High Noon In America
Reagan used the theme "Morning In America" in his Presidential campaign. This false promise of a new beginning has now run full cycle, and the remnants of his failure is a curse which we must now lift from our national soul. The march of no confidence in this government has met determined resistance by the entrenched interests of those in power, marked by inane parlor tricks in the Legislature and cunning disregard for the message of last November's election -- hoping the coming tide will dissipate and retreat.
But some Congressional committees continue to dig for evidence and ask for testimony. Some journalists and many, many bloggers strive to uncover the full story of how this Administration was, and is, determined to seal the deal of selling our rights to their friends and political allies. The People shake their heads in collective wonder at the lack of moral outrage or ethical behavior even now that the outlines of perfidy have been unmasked.
With 20 days left before the end of this countdown, it is fair to ask if our forward progress has stalled or if we are simply in a period of relative calm before the storm.
Point of no confidence: March 21, 2007
Point of no return: January 10, 2007 -- Bush announces the surge
This is the eighth diary in a series to explore the growing state of no confidence in this Government and what we should do when that point is reached. The first diary started on December 29, 2006, and the last one will be Spring Equinox. I believe the Government will be in a crisis of no confidence by March 21, based on how similar events are to what I experienced in 1973 before Watergate heated up and Nixon fell from power. This diary is 20 days from the balance point.
The Nixon Administration caught a fever and, luckily, was exposed and corrected in time to staunch it before it spread too far. However, the people thrown from power after the fall of Nixon have come back again and again, enlisting more and more people with the fantasy of being among the elect who would rule when the Executive is "freed" from the bonds of Constitutional restriction. Of course, 99% of those who buy into this sales pitch would be the first to be sacrificed once such a day comes because power like this cannot be shared. It is not in the nature of "unitary" power to share -- the very act of sharing dilutes the political power of the giver and risks the independence of the receiver. Receivers of political power can one day bring their share of power against the giver in the future.
Cycle after cycle of this giving and retaking have played out in the VRWC since Reagan took office. The Curse of Reagan resides in the Eleventh Commandment:
Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican
This maxim is the essense of the virus. Issues no longer matter. Debate among peers cannot be allowed. Secrets must be kept without regard to their significance. Lies become a shield against the prying of enemies. Knowledge confers its own kind of power to the knower. Knowledge itself becomes dangerous -- to those who possess it as well as those exposed by it. The power of knowledge is not like political power.
Gnosis And Cunning
The only saving grace of political power is that it is unstable. The danger of political power is that it is unstable. One secret revealed can begin the unraveling of the whole web of lies it protects. As more secrets are created by the natural course of events and decisions, layers of secrecy must be maintained within the corpus of the body politic. The whole structure becomes vulnerable to the failure of a single element. The sense of danger grows. People must be sacrificed, careers ruined, nations destablized and innocients slaughtered or imprisoned in an ever-widening circle of deception and dirty tricks. Enforcement of lies which are given the impramateur of law but have none of the character of real law becomes policy instead of common sense. Those who hold the power protect a few against the interests of the many instead of preserve the good of the many against the power of a few. They become cunning and are consumed by employing it in all dimensions of their lives. It consumes them.
It is human nature to weave such troubled webs. It was the experiment called America to balance powers, and those who wield them, against each other -- and so render them in uneasy, but stable, equilibrium. It was the experiment called the Constitution which codified these powers, and set the period of time during which each power could be enjoyed by a few so the waxing and waning of power would force dilution to exhaust whatever concentrations naturally occured. The objective was not to eliminate power: it was to regulate it, dissipate it, distribute it and, ultimately, to keep it divided and those divisions balanced against each other.
But those who crave political power above all else naturally seek to defeat this experiment. These people cannot muster the faith in the People to leave the course of the nation to Their guidance. The People are not a thing which can be controlled. The People embued with rights and powers of their own are always a threat to a cabal of common interest seeking ends which must be done in secret. The public square becomes the nexus of dissent and chaos, which vexes those seeking obedience and order.
Ever this struggle shall continue, at least as long as it can. But this struggle will naturally come to points of crisis in which powers have been taken and retained out of balance with each other. The People must step forward into this arena and reclaim their sovereinty. They will naturally do so only at the last possible moment. They will naturally know when that moment is upon them, but few will sense its approach.
The power of knowledge, which we will call gnosis, on the other hand, is not unstable. Gnosis accumulates and grows steadily, organically. Once awakened, it cannot be put to sleep by force. Although it may bring risks to those who bear it, it also brings unexpected aid and support. Gnosis can only be given to others by their coming to knowing it on their own. But once one person knows, the desire of others to do likewise is contagious.
The Founders came out of the Constitutional Convention carrying the power of gnosis. In The Federalist they sought to share that power with fellow citizens, and so compel them to agree with the document's reasoning at least enough to accept it over the alternatives available in that passage of history.
High Noon
The myth of the movie gunfight is that the good Sheriff must face the evil Bandit on a dusty street when the sun is high. Around them, the townspeople cower, praying their election of a Sheriff to channel their abstract power into material power has been enough. The Bandit faces the Sheriff to destroy that material power, and thus gain the obedience of the townspeople and rule over them wantonly and without opposition.
This mythology weaves its frame around us now. The People face Bandits, organized in gangs, who are through hiding and believe they are now ready to take down the Sheriff. These Bandits believe the Judges are all bought off, so they cannot be hanged for any crimes they care to commit. They believe the members of the Town Council are more interested in meager incomes than in risking death by direct confrontation. They only have to face the Sheriff, or bribe them, and they will have the run of the town.
The Sheriff emerges from the People. As long as we can vote the Bandits out of office, we have the one weapon that can stop the Bandits. But we also need those we do elect to stand for us against them. In America, we cannot force a new election outside the normal cycles set forth in the Constitution. In between those times, our defense must work through the Courts and the Representatives. Or the People in the various States must muster their collective will and force the federal government to change. It takes time and pressure to make Sheriffs out of citizens. These people must come to believe they can risk the confrontation, and that is a decision which requires soul-searching.
Since Morning In America, the Bandits have been calling the People out. Alternatively taunting and seducing, they have wandered the dusty street, daring the People to come out and face them. The Federalist Elves believe they have bribed all the judges. The False Evangelists believe they have the "good" people afraid to set foot outside the doors of their church. The Death Is Power gang believe they have convinced the rest that only the power of the gun stands between the People and the heathens and wild creatures who roam the shadows ready to eat those who wander away from the town.
Who, then, is left to defy them? Who will set foot on the street, outnumbered and outgunned, to face them? Bandits know there are "traitors" (actually patriots) among those who say they are cowed to the Bandits' face. The Bandits have paid and blackmailed spies among the People, trying to get the names of those whispering among themselves and, especially, the few who might step forward to face them. The Bandits believe that even if some step forward, they have the power and cunning to defeat them in front of everyone, and thus ascend to the final nirvana of the Bandit: absolute power without recourse.
The Power Of The Swarm
The People are difficult to face because We are not one person. In the last diary, we discussed how we can deputize ourselves by understanding that this reign of terror by the Bandits must end. We realized that we cannot hide behind the plurality of a political party or depend on other nations to be our friends. The world doesn't work that way.
Instead, we must realize within ourselves the power to become a Sheriff. Some of us will stage sit-ins and attend demonstrations. Some of us will face the Bandits around the water cooler at work. Some of us will create music and art which plants the seeds of discontent and fans the flames of courage in our fellow citizens. Some of us will seek election and many others will find, support and lobby them once they take their seat to represent Us. Some will return the taunts of the Bandits: others will spurn seduction.
The People are a swarm, not a political front. The genius of the Constitution is that the People can organize, reorganize or disorganize constantly. The Bandits can deal with fronts. They can mount surveillence programs, keep lists of names, imprison people and strip them of their right to vote. And the current generation of Bandits have done all that. Millions of our fellow citizens have been so defiled by these evil methods that Grievances have grown in the People. Each injustice visited on citizens whose only fault is that they stood in the way of Bandit ambition ripples out through the nation by six degrees of seperation. We feel those effects more every day. That growing, swarming realization is the source of the current state of no confidence.
Most of us know someone who has been in Iraq or Afganistan. Most of us know someone treated in inhumane ways by those corporations who no longer provide effective service or even seem to care whether you are a customer or not. Most of us have seen police and prosecuters cross the lines of civility and good sense so often they now swagger as if those lines no longer exist at all. More and more of us see the Bandits emerge from those we once considered friends or colleagues or respected members of our community.
Most of us know people who have been denied health care, competent defense in court, assistance when they are in need or service they should expect from those empowered and expected to provide them.
So we turn to candidates for President or the Legislature, hoping to see the Sheriff we need stand up in answer to our call. But each one who stands up seems to hedge their bets, to dither instead of demand and to triangulate instead of step boldly into the street to face the Bandits. It dawns on us no Sheriff will stand without knowing the People stand behind them. A Sheriff shares our gnosis. A Bandit does not or will not. This Occam's razor divides the wheat from the chaff.
Lines In The Dust
Congress is edging toward cutting off funds and deauthorizing the AUMF for Iraq. The President is threatening an adventure in Iran without authorization. The Justice Department is being pressured to produce justification for its warrantless wiretaps, why it is engaged in a slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre of US Attorneys and why it is unable to provide answers to the simplest questions put to it by Congress.
We expect Congress to act as our Sheriff in this confrontation. We expect them to stand tall and immovable, risking everything in our name. Whether Congress can live up to our expectations remains to be seen. High noon is approaching quickly, and the Bandits have shown they are unwilling to stand down. As we swarm in our opposition, we must increase the pace and the intensity of our protest. Direct action tells Congress we expect them to stand and deliver. Indirect action energizes the tension and draws the attention of all citizens to the confrontation, forcing Congress to stand because we will see their cowardice if they choose otherwise.
At this point of our countdown, the stage is set. Senator Feingold and Representative Murtha, among many others, have set the goal -- presently beyond the grasp of their colleagues, but perfectly visible to them all. Their goals are lines in the dust. Those who would vote with them, given the right situation, ponder those lines and wonder if they will find a way to stand to them. State legislatures are moving impeachment resolutions forward, slowly but steadily.
The Congressional leadership is being typically cautious, but the pace is not a standstill as it has been for six years. Even glacial change, but for something as massive as a glacier, can be dramatic and unstoppable. Whether the Executive will blink in the current indirect confrontation with the Legislative, or make a mistake and unlease a new and direct confrontation with the other two branches, is the question now. We must prod and cajole and act to focus the attention of the nation on the face-off. In this way, the Bandits and the Sheriffs are bound into place and forced to decide. Our future, and the dream called the United States, hangs in the balance.
But the lines have been laid down now, and all eyes are turning to the coming duel. The Bandits stand at the end of the street, sure no one will dare stop them. We wait for those who would be Sheriff to step out of the shadow of shelter and stand to post on the line to face them. Inside the Beltway, the politicians think they have plenty of time. Outside the Beltway, the People now see they are being rebuffed and ignored, and the anger is building. As noon approaches, all shadows shrink to nothing and more eyes turn to the street, expecting those we elected to stand and deliver or the People will have to swarm the Bandits themselves.
For the politicians, their window of opportunity to be relevant is closing because the window to be brave is now wide open. Who will step out into the daylight and champion the People's cause? It will have to be a politician who still shares the gnosis of the People, and is willing to act on it. It will have to be someone willing to step out when their peers are slinking back. It will have to be a public servant who comes to understand the price of their election and the dues which will be owed in the next election. Will enough step forth now that the time is ripe?
Twenty days to noon, time will tell. Tick. Tick. Tick.
See you again in ten days as the countdown to no confidence continues.
The Series
Introduction to the series
T-80: Inflection Points & Catastrophes
Owning the key moments of our time
T-70: False Doctrines
Centralized Authority, Pre-emptive War
T-60: The Powell Doctrines
The Powell Memo, The Powell Doctrine, They3, People7, The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (VRWC), Overton hypercubes
T-50: Clean Out The Barn
T-40: Knowing The Right Path
T-30: Standing Up
Next: T-10: Repealing The Gestapo Laws
Please feel free to use this as a common thread. Pimp your own diaries, links and ideas without shame, because I want to hear from you. Promote the words of others that our fellow citizens need to hear when the point of no confidence is reached. Identify inflection points, realized and gathering, that you see. This power is the power of the Internet, of this online community and of the People. Use it now as more and more citizens need real ideas and real debate. Prepare yourselves for the moment for which many of us have worked decades: a chance to finish the work left undone after the resignation of Nixon.