Game Over

[Mythsaje]

You can lie to the American people with impunity for a time, but eventually even those who are too busy and engaged in living their own lives will lift their eyes and see the truth of what's going on.

You can twist the truth with video propaganda, with your own cable channel named after a small, cute mammal with sharp ears, but eventually people will see through the misdirection. People enjoy prestidigitation, but not when it costs lives. Spreading disinformation particularly engineered to serve the interests of a small minority of Americans is bound to backfire in a big way.

When Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, allegedly the top law enforcement official in the United States, stood in front of Congress and admitted to lying, and made it pretty clear he'd continue to do so if it served the purposes of his masters, it caused a tremendous amount of damage to their credibility.

Now Bill O'Reilly and ilk are attacking liberal bloggers and, specifically, those of us on DU, for daring to publicly contradict their twisted view of things. It wasn't long ago they were simply laughing at us. How things have changed.

People are catching on. When the people start speaking, and they are, the Republicans are going to be in a world of hurt.

I don't talk politics at work. Not overtly, anyway. But people are growing increasingly aware of how precarious our position has become. People understand that things are NOT getting better. Even the covert comments I make are generally met with approval. I use sardonic wit to disarm people, then plant a mindworm that gets people to think about everything that's happening.

I don't think there's a lot of doubt that the next President will be a Democrat. After the eight years of explosive stupidity and corruption, this lame-ass band of would-be bandits don't have a chance to beat even the weakest Democratic candidate.

Each and every one of us has an important mission. It's not necessarily marching in protests, or making grand gestures, but in speaking on a one-to-one basis with the people with whom we work, or know socially, reaching out to touch a single person's life and helping them grasp how important it is to make the right decision come the next election.

Only the most rabid fail to see the dismal failure these past eight years have been for the United States, how war and corruption and government incompetence (it hardly matters if the apparent incompetence was natural or feigned) has damaged us all and our place in the world.

Discuss the things that touch the lives of every American. Healthcare, job security, debt. People WILL respond.

"Just vote. And vote Democratic. Anything else will just lead to more of the same. And none of us want that."

None but those who are profiting from what's been happening. And I'm willing to bet very few of us travel in THOSE circles.

Losing isn't an option. Because to lose this time means losing everything.

And then it's REALLY "Game Over."



edited for clarity.

[Longhorn]

1. I'm hearing the comments more and more, too.

I live in a liberal area but people still weren't voicing opinions as much a few years ago as they are now -- and some of their comments are downright radical! :)

[smoogatz]

2. Not quite.

You could still have massive election fraud in the form of voter suppression and electronic vote-flipping (although neither strategy will work quite as well now that Ohio has a Dem governor and a Dem Secretary of State). There's also the outside possibility of conveniently timed false-flag "attacks" that would allow Bush to declare martial law and suspend elections. Bush doesn't actually have the balls to try it--but Cheney might.

There's also a relatively high probability, IMO, that the Democratic party will once again misfire in the primaries and give us a vulnerable candidate--a big, slow-moving target for the Republican attack machine, a la Kerry. Even money right now we'll end up with Hillary, who stirs no one's passions except the Republicans'. Don't forget--everyone said the Republican party was dead after Nixon resigned in abject disgrace. Six years later, they were back. Big time.

[PCIntern]

3. to amplify your point...

they came within a hair's breadth of not relinquishing the WH in 1976 as well.

A hair's breadth...

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

7. Could you please elaborate on this comment ? n/t

[PCIntern]

10. Certainly...

Carter did not win the election by all that much...although the media these days would let you think that Carter was the coice of the vast majority of Americans, the fact is that I recall that a few significant states were quite close and that given the mayhem of Watergate, the fact that the Dems did not run away with this particular Presidential election pointed out our weaknesses.

ford had made a complete fool out of himself during his tenure (whip inflation Now WIN) and the Poland comment. He should have been trounced like the fool which he was. And cover-up artist as well.

Best thing about him was his wife...

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

17. Thanks, that is what I thought had happened - a close election

I thought that you were implying something else

[Mythsaje]

5. The voter suppression thing is an issue, sure...

But, as you say, a bit less of one than last time.

And I've already weighed in repeatedly on the martial law thing. Paranoid nonsense, in my opinion. Possible, but just barely.

[smoogatz]

6. You're probably right.

But while hardly anyone was looking, they've very quietly laid the legal and technical groundwork for a declaration of martial law under almost any pretext. And they didn't have KBR build all those detention camps just for the hell of it.

[Mythsaje]

8. You may not remember this or have heard about it.

but the RW were nattering on about "special detention camps" built by the U.N. here in the U.S. during the Clinton Administration.

All I'm seeing now is the flip side of THEIR paranoia.

[smoogatz]

9. Except that the KBR camps are real.

Saw the press-release announcing the contract on the KBR website with my very own eyes. It's been scrubbed, of course.

Look at it this way: if enough people had been skeptical of Bush/Cheney before we invaded Iraq, we wouldn't be in the current mess. It's impossible to overestimate their dishonesty, incompetence, greed, and ideological blindness. They are crazy motherfuckers, and if enough people start yelling about the possibility of martial law, it'll be that much harder for Bush/Cheney to pull it off. The people and the Congress and the media (maybe) will see it coming, and maybe it won't happen. If we all shut up about it, we encourage them to give it a shot. The way I see it, staying in power indefinitely is their best shot at staying out of prison, either here or in the Hague.

[Mythsaje]

14. I don't disagree, actually.

Not entirely. But we also need the devil's advocate proposing a more "reasonable" point of view. I personally think there's a solid chance, probably around the same percentage as the percentage of people who are still following this band of crooks. And I think we need to get the meme out not that WE believe it's going to happen, but that people are talking about it. And not just us out on the "fringe."

My wife told me last weekend that they were talking about it around work, and that surprised me. It's not exactly a hotbed of liberal activism.

[1monster]

11. My husband was talking with a former Bush admin member last night

whom he met quite by serendipitous chance.

He asked the person about the likelihood of martial law and the BFEE staying in power.

The person answered that there was a very real probability of this happening. That Cheney, not Bush, was the real power.

The person reminded my husband that Cheney has had four heart attacks...

And perhaps we should all pray for miracle to save us from the fate that this current government has planned for us.

on edit: added a paragraph space

[MagickMuffin]

4. From a video I was involved with back in '04

[mmonk]

12. What was the score?

[MagickMuffin]

13. Warmongers are STILL @ BAT

Warmongers............... 3646

Peaceniks............... 0

Of course this score card doesn't count non-combatants

Unfortunately when the Warmongers own the equipment sometimes the other team NEVER gets a chance at the plate.

[mmonk]

16. Sounds like cheating.

[janx]

15. The secretary where I work used to be a big * fan.

Today, when she was checking CNN in the morning, she said (shaking her head), "Nothing new in the news this morning. Just more deaths in Iraq."

I was FLOORED.