Cross-posted at The Flamboyant Cuttlefish, my regular blog
I don't often bring up my political leanings here. I've got Daily Kos for whenever my spleen needs a venting. But this Fourth of July, dear Readers, I want to ask you a question.
Do you want to be a slave?
That's Keith Olbermann. What he's talking about is Bush's recent pardon of "Scooter" Libby, a big kick in the nuts of democracy no matter which way you slice it, and just in time for the Glorious Fourth. Tonight my neighbors are going to be blowing up bits of their native or adopted soil in a celebration of freedom and gunpowder, two things intrinsic to the American perception of life.
It is no longer in doubt that "Scooter," Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove all conspired to out a CIA agent to get back at her husband, who refused to go along with a lie to drag the US into an unwinnable war in Iraq. Why they dared to do so, what gave them the hubris to do so without a moment's qualm, was the fact that they have a nutzoid of a President so wrapped up in his fourth grade "good and evil" mentality that he can't distinguish reality enough to stop rubber-stamping appeals for clemency from rich white men.
Our President has been reduced to a "get out of jail free" card. When he hasn't been reduced to a common tyrant, shouting "I am the law!" like Henry VIII throwing a marriage tantrum.
I watched with frustration while Bush Deux was "elected" the first time, but thought it couldn't matter much--four years, and America would be sane again. When the election turned into a fiasco and Gore really won, I held my peace. I figured the checks and balances of American government were too well-entrenched for this to be more than a momentary uncomfortable illness--the political version of crabs, if you will. Won't kill you, but it's uncomfy as all get-out and in a little bit you get treatment and the little buggers go away.
When 9/11 happened I was shocked and agonized just like everyone else. But lying in bed that night with the DHM, I told him I saw the Republicans were going to use this--that they didn't give a red damn how many people died, they just wanted power and this was a fortuitous gift to their quest. I told him that the vast mass of people, craving security and revenge, would roll over and let them have it. I told him I'd read enough history to predict, thankyouverymuch.
I am deeply ashamed of being a cynic. I am ashamed of thinking so little of humanity and America.
But most of all, my fellow Americans, I am ashamed of being right.
In the years following September 11, 2001, I saw a brief flowering of American heroism and bipartisanship co-opted by a ruthless power elite only interested in its own profit. I saw the American media and the American people insensibly succumb, sinking beneath the weight of the poisoned high-decibel drench of Fox News propaganda marching us to war. I saw scandal after scandal rock the Bush Administration, but most chilling is what I have not seen.
I have not seen outrage on the part of average Americans.
My fellow citizens, as long as you can have your Wal-Mart savings and cheap labor from below the border, you seem content to wallow. "Who cares?" you say. "All politicians are crooks anyway, and nobody I know is dying in the sand so Bush and Cheney and his friends can stuff their pockets with greenbacks. It doesn't affect me."
But it does affect you. The next time you can't afford to take your kid or yourself to the hospital; the next time you or someone you love comes down with cancer from environmental toxins; the next time your neighbor's son joins the army so the signing bonus can put him through school or keep her mom from going into assisted-living; the next time that kid dies choking on blood, sand, and oil; the next time you can't get a decent-paying job because it's been outsourced; the next time you can't pay your mortgage because your job doesn't see the wisdom of granting a living wage; the next time a white-collar con man gets off and his victims--people like you and me--get nothing, it does affect you. This administration is rule by the rich, and if you're looking for the system to correct them or their consciences to make them stop being assholes you're going to wait a long time, my friend.
Because their consciences don't extend to us the poor or middle class, and the system that must provide correction is us. We the people, remember?
Yeah. We the people who don't even vote. What was turnout in the last election? When was the last time you voted? Be honest. When was the last time you informed yourself about the name of your Congressman or woman and the policies s/he espouses? When was the last time you spoke to your Senators or wrote to their offices?
The Founding Fathers gave us a republic capable of freeing slaves, giving women the vote, pulling us out of a Depression, looking out for the little guy. We were the ones taking in the cold and the hungry and the oppressed yearning to breathe free, and giving them a chance at a better life. Work like hell and you'll get your chance, that's the American promise.
But we, oh we happy people, we have let that slide under the waves. We have let George W. Bush make himself into a king far more foul than the George that John Hancock signed his name large for the benefit of. The Founding Fathers courted the scaffold and faced death if they lost their Revolution. We face a more insidious tyranny, and so far, I have not been impressed with our response.
Laissez-faire does not win freedom, my friends.
My fellow Americans, do you want to be slaves? Are you comfortable with a King Bush ruling our country, letting his buddies go free no matter what hijinks they indulge in, while the poor pay the bills for lavish dinners and anyone who can't buy a pardon gets no justice at all?
Are you comfortable with that?
This is the Fourth of July. Take a look around. Is this a more perfect Union? Is this a government by the people, for the people, or has it perished from the earth? What are you willing to do to get your freedom back? Are you willing to impeach the President? Write angry letters to your Congressman? Join a street protest? Vote? Quit watching Fox News? Deny poisonous talk-radio shows your advertising dollars? Agitate for the rights of your fellow workers and human beings?
Hamilton, Washington, Hancock, Jefferson, Paine, Franklin--all these people risked something to give us the gift of liberty. It has been endangered before, and somehow we've always managed to pull together and get our heads out of our collective asses long enough to save it. Are we going to do it again?
It's up to you. Really, it is.
Happy Fourth of July, my fellow Americans. My gift to you today is those questions, and I'm going to repeat the most important question again, just in case you missed it.
Are you willing to be a slave?