"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -- James Madison
Madison uttered these words about 200 years ago, at a time when the new nation had just recently thrown off the shackles of a king who taxed them without asking their opinion and generally did what he wanted.
I am not saying that George W. Bush thinks he's a king, although he did once say that being a dictator would be easier. What I am saying is that under the guise of fighting a foreign enemy, in this case the hard to define enemy of "terrorism", he has brought tyranny and oppression to this land.
The signs are all too clear if you're paying attention. The pronouncements of, "You're either with us or against us." The character assassination of anyone who dares to voice an opinion contrary to administration policy. The constant use of "homeland security" to keep people afraid of their own shadows.
John Kennedy once said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." I'm not saying that we're going to have a violent revolution anytime soon, but this is what Bush's actions seem to be pushing us towards. Those who try to voice their opinions are kept as far away from the president as they can and still be in the same area code in "free speech zones." As one protester said, "I thought the whole country was a free speech zone."
If a dog gets hit often enough, they will come to fear even the presence of the one who hits them. As Harry Truman would say during the 1948 campaign, "I wonder how many times you've got to be hit on the head before you figure out who's hitting you." Quite frankly, I've had enough of getting hit by Republicans who wouldn't know their backside from a hole in the ground. Don't even get me started on their hypocrisy right now.
The election of Howard Dean as chair of the DNC is the first step toward ending the tyranny and oppression that is the Bush Administration. A Dean-led DNC will be one that will make a priority of winning back the House and Senate in '06 and the White House in '08. As I like to say, "The Republicans won't know what hit them because they don't put license plates on tanks."
And to those Republicans who would accuse me of being unpatriotic for writing this, I'll close with a quote from a Republican president. "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president." -- Theodore Roosevelt