(This is the title of a comment I made the other day, but now researched and expanded into a diary.)
What we see in the Senate right now is not a procedural spat about voting percentages, or even the quality of judges, horrendous as they may be. This is a one of the last of a series of battles done by Totalitarian Republicans, who need to silence any and all means of powerful speech in order to have total control over the government. They want the "minority" to have no voice, and not even a minimum of input into the government.
They want a government run by fanatics, for the benefit of fanatics.
Follow me if you dare.
I call this a coup because it is the last necessary means of cutting us out of any say over what happens in the public sphere. Seems plain enough, by definition. Think about all the ways we have been muted, marginalized over the terms of the administration.
Think of the Denver 3 and the others who have been denied access to, or kicked out of public meetings.
Realize that the supression of the press is happening as we speak, with the Newsweek drubbing and pressure to write a fluff piece on the military, with Bill Moyers and NOW being specifically sleected for muting, with PBS being turned into yet another right wing mouthpiece. No Bush foe is left standing- even Helen Thomas has been cut off. Even reason and reality have been disdained.
These are all deliberate attempts to reach a goal- the goal of silencing our voices.
Think of all the other ways we've lost our voices.
threatening judges
calling us Nazis (video) http://www.chuck2006.com/blogDetail.asp?id=139
raising the price of Freedom Of Information Acts beyond the means of average Americans
secret meetings to increase the power of the so called Patriot Act, not to mention that document alone
Think of all the problems with voting- Diebold, fraud, Florida's lists, lack of paper trails etc. (Google these yourself if you haven't been paying attention)
My point is that we need to take the Republican coup seriously, and place it in context where it can be seen as a pattern of supression.
When our Republican acquaintances want to talk about past Democratic minutia, we need to deliver context and unlimate goal of this, the water-torture death of democracy. A coup.