When I was still a young boy, sheltered and innocent, the United States celebrated it's 200th birthday. That year Jimmy Carter finally brought an end to the right-wing criminal nightmare that began with Richard Nixon and continued with Gerald Ford, Tricky Dick's pardoner, but not before the United States vetoed a UN resolution to recognize an independent Palestinian state. An unknown number of liberals, probably in the thousands or even higher, who suffered reprisals and intimidation from the police and FBI during the republican years celebrated the election as a cause for hope, while the suffering of the Palestinian people was just getting started. Another couple of events changed the face of America for the better, forever: the opening of Apple Computers and the registering of Microsoft. Of course I didn't know much about any of those things at the time, but I have spent a lot of time learning and thinking about the past since then. It seems like a long time ago to me, but I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like being born in 1936.
Freedom and equality made some great strides between 1936 and the years of my childhood. In 1936 birth control information stopped being labeled as obscene, in a victory for women's rights in their uphill battle. In 1945 The United States defeated one of the most evil regimes in human history, and stopped the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe. In 1963 Congress passed the Equal Pay Act making it illegal to pay women less than men for the same job, although many employers to this day still categorically pay women lower salaries than men. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination against women and African Americans. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally allowed African Americans a voice in the government that oppressed them for almost 200 years (before 1776 it was the British that bear the responsibility). President Lyndon Johnson also pushed through legislation to combat poverty in the sixties with his Great Society programs. A lot of good things happened since 1936, but then I didn't sit down to write this in order to talk about the good things.
During the cold war Senator Joseph McCarthy, a guy who reminds me of Senator John McCain for more things than just his Irish name, ostracized and ruined many Americans by branding them as communists, often with little or no evidence and often for no other reason than that they were members of the Democratic party. My father was blacklisted as a result of Senator McCarthy's escapades, which caused him to live in poverty for a couple of decades (and me to grow up very poor). For all his faults, though, Joseph McCarthy didn't openly advocate the suspension of habeas corpus, and give an open wink and nod to torture. John McCain has said he is against torture, but he flip-flops so often I am not sure if he is still against it. For all I know he may have lasting Stockholm Syndrome that makes him believe his own torturers were justified.
An eerily similar correlation between the McCarthy years and our time was that a news man named Edward Murrow. Murrow showed incredible courage and determination in taking on McCarthy, and deserves a lot of the credit for the Senator losing power in Washington. I must say that Keith Olbermann has proven himself just as great a broadcaster in his tireless quest to restore truth and integrity to the American news media. When Barack Obama wins the presidency in November, Mr. Olbermann should get a lot of credit for shedding light on the horrors of the Bush administration, and thereby bringing about Barack's election. History does indeed seem to repeat itself at times, maybe because so many people don't learn the lessons of the past.
It seems good people have to fight the good fight against inequality and injustice in almost every generation. So far in my lifetime I have witnessed the reversal of a lot of the great things that happened since the "Mohawk Valley formula" laid out corporate plans to violently intimidate union organizers and members in 1936. I watched the vibrant enthusiastic atmosphere held over from the 1960's completely vanish, to be replaced by a "war on drugs" that resulted in the highest incarceration rate on the planet and ever increasing profits for the suppliers. I looked on in horror as the prison system became the new slavery, and it's not just for black people anymore. I watched as my local government bulldozed a couple of entire neighborhoods in my hometown to displace drug addicts and dealers, instead of taking a proactive stance and entering the neighborhoods to help people. In the years since I became an adult, a lot of things have horrified me.
I remember well the "October Surprise" that contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan, who so many misguided people still idolize. Surely the man suffered from Alzheimer's far earlier than it was ever admitted. Nobody in their right mind would have created the planet sized spending deficit that he did. Reagan increased the national debt 49.9% in his first term and 40.2% in his second term. His administration supported brutal Chadian dictator Hisséne Habré, and secretly trained at least one torturer for that regime. Reagan decided he didn't support congressional law, and so he approved a plan to secretly support a war in South America by selling guns to Iran, who we had a trade embargo with (so we should have a lot of friends in Iran, right?). All of the criminals involved with that affair got a free pass, at least after Bush Sr. pardoned Weinberger. You know, except for the 3 trillion dollar war, Reagan reminds me a lot of George Bush, but even I can't say he was anywhere near as bad.
It's been a long time since the United States refused to boycott the Nazi Olympics in 1936, and thereby send Hitler a message. It's also been a long time since I had faith in my government. I watched George Bush throw constitutional law out the window, and it didn't surprise me at all. I helped elect a Democratic Congress in 2006, and while I had great hopes that they would bring this criminal to justice, when they refused it did not surprise me. Year after year as the suffering and hardships of ordinary United States citizens falls on deaf ears in Washington, and nothing substantial is done to help the people, I can't help but cynically think, "What a shocker." John McCain runs for president. He seemingly changes every single one of his viewpoints until it matches George Bush's exactly, while at the same time denying that he has done any such thing. Whoever is pulling the strings on the McCain puppet conducts a vicious and disgusting smear campaign against the first man who has given me any hope that the United States has a future. Now, more than ever, I have come to expect such things... but I'd like to add in the strongest possible terms that while I am not surprised, every single revelation that things are still the same makes me feel sicker and sicker and sicker.
This week a lot of the diaries here at the Kos were hijacked because of a few insensitive morons, and I can't help but feel that our time could have been spent far more productively. My heart goes out to the great man's family. He pissed me off, a lot, but I will miss him too. I hope that the entire ordeal can be laid to rest, because there is a much larger fight going on. A man named John McCain wants to be able to tell us all what to do. The forces behind him would stop at nothing to get him that power. That way they can move their cottage cheese textured puppet into the White House and gain at least another four years of war profiteering, human rights abuses, economic hardship for the American people, and Federal judgeships. That pesky Supreme Court isn't firmly enough in their control yet, and they need that to strip everyday citizens of the rights that they have left. I hope, and even pray, that everybody here will do their best in the fight to elect Barack Obama. This battle may well be the most important one in the history of the United States. It could very well determine whether we live in a theocracy instead of a democracy, and whether we live under tyranny and fear or freedom and hope.
I for one will be doing my very best to making my writing as professional as possible. It doesn't help the causes I care about if I say stupid things, or make outrageous comments. I will never stop voicing my opinion, but I want my opinion to be heard and taken seriously. On that note I would like to wish you all a very good night on this 16th of June, 2008.