The American Republic is long dead! It is sad to see the Democratic Party, with some very notable and courageous exceptions, become a party to its burial. The men and women and gave us the Republic wanted a government that was limited in scope and respectful of their rights, including the rights of the minorities (political, religious, social). They feared a monarchy as much as they feared a dictatorship of a majority. They most definitely did not want the state impose sectarian views as it had happened in Europe! They wanted to be left alone to pursue their own happiness, relying in government and in their collective efforts for those things that as individuals they could not accomplish on their own. Those days are over!
Dictatorship is the only way to describe the Bush Administration. In a few short years a significant number of Americans have embraced an absolute monarchy, a monarchy without a throne or crown. The Presidency under Bush has absorbed all the powers that the Framers of the Constitution had painstakingly divided among three branches of government. The Presidency under Bush has claimed the power to start wars without Congressional approval, to detain people indefinitely without charges, to torture and abuse detainees with impunity, and to assassinate whoever they want at any time or place, including American soil. Absolutism at home has led to militarism abroad, the United States joining a long list of aggressor states that include such recent notables as Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and in an ironic twist, Saddam's Iraq.
Many of our friends speak of Democratic chances in 2006 and 2008, yet they ignore the well documented record that Republicans have of ballot fraud and voter disenfranchisement. There is little evidence that things will be different in the upcoming midterm elections or in the 2008 Presidential race. Elections in America have become the mirror image of elections held in any authoritarian regime in the Third World. It is only a matter of time before opposition candidates are found laying on a ditch, hands tied behind the back, a bullet shot to the back of the head.
Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures, and this is one of those times in which we face an unpalatable choice: resistance or exile!
If we choose the path of resistance we must take every opportunity to publicly and loudly oppose every action the Bush dictatorship takes. Our opposition must always firm, resolute, and peaceful! Even a hint of violence would give the Bush dictatorship a pretext to impose more draconian measures on the American people. We must deny the Bush tyranny that pretext by adopting the tactics used by Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King in the US. Unlike Gandhi and Dr. King, we will not prevail in our struggle. Imperial nations such as the United States have always succeeded in crushing internal opposition. Their collapse was always brought about by a combination of external opposition and their folly in believing in their own invisibility.
Exile is always an option, and in the case of those under persecution such as the LGBT community, it may be the only viable option that is now available. To those that dismiss exile as leftist paranoia, I can only suggest that they consider the fate of the German Jews that waited until it was too late for them to escape the Holocaust. Do not make the same mistake!
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, Lord Acton was quoted as saying. To Acton's words we must add that absolute power leads to absolute cruelty, as we have seen in the way American troops have treated the Iraqi population. Those same troops will be used on American soil against the American people! If you doubt, do a Google on Posse Comitatus, and on the current efforts by the Bush dictatorship to do away with its remnants in order to "protect us."
The end will not be a happy one for any of us!