Saturday, 13 October 2007
Not Government As Usual
Many friends and I have, over the past year or two, frequently mentioned our sense, arrived at separately, that something has gone disturbingly wrong with our country.
It’s not just that bland poll question that turns up in national surveys about whether the country is headed in the right direction – which can mean any innocuous thing depending on who is answering.
It’s not the administration double-talk on torture. Nor habeas corpus that has gone missing now from the Constitution. Nor government access without warrant to almost any personal information. Nor the pre-war lies about WMD that got us into the tragedy in Iraq. Nor the drumbeat for another war, this time in Iran.
Nor is it the sketchy voting procedures in certain states including those electronic voting machines (without paper trail) that any teenager can hack. Nor is it the fear and humiliation I feel at the hands of the Gestapo-like TSA at airports.
It is all those things, along with many others accumulating during the reign of Bush 2, that give my friends and me the darkening feeling that the groundwork is being (has been?) laid to snatch America’s historically remarkable liberty out from under us.
I am reading Naomi Wolf’s The End of America – Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot for which she has done the research and homework that support the unfocused foreboding of my friends and me. I do not believe Ms. Wolf is an alarmist or is (as it were) crying wolf. She is more a canary in the mine.
As it turns out, of course, my friends and I are not alone. All across America, people are frightened, as Ms. Wolf reports in a piece at Firedoglake [hat tip to Frank Paynter of listics]:
“Jim Spencer, a former columnist for the Denver Post who has been critical of the Bush administration, told me today that I could use his name: he is on the watch list. An attorney contacts me to say that she told her colleagues at the Justice Department not to torture a detainee; she says she then faced a criminal investigation, a professional referral, saw her emails deleted - and now she is on the watch list.“I was told last night that a leader of Code Pink, the anti-war women’s action group, was refused entry to Canada. I hear from a tech guy who works for the airlines - again, probably a Republican - that once you are on the list you never get off. Someone else says that his friend opened his luggage to find a letter from the TSA saying that they did not appreciate his reading material.”
Is there a “watch list” of citizens? Ms. Wolf does not explain if it is the airline terrorist list she is referring to or another, different kind of list. But the accumulation of assaults on the founding principles of the United States cannot be denied. Nothing going on from Washington these days is business as usual. It is more sinister than that and not a single elected official at any level of government has acknowledged it.
[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Part XI of the 80-year-old fairy tale, Chandra and Her Georg.]
Posted by Ronni Bennett at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Email this post
Comments
Why does none of this surprise me? What does surprise me is that seemingly good, intelligent people are standing for it and even defending Bush and his policies and his trashing of the Constitution. And what further bothers me is that none of the candidates but one has even mentioned the Constitution in his campaigning. I think it's high time we put some thought and action into seeing that that fine old document that made us the greatest nation in the world is dusted off and followed.
Posted by: Kay Dennison on Oct 13, 2007 8:24:44 AM
I've been re-reading Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. It's amazing how many passages in this 1935 book sound like yesterday's news. From the 2005 edition jacket blurb, "A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America."
Posted by: Mary Ann on Oct 13, 2007 8:50:42 AM
It is frightening that a powerful minority can erode the freedom of the vast majority. You only have to look at recent events in Burma to see how this sort of thing can happen while the rest of the world looks on helpless and impotent.
Posted by: sablonneuse on Oct 13, 2007 9:22:19 AM
Thank you for bringing this very alarming subject to the attention of your many readers. I became frightened about the fragility of Democracy when I read a well researched article comparing the taking over of Germany by the Nazi's to what has been happening here. It's almost as if the Administration, led by Darth Cheney, took a playbook from Hitler and followed it.
It is terrifying to witness the complacency of the general public. As long as they aren't personally affected they become oblivious to the obvious. Democracies do fail and ours is in peril.
Posted by: Darlene on Oct 13, 2007 10:01:55 AM
It is a very frightening time and with our Supreme Court being taken over by the same group, the Congress busy finally acknowledging a genocide that happened nearly 100 years ago instead of dealing with all that is happening now, it's very frightening. To me, it doesn't look like either party currently in power is going to do anything about this devastation of the American Constitution.
And what are Americans doing? Sitting there dumb and happy with some video game that teaches their young people to kill and their own tv on anything that does not challenge their minds. The people are as responsible for letting this happen as the government which is slowly going to destroy all they value. Mercenaries in our midst. Who would have dreamed it would be reality to this level. There are a lot of writers saying this but people buy someone like Coulter instead... argh
Posted by: Rain on Oct 13, 2007 11:06:42 AM
I often find US citizens on British blogs talking about the erosion of our own liberty, but if even half of what Naomi Wolf is writing about is true, then you have more to fear in the USA. The trouble is that when the US sneezes we all catch a cold - the decline of democracy in America is something we all should worry about.
Posted by: ian on Oct 13, 2007 11:10:11 AM
Thank you Ronni. I think what bothers me most is the silence beneath the noise, as the next damned thing to distract us from the enormity of what’s wrong in our country comes romping across a field of plenty to entertain us to death.
Posted by: Rabon on Oct 13, 2007 11:24:52 AM
I think you have to be over 50 to fully realize what's happening to the US. The long historical perpective and the slightly better education give us a background and a basis for comparison. Sometimes, looking back at the past isn't just an exercise in nostalgia.
Posted by: Catana on Oct 13, 2007 11:59:15 AM
I haven't read "Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy" by Charlie Savage yet, but I heard him talking with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. He explained how all the legal precedents that give power to the executive branch and take it away from the oversight of Congress will still be in force after Bush is gone. Future Presidents will be able to use these powers in whatever way they want, as well. Since the misuse of power is not the exclusive property of either the Republicans or the Democrats, I find this prospect very disturbing.
Posted by: Virginia on Oct 13, 2007 12:43:29 PM
"Watch list?" Shades of J. Edgar Hoover.
I agree with the fears and concerns expressed here, so it's not that I (we, the average citizen) am "standing for it" or "complacent" about it. The problem is I don't know what to do about it.
I've been involved with several letter writing campaigns that have done no good that I can tell. I read a couple of political blogs that gripe and moan but offer no concrete suggestions.
It is Ronni's last sentence that echoes my anger and fears.
Posted by: Marilyn on Oct 13, 2007 4:14:31 PM
Yet here we all are waving our red flags. Our elected officials know what's happening. We've told them. Now the more conservative among us are backtracking with the Nobel, Oscar, Emmy, and isn't there a medal too. I just wish they would backtrack us out of all this at a far faster rate than zero.
Posted by: Mage on Oct 13, 2007 4:39:39 PM
This is the first time in my life I remember being actively afraid of the government—annoyed or angry, yes, but never afraid—until now.
Posted by: anita on Oct 14, 2007 2:05:50 AM
I sometimes wonder whether it does folks good simply to raise their outrage level when I can't offer effectIve ways to fight back. But it is true that first we have to understand just how bad the situation has become. To that end, I'll quote there something from the invaluable Glenn Greenwald:
"...our Beltway establishment does not believe in the rule of law -- at least not for them. They are creating a completely segregated, two-track system where high Beltway officials and their corporate enablers arrogate unto themselves the power to decide when they can break the law. They are thus literally exempt from our laws, even our criminal laws, while increasingly harsh, merciless, and inflexible punishments are doled out for the poorest and least connected criminals..."
Past of the horror of the situation is that both political parties are complicit in a fundamental contempt for our historic democratic and egalitarian principles -- not to mention addicted to the spoils of empire.
Yet there are people working every day, often bravely and creatively, to reclaim and expand the hopeful America we're remembering here. We need to find and support them every way we can. We need to be them.
Posted by: janinsanfran on Oct 14, 2007 10:39:41 AM
Fear is the big thing here. If it were not for fear, would not the Democrats in congress be more courageous in proposing legislation they know is right? Would not people like Anita be less afraid of our government?
In terms of adverse effects on the morale of our country, the McCarthy era was no slouch. I had German friends, both medical researchers at our university, who, having escaped from Nazi Germany, chose to escape from the United States when they learned their every activity was being examined by McCarthy’s agents. I turned down a request to run for our city council as a member of the Progressive Party, fearing the consequences of having my political affiliation generally known, thereby potentially negatively affecting my husband’s practice of family medicine.
Fear was rampant and palpable then. More so than now. Between then and now, I’ve continued to maintain that this country really never outgrew McCarthyism. I believe that it is back now, under a new guise. I also must believe that as McCarthyism was defeated, so will be Bush-Cheneyism. I fear, however, the longer our presidential candidates put off discussing this issue, and the longer the Democrats in congress hold back on being true to their constituents, the longer it will take us to get back our country and its constitution.
Posted by: Leah Aronoff on Oct 14, 2007 11:39:33 AM
A Witch Kiss will do the job!
Posted by: Susanne on Oct 14, 2007 3:00:02 PM
So. What can we do? I want to DO something about this disturbing trend.
Posted by: ronni prior on Oct 14, 2007 4:56:56 PM
Unfortunately, you are right. I've been blogging a bit on this myself, and feel that we will see more of the same. Someone who swore to uphold and protect the Constitution, the supreme law of this land, gutted it and changed it for his own uses.
Posted by: gabrielized on Oct 14, 2007 7:16:19 PM
Thanks for writing about this feeling that has as yet no name or label. I am filled with unease when I talk with people and they seem unaware of the steady roll back of our civil liberties. We become ever less educated in civics and geography, overwhelminglyh busy with families and jobs and willing to indulge in our fair share of today's 'bread and circuses.' I've been scared for a long time. And I wonder about the 'list' every time I get on a plane and go through the every multiplying procedures that now seem to be nothing more than reminders that 'they' can do this 'for our own good.'
Posted by: Mary Margaret Hansen on Oct 14, 2007 7:51:00 PM
My parents and brother both voted for Bush 2 and never could understand why that drove me to screaming crying fits. I can't say that the current state of our country gives me any sort of satisfaction in thinking " I told you so." It just makes me terribly sad for all of us.
Posted by: poopie on Oct 15, 2007 12:25:23 AM
Our country is worse, we do not have the rights to speak freely, group into 5 and you will get arrested for illegal gathering. Sometime i wonder what will we be in the future? America have more freedom then us and someday i might want to live there.
Posted by: Massive Offline on Oct 15, 2007 4:00:18 AM
They can't build a detainment camp big enough for us all. ;^)
It amused me to no end when McCain wanted to ban MoveOn from the country. My response was, "What, all 3.5 million of us?"
The decline of this country is in direct proportion to the insanity of these attempts to limit our freedoms. If they really want to inspire the mass exodus of the intellectual class from the United States just as the fascists did in Germany, then the country will soon fall apart.
I'm no longer worried about it, myself. If it gets bad enough, then the country will fail, and we start over again. Germany rebuilt, we would as well. Fascism is not a sustainable way to govern, and the dictatorships and fascist states of the world eventually all fall away.
These idiot neocons and the dumb asses at the TSA really ought to study their history, and stop believing all the Leo Strauss bullshit.
Posted by: donna on Oct 16, 2007 12:43:46 AM
I have told my younger brother in the past that he was paranoid when he would espouse his "conspiracy" theories. To his credit, he does not do an "I told you so!" No, I think that he just wonders how his older sister, who he always thought was so smart, had been so naive before seeing the truth.
Awhile back, I came across a great YouTube video of an awesome juggling routine by Chris Bliss www.youtube.com/watch?v=
AT-_2oAdN40
I was thrilled to later learn that he was the founding father of The Bill of Rights Organization. In August he received an award for the same.
"Chris Bliss, a stand-up comedian, received his moment of fame when a video of him juggling to a Beatles tune became an Internet hit a couple of years back. But he’s being nominated for a more compelling reason. Bliss has begun a campaign to erect a monument to the Bill of Rights in every state in the nation.
Given all the religious extremists who seek to post the Ten Commandments in public places, it is encouraging to know there is at least one person who understands that our nation was founded on the Bill of Rights, not the Bible.
The Bill of Rights "has been forgotten, abused, and ignored," writes the BuzzFlash reader who nominated Bliss.
Bliss says, "The country these days is like a couple in a bad marriage. Everyone is either shouting at one another or sulking. And when a marriage goes sour, you’ve got to return to your vows. And the Bill of Rights are this country’s vows."
Well said, well said indeed. For his commitment to officially commemorating the Bill of Rights in every state in the union, Chris Bliss merits this week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award.
Bliss knows our Constitutional rights are too precious to juggle, and risk dropping."
The following is a quote from an editorial that Chris Bliss wrote as a guest editorial in the Arizona Republic on Jan 23, 2006.
"More importantly, the Bill of Rights also tells government what it shalt not do. As our leaders claim the freedom to torture abroad, to spy at home, and even to strip citizens, by Presidential fiat, of all constitutional protections, the Bill of Rights tells us this cannot stand. In America, the people have the right to watch their government, not the other way around.
Rights have been suspended before during time of war. But in a forever war against a stateless, amorphous enemy, when do we get our rights back? The answer is: only when we, like the founding fathers, demand them." To see the rest of the editorial, Google "Chris Bliss".
Perhaps this is one small way we can make our voices heard. Are those tears I see on the face of OUR Statue of Liberty?
Posted by: Carol Ann Wiley on Oct 16, 2007 9:35:12 AM
