

10. My faith in my own people's ability to discern is seriously shaken.

I hate that! :cry:

[kliljedahl]

15. I lost that faith years ago, but then I'm a pessimist

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=50811



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[eppur_se_muova]

33. I was a pessimist years ago, but events have overtaken me.

I've had to stop believing we have ANY idea how bad it really is.

[sweetm2475]

17. Sometimes it seems like it.

It's depressing. Sad. Scary. But sometimes I wonder, what did people who came from other dark times in our history think? How did they keep optimistic? Does the truth really always prevail? Maybe it does and we've just been beaten down too hard to see it right now. Look at it this way, if African Americans could make it through the slavery years, The Jews and other Nazi victims could make it through the Holocaust, South Africans could make it through Apartheid,(and I realize with all three of those many didn't make it, but you know what I mean) and there's so many examples, surely we can muster up the courage to see this Democracy thing through.......right?:shrug:

[kliljedahl]

18. Gotta keep the hopes up

What we're going through is not as bad as what you mentioned, yet. The operative word is "yet". The fire in my belly is burning hotter than it has in 30 years. I WILL NOT give up.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[meganmonkey]

31. You're not alone Keith!

The fire in my belly is burning hotter than it has in 30 years, too. Of course, I am only 31 but that's still saying something!

Keep the faith - just enough to keep the fire going! We will make a difference!!!

:hug:

[Hardrada]

19. I don't want us to get through this

like the Jews of Europe made it through the Holocaust!! They mostly didn't. Got to stop these creeps before that point.

[foreverdem]

28. Randi Rhodes touched on this subject yesterday

She said that we have become lazy and complacent about our democracy. The majority just assume that the govt will abide by the constitution and the laws of the land. She said we have to fight for our democracy and fight to make our leaders accountable.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[xchrom]

30. reagan and the ''republican revolution'' killed it.

face it -- when the justice system slapped the iran/contra conspiritors on the wrist -- and let reagan completely off the hook -- we told them they could get away with murder -- literally.

bushco is simply the logical extension of those times.

now and for the foreseeable future the judiciary is irreparably stacked.

just because abramoff is going to sing like a canary does nothing to expose congress to the influence of corporate money any less -- congress critters aren't having lunch with me on their free time or anyone like me that i know of and every election time when they need a few grand, they're not knocking on my door.

i appreciate this editorial -- but for me -- election theft 00 is still leaving me breathless.

[wrate]

34. Have you people thought of organizing in ways that may not seem

threatening to the Bush junta but that in time will give you the power of the many? I would probably try finding out who around me (neighbors) feel the way I do about the current situation and assemble with them.

Get someone to represent all of those assembled and try to get this idea to spread all around in the community. Then organize via the Internet and start pressuring the people who represent each area in Congress/Senate to do something about the situation or forget about your votes.

There has to be a whole lot of other people feeling like you do who will want to stop the current situation.

It may seem a bit naive of me to think that this can be done, but other than this I can only think of some sort of violent solution. And I am not pro-violence.

In my opinion, Americans are scared to do something to stop the fascists. The 'can't happen here' idea seems more a way to evade the situation than an authentic belief that it cannot happen.