It's been a long while since I've written anything here, but that is not to say I have not been feeling the itch to write. Well, I feel that I can no longer be silent in light of
all these stories and posts that are popping up. There is just too much crap for one person to take without letting it all out.
It has been interesting to see journalists like Olbermann and his guests make the interesting critique that the general American public have likely reached the point where they simply take their rights for granted. "You don't know what you got..." and all similar sayings could not ring more true, which is why I may get flamed for stating what I, and many others, feel is the obvious:
Right or wrong, America is heading into a constitutional dictatorship.
For a group of people that cried for so long about the rule of law when Clinton was President, I have never seen this kind of tap dancing since Savion Glover. Everyone of these lawmakers should feel greatly ashamed of themselves, but I don't believe they do. With so much lawbreaking having been done in the last five years, let's face it - they have become the lawless, and the chronic lawless feel no shame. But with that comes an incredible shortsightedness that bodes terribly for the GOP and tragic for the country.
I agree with SusanG's discussion about the Gandhi Walkback, but I would like to post an addendium to it. With this walkback lies a pendulum, a political pendulum. My mother always told me that politics in this country is like a pendulum that swings back and forth. At one point when the pendulum swings so far in one direction, the force of gravity (or politics) almost always swings back in the opposite direction. We are undoubtedly witnessing, with the shrieking paranoia of this Administration and cowardly unaccountability from this Congress along with the increasing blue-ing of the nation, the inevitable swing back of the pendulum.
But let me try a little Shakespeare... "Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed?" Have you tried to swing a pendulum, say on a grandfather clock, with a force more than it can handle? Does it not break? Does it not get stuck in one place? In other words, have the actions and inactions of our government put us past the breaking point of the political pendulum?
Think about it (because you know the Republicans won't). The Republicans set the bar so low for an impeachable offense when they went after Clinton. The offenses that this President and Administration have committed have not even warranted censure much less impeachment. Look at all the laws they have broken, hell look at what they have done to the Constitution! You get the feeling that according to the Republicans of today, that document, that foundational document of our democracy, really is what our President said it was: "a goddamned piece of paper." It no longer has any meaning, according to this President and this Congress by their inaction. But, in light of all of this, there is one thing that they consistently bring up as a defense for their actions or inactions - precedence.
And herein lies the path to America's likely future of a constitutional dictatorship.
These shortsighted Republicans, so fearful of losing their own grip on power, are about to hand power over to a yet-to-be-determined nutjob who will use every single moment chronicled in these past 6 years (if not 8) as a reason for doing this or that. It is simply amazing that they do not see this coming. The pendulum will swing, but will it swing back with a force so great that it gets stuck? Imagine the sheer panic they will feel when it is realized that America has now become a dictatorship and the man or woman at the helm is a left-leaning, socialist liberal?
They will cry about the Constitution and impeachment all they want, but that leader can simply point them to a particular time in this Bush Era to indicate that this leader has every right to do this or that by simple precedent. Illegally wiretap political enemies? Impeach! Nope, sorry, the Bush Administration did that and Congress found that to be A-OK. Lie a nation into war? Impeach! Nope, sorry, Bush did that too and no accountability was put there. Suspend free speech against those that speak badly of the leader? Impeach! Nope, you can thank those free speech zones and corporate giveaways that make such actions totally legal. Gitmo and secret prisons? Impeach! Sorry, no one bothered to close them down or stop them, so they must be legal. And so on and so on...
The reason we have checks and balances and accountability is to avoid situations like this. Some of you may be frothing at the mouth for a liberal dictatorship and the chance that Republicans will never again see power in this country again. I don't care if it is Democratic, Republican, liberal, or reactionary - I do not want a dictatorship in this country. It is against everything this country was initially founded on, and I would not want to live in such a country. However, that is not to say that it can't be cunningly twisted to follow that path, and like it or not, thanks to this government, it is being unwittingly turned in that direction.
Maybe I'm wrong and that the American people are of greater character than I think or believe. Maybe when it is all said and done cooler heads will prevail and the Constitution will be restored. But, as I always seem to do, I refer to Chris Rock, in this case on cheating in relationships - "In the end, you make up, and she forgives you...but she never forgets." I am doubtful that many on this site, not to mention countless others around the country will forget the hateful rhetoric that was spewed at us when we tried to speak the truth - "Traitor," "Appeaser," "Evil," "Unpatriotic," "Unamerican," "Terrorist!" Even more so, we may forget, but the archives won't, and everything, from Jerry Falwell's declaration that gays were to blame for 9/11 to the recent World Net Daily screed that compared the deportation of illegals to the annihilation of 6 million Jews in World War II is documented and can be brought up at the click of a mouse.
History is not always kind - it can also be your worst enemy. For many of us, history will be anything but our friend, in regards to our relations with other nations and people around the world, to even relations with ourselves. Like cold water to the face, these events will slap us hard. We'll be knocked down to the mat, dazed and confused, but the true test of what we have left in ourselves, in this nation, is if we can get back on our feet before that 10-count comes.
I have this firm belief that there is an opportunist somewhere, in this country, who either now is or one day will be keeping tabs on all that has transpired, conducted, and established by this incompetent Administration and Congress. He or she will be following this closely, and when the time is right, he or she will rise up, and point to these events in our history as legal precedent. When that day comes, not Republicans or Democrats, but Americans will regret that they took their rights, their country, their Constitution so lightly.
I hope to God I'm wrong, I really am.