19 February 2005 - 11:25pm
What makes America great, and what doesn't
It's really been quite demoralizing, reading and hearing and seeing so much activity, so much rhetoric, so much strange thinking from what we call "the right." I find it hard to watch the news, to read the stories online, to listen to the radio and be reminded over and over that there are some people out to "remake" America into some twisted ideal that they seem to hold in their minds.
I can't call them conservatives, for these people are not about small government with responsible spending within means -- nor are they about respecting the privacy of citizens and leaving people to their own business. I can't call them Republicans, for there are many many Republicans just as disturbed by the present turn of events as I am. I can't call them red state people, because the people who voted red are not the ones cynically manipulating the press and hiding behind the darkest veils of secrecy in this country's modern age.
I've called them wingnuts, because they seem nuts to me, but that is perhaps rather rude. I've called them radicals, but that almost seems too kind. I've called them fascists, but I don't think that quite captures the scope of their dark vision of a "new world order."
What they do seem to be are people who truly hate America as it is right now. They mistrust the citizenry and oppose civil rights. They viciously oppose any restriction on their ability to manipulate the system to make more money for themselves and their own. They get almost rabidly vitriolic when they confront the reality of racial, ethnic, sexual and economic diversity in this country. They absolutely despise any and all programs designed to provide any sort of community safety net. They abhor notions of human rights in this world. They suppress any and all efforts and the liberation and empowerment of women, here and abroad. And they fear all the way down to their bones the Enlightenment, Reason and Science, and work with all their passion, energy and strength to destroy them to create a new vision of the world, starting right here in America.
Is there a label that captures that?
Who are these people? Why do they want to change America so much? Is America really that awful?
When I look at America, I see a great nation. The tone was set by George Washington, the man who would not be king, the man who retired after two terms and oversaw the first peaceful transfer of power. The tone was set in the Constitution of the United States of America, which codified a set of principles and rules that have allowed this country to see the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, voting rights, civil rights -- all tumultuous changes in the moral fabric of our society -- without bloody coup or government overthrow.
I see a country that embraced the freedom of people to speculate on their own futures and take risks, free of the threat of debtor's prison. I see a country that, in facing economic disaster, stood together, pooling resources so that all citizens stood together as a society, secure against the most dire costs risked with uncertainty.
I see a country that mobilized its entire economy and population to fight a war against nations that did not respect citizens' rights, built up frightening military machines, and dared to dictate to other nations how they should live. I see a nation that, after conquering dozens of nations militarily, proceeded not only to withdraw without claiming any sovereignty, but also gave blood and treasure to help those nations -- including the vanquished enemies -- rebuild from their ravages of war.
I see a country that, time and again, has faced its dark demons and changed its ways. I see a country that led the world in compassion and generosity, a country that, despite its overwhelming wealth and power, has been admired and respected all around the world.
I see a country that, when it was attacked viciously by religious fanatics, received the overwhelming sympathy and compassion and support of the entire world. Flowers in plazas and at embassies in all the capitals memorialized those killed in the attacks on America. Nations pledged their support and cooperation to help ensure that such a thing never would happen again.
And then the darkness came.
Now I see a group of people, rooted in wealth, entrenched in the corporatocracy, powerful in the government, with great influence on the media, doing everything it can to tear down these things that have made America great.
- They seem to flip the cart in front of the horse, claiming not that America is great because of the great things it does, but rather they claim that America is great, therefore it can do what it wants.
- They embrace and employ the use of torture, and consider human rights "quaint" and inconvenient.
- They quash free speech.
- They embrace "might makes right" as foreign policy doctrine.
- They ignore the importance of a strong economy.
- They treat the citizens of this country as the enemy.
- They work to tear apart the social programs that provide the modest safety net that exists.
- They seek to take away women's rights over their own bodies and their own lives.
- They endeavor to destroy public education.
- They make a crime not only what someone does, but what someone might do.
- They do whatever is necessary to disempower minority cultures and communities in matters of elections.
- ...and not just a few other things, too.
And if anyone speaks up against these and the many many other outrages they perpetrate on this great nation, that person is shouted down, labeled a traitor, sued, harrassed, silenced, arrested....
They want to "fix" America, as if all this time it's been a horrible travesty of immoral and impractical developments over the decades and centuries since its founding.
Why?
I certainly can see some things that could use some fixing in this country.
Why ignore all these things, the real problems that real people face, and instead try to tear down the very things we were doing right, the very things that have made this country great?
Is it all about profit, at the expense of the rest of us? Is it all about power, and doing whatever it takes to hang onto it? Is it about some twisted idealistic vision of the world where faith dictates knowledge and reason is the enemy?
Am I just too much the peasant, too much the powerless, too much the rational person to appreciate this "new world order"?
Or do they really think that we won't notice? Do they think we're that stupid? Or is it really that we are that stupid?
Or has it always been like this, and I'm only noticing because there's nothing very good on TV this year? Is my "sin" simply paying attention?
I don't think I've ever been so depressed about the current state and future of my country. I don't think I've ever been so afraid for the world.
media girl also blogs at other places.
Similar entries
store
Buy stuff here.
Comments
The real evil behind it all is just greed. A few families consoldating wealth and to hell with the rest of us. They manipulate people's fears and prejudices to get what they need and they hide behind religious zealots and use them to do their dirty work. It's a conspiracy to keep us all poor and stupid so they stay in control. They don't care how many die - they know it won't be them.
There's a lot of talk about the founding fathers recently, but I think we need to take a look at the events that inspired them - the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. This is class warfare, pure and simple. They're laughing at us because we're still acting as if we still have a functioning democracy. Everybody is so hypnotized by the Jacksons and the Oscars and fashion magazines and video games that they don't see what's happening right in front of their faces.
They count on us being civil. They know we won't dare call them fascists and Nazis even though that's what they are, and I mean that literally. There is nothing they won't do to stay in power.
This is Germany and it's 1940. We have to wake up, we have to wake others up. We have to maximize our use of the internet while we still have it. They haven't shut it down because they don't really grok it yet, but eventually they will.
Our grassroots resistance is the one and only thing we've got . We have to hammer evidence when we find it, and we have to harrass the shit out of the MSM to get the news out there. All we've got is numbers, so spread the word and don't back down.
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."
Morgaine,
Yours too is an excellent message. One small point, since I've just been researching this. As I read the history, the year is about 1933, not 1940. Hitler has just been appointed by Hindenberg as chancellor of Germany. Hindenberg is the president, and evidently that office has the power to appoint the chancellor. Hitler couldn't get himself elected president, though he did get some 30% of the votes in the previous election.
The analogy certainly isn't perfect... but for Hindenberg read Supreme Court or Ohio Registrar of Voters.
Since Hitler's appointment, we are entering the period known as Nazification, in which Hitler and his people force the removal or resignation of non-Nazis -- especially, but not limited to, Jews -- from top positions in many fields, particularly education and the arts.
The Nazis have started to kidnap opponents, then torture and kill them in urban basements. Read: Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and CIA "ghost detainees" who are never seen again.
To repeat, the analogy isn't perfect. But it's miles too close to be allowed to happen in this country.
I sincerely hope the analogy never goes one inch further, but there it is.
Finally... in case anyone wonders, I'm not one of those Hitler buffs or WWII enthusiasts. Certain amateur historians study that material year after year, for reasons which are unknown to me. I never felt much desire to read anything in detail about the Nazis before about three months ago, when I concluded that it was absolutely necessary.
When a political faction thinks "God" is on their side, it tilts meaningful dialogue. How can a political debate take place when one of the parties starts quoting scripture?
Forrest Church in his "The Seven Deadly Virtues" warns us that we had better pick our enemies carefully, for in the end we shall become like them.
What you have described above could fit many of the aspects of the fundamentalist states we allegedly oppose. Look how already we have adopted torture and assassination as state policy - openly without any shame or it being a guilty secret.
Instead of solving problems at home, Bush has his own form of a Jihad.
Or as Orwell said in "Animal Farm,"
I wish I had time to say a lot more than that right now. You've expressed, quite comprehensively, what these guys are after and what so many of us feel.
I was told recently by someone who's been in this fight longer than any of this that the real root is not PNAC but the Reagan-era "Mandate for America." Can we reclaim that name and tear apart its spawn?
Ralph - I stand corrected. Your analysis of the timeline might be more accurate than mine. I moved it up to 1940 because I'm considering our "ghost prisoners", Abu Ghraib and Gitmo as the beginnings of the death camps. Conservative elements in our media are already extolling the virtues of internment camps.
I wrote a letter to the ADL a while ago asking them at what point we were allowed to compare them to Nazis. I received no reply. My question to them was, if it is never appropriate to make the comparison, how do you keep it from happening again? How do you overlook the fact that the people in power now have familial and business ties to the Nazis? These people are doing anything and everything to quell opposition. Americans have actually signed loyalty oaths to attend political rallies. Liberals are barred from state sponsored appearances by the President. People were expelled from Bush campaign rallies for wearing t-shirts that said "Protect our Constitutional Rights."
We can't count on the press. We can't count on the Democrats - Kerry flat-out lied to us and let them steal another election without a wimper. We need to be aware that one of the main tenets of fascism is Corporatism, and the Democrats are owned by the same companies the Republicans are.
We have to stop being afraid of what people think of us. We need to be willing to call a lie a lie and a fascist a fascist. We have one advantage in the technology that is literally at our fingertips. Say it loud and spread the word. Information is our best offense.
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."
Suppose we identified ourselves as contrafascists. If I understand the use of this prefix, contrafascists would mean "the opposite of", or against fascism. We would not even have to say who the fascists are. We would simply explain what noxious things fascists do and proclaim that we are against those things and for those things that are the opposite of them. People would see for themselves that fascism is indeed horrible and maybe even notice these tendencies around them. Most people instinctively despise fascism. Surely they would want to side with us. Of course, anyone who complained of our rantings .......
I think you are right on. I have been around long enough to share your lament for what we seem to be losing. I am not sure I know how to terminate the pendulum swing and start it back toward sanity and humanity. Maybe it just has to finish its swing on its own. But I know it must happen soon. Because I fear we are perilously close to stepping off the cliff and forfeiting all of the potential that the experiment we call the United States held for mankind. The really amazing thing is something you alluded to. I was raised in the '50s , a very conservative time. But from that time I learned to respect all of the hallmarks of our system of government. I learned that everyone must be offered an equal chance at success. I learned that the flip side of free speech is the responsibility of the media to report all that is important fairly and truthfully no matter who's feelings are hurt or who's political ambitions are tarnished. I learned that we have to protect our environment for future generations. I learned we have to respect other nations and treat them as equals if humanity is to have a chance to become better for everyone. I learned that our best chance for long term survival and prosperity is to seek knowledge and wisdom by assuring the advancement of the sciences and the arts. I learned that the purpose of government in a free society is to be an advocate for the citizenry. All of the citizenry. The President is everyones President. His job is not to take sides his job is to find a common ground and build on it. But that isn't the way things are going for sure.
I was lead to you via Generik Brand. This post is incredibly well written, fully articualted, and in my humble opinion, indesputable!
You speak the truth!
We are listening. I am going to point my few regular readers to this.
We need some inspiration!
Our strength is speaking together. No isolated voices. I'm not a hero. I'm a citizen.
But thank you for the props!
Thoughtful and well-written...
I share your questions and fears. For much of my life I thought I had answers, but no more. Our predicament is a Catch-22 in an Orwellian world: when things go right, the powerful take the credit; when things go wrong -- well, we were warned of the threat, so even bigger lies are devised.
One thing seems certain: we are screwed unless we elect more Democrats with a spine, an event that does not appear imminent.
I was going to attempt to comment on the preposterous statements you parade as coherent thought but, hell, what do I give a damn about what leftists whores think, but, hey, do please abort.
That is one "conviction" the spineless left can commit too as it alleviates you of personal responsibility-something you loathe, so please media wench- abort! abort!abort!- because your aberrant progeny is not needed in a world that requires moral fortitude and clarity - and no, morality , unlike your failed vision, does not mean turning the cheek and taking it up the a** like your buddies the gays- moral fortitude is having enough guts to name the enemy and eliminate them. Which we will do in spite of humanity's flotsam in the form of "media girls". What a joke. Thanks for the laugh blue tit.
But I find your stupidity and, um, eloquence too entertaining. What it has to do with the price of tea in China, I have no idea. But your misogyny comes through quite clear. Poor thing.
You must be doing something right.
His complete inability to refute your argument required him to resort to a cowardly personal attack.
How sad.
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."
Old world saying. Throw a rock into a pack of dogs and the dog you hit, yelps. I guess we know who you hit.
MG,
I've found all but one post eloquent and representative of "America" at its best. I'm glad you didn't delete the exception, for it reveals the vicious heart of what is, unarguably, Fascism. "Moral fortitude is naming your enemies and eliminating them." Look for a classic statement of this point in Mein Kamph. Look to Auschwitz to see it implemented. Rsassy, you know nothing of morality or of courage; just walk away and die alone, Dickface.
Sorry to stoop so low; I guess my PTSD kicked in.
You hit it right about "Mein Kampf."
People speak of Hitler's blueprint and suggest "Mein Kampf" is something that should have alerted humanity to Hitler's desire to rule the world. Yet, if one goes to the library and actually reads it, it is mainly Hitler unbounded anger at target groups.
Marx does not write with the kind of vitriol that Hitler does. Disagree, or not, Marx lays out his ideas. Hitler lays out his hates. Making sure that no issue comes from the womb of someone he detests, is the Hitlerian view of things. Enemies of the Reich did include homosexuals and there was the view expressed in "Triumph of the Will" that a certain group was destined to rule and right in their desire to sterilize and kill those who they believed were inferior.
I have watched Nazis and neo-Nazis and Nazis-in-training erupt into terrible tirades - that the world will be better when people of a certain genetic background are exterminated, or people with sexual desires, that make the Nazi feel uncomfortable, are prevented from expressing themselves.
The United States achieved moral leadership in the post-World War Two era when its leaders argued the policy that our government would not tolerate intolerance. It staked out the high ground of liberty.
As I said in an earlier essay, Reagan turned Marx on his side, when Reagan said government has never created anything. That's is what Marx said of capitalism.
Corporations are concentrating more and more, into less and less - or at least fewer and fewer. As corporations squeeze out workers in the name of efficiency, they undercut the very consumers would could/would buy from the corporations. Looking for new consumers, the corporation have their own expansionist policies to seek new markets as they have squeezed dry their existing markets in order to create more capital - which at the leading business schools is called "capital formation."
Where the hatred comes in is at this point. The group the squeezes workers out of jobs justifies itself that it is doing this to "welfare shirkers," "liberals," "gays," and others who are not worthy to breath the oxygen of this planet.
We have seen it in history. I recall remarking, once, how beautiful Paris is. My host quipped. "Yes. We attacked every nation around and looted them and with that kind of money, its easy to build a city like this." Same with Hitler's Reich. It's a kind of Attila the Hun mentality that in the two prior centuries was called imperialism. It was also called "white man's burden." In this concept, the burden of the white man is to subjugate another people and take their resources away. It is even known as "Gunboat Diplomacy" and Reagan loved the buckaroo image of America and sold it to a generation of people too young to know to the horror of war and so under educated that they did not look into what imperialism really is.
Part of every dictatorship or imperialistic expansion is helped by creating a "national enemy." Reagan trotted out "godless Communism." Would it have been nearly so horrible had it been "Christian Communism?"
It was essential to attack other nations in the war on terrorism, otherwise people would be all dressed up with nowhere to go. Afghanistan was not enough. Iraq was needed and Sadam was hated and so the hating binge begins.
Progressives, however, have logic on their side and as far as debating the right wing. We must avoid getting into the yelling matches that are part of beer hall politics and tradition As a friend once said, "never get into a farting contest with a horse's ass." or horse's "Rsassy."
Matsu
Matsu
Thanks for the kind remark. I'm in harmony with most of the rest except, as I said, when the PTSD kicks in & I wanna bang some Fascist heads with my beer stein. :) Still, logic is not enough; we must have passion as well, no?
Justice & peace
This deserves a bump up as a new post. Please consider this one request.
I have a small typo at the end, with the beer halls where there should be a comma. If that can be fixed, it might be nice to bump it to a new post. Should I do that?
Please do so.