I can't remember. Somewhere. The news came on and Reagan and the Profiteers were being taken of the Iran-Contra hook.
I was doing...something...when Anita Hill was crucified and Clarence Thomas was elevated.
I was? There, right there! Doing? ah, fuck it...I was awake, at some point, when Clinton "murdered Vince Foster" and was getting some boom-boom in the back of State Trooper's patrol cars and was investing money through fifteenth person mafia connections for something called Whitewater.
I was having a conversation with a friend about what MY opinion of an acceptable voting ballot was when it was announced that the Supreme Court was ending the FL melodrama and handing Bush an ill-gotten gain.
I was arguing, at work, with a "lets kill every one of those fucking towelheads" asshole when passage of the Patriot Act came over the airwaves.
I'm an "Alarmist".
I must be a "fearmonger" for mongering such poppycock as "democracy is dead".
I'm a cretin for buying into research that says overpopulation is a threat and that global climate change is far beyond our ability to explain, understand or alter.
I'm teh dadgummed fuckin moran who would rather see the POOR get a leg up...than the rich.
So? I'd rather be a pessimistic realist than a pie in the sky optimist who truly believes a rainbow made of shit would be "just fantastic" and that "yellow snow tastes just like lemonade."
Democracy died the day typical Americans became overwhelmed with "who has the most toys when they die, wins" and became underwhelmed by who they gave the keys of the nation to. Democracy died the day a sitting president was allowed to play the "stupid" card and let his VP and Oliver North et al take the blame for Executive Orders...and then walk away unscathed. Democracy was given a second chance after Nixon. Nixon was caught trying to circumvent democracy and the law...and democracy and the law won. And a little over a decade later...it was a collective "so what" when the same type of criminality was excused (and less than 30 years after that? "The past is the past" in regards to sanctioned American crimes ordered by the President.)
Democracy died when the media became a propaganda arm of politics. Democracy died when journalism was replaced with sensationalism. Democracy died when a sitting President was accused, without merit but with extreme prejudice, of murder...and "journalists" followed every fabricated lead with a glee and fervor rarely seen when concerning the actions of our Presidents. Had that same effort been put into fact-finding concerning Iran-Contra...St. Ronny might have gone the way of Tricky D, GHWB might have gone the way of Jerry Ford and...GWB might have always been a failed businessman living off of daddy's money and daddy's friends' money.
Democracy died the day that a "friend" of a Presidential "friend (wink)" just happened to tape and release a phone conversation concerning a blowjob, jizz and a stained blue dress.
Democracy died the day 5 judges...nominated and empowered by a majority of our representative leaders to be fair and impartial...used political bias to "elect" a President in contradiction to 200+ years of precedent and law.
Democracy died the day the "Constitutionalists" wrote, pushed, and passed the Anti-Constitutional Patriot Act...and used "patriotism and nationalism" to coerce otherwise sane legislators to go along with the killing of the big D.
Democracy died the day a few of us decided that "spreading the word of democracy" was just...and that the ends justified the means...even if it meant breaking our own national laws...as well as international law and treaties that we had helped write, ratify and enforce.
Democracy died the day we excused our leaders of committing Inquisition-esque behavior by incarcerating (and throwing away the key) and torturing human beings without any pretense at granting due process.
Democracy died the day 5 judges...nominated and empowered by a majority of our representative leaders to be fair and impartial...decided that their wealthy friends on Wall St deserved to have their "corporate voice" heard...despite the fact that democracies are given to the people (employee and EMPLOYER) not the Business. If Citizen's United wasn't fraudulent Goldman Sachs would be casting a vote in the next election as an enfranchised entity...as would Nike...and Microsoft. But they don't...they aren't a person...they don't get to vote...they just get to BUY votes cast during election...and votes cast for their benefit by the Congress they helped to elect.
Democracy dies every time some assholes wraps themselves in a flag while quoting the Bible and clutching the Constitution...a document they've never read...or at least understood. Democracy dies every time those same assholes cry Patriotism while touting anti-American legislation that states that not all people are created equal. Democracy dies every time those same assholes try to legislate what life is...and who has control over that life. Democracy dies every time a "Patriot" cries for secession, sedition...and nullification. Democracy dies when politics is no longer about conversation, debate, doing the right thing...but is only about gamesmanship and winning the PR battle.
Wisconsin is a microcosm of what this nation is becoming. Democracy doesn't exist in WI. Yes, the winning team gets to DRIVE the bus...but they DON't get to drive the bus over a cliff while sneering and offering up the big L on the forehead at their rivals.
60 Hrs of filibuster...and a quick vote that no one, besides the Rs knew was taking place. That isn't democracy. That isn't what we elect these people to do. We expect them to work together...to find the middle ground...to move us forward in a sane and smart way...
Kill the unions, put the women back in their place, keep the poor poor...especially them colored people. Yep, some "patriots" really do love the nation's founding so much that they want to return us to that time. And they are succeeding. Your guess is as good as mine for how we actually ELECT new and better leaders instead of just talking about it. I know that the latest batch of "new and better" from the GOP side...just plain sucks.
American has never known an enemy more craven than big business...yet we fight "terrorists" who claim no home, have no fear of our "exceptionalism" and can attack us using weapons from our greatest fears...or our simplest necessities. While we focus all of our attention and a large percentage of our wealth towards "scaring terrorists straight"...we are giving away the domestic store to the people who really shouldn't have their hand in the till.
Our ambivalence, towards so many aspects of our nation...and our world, will doom us. We already repeat mistake after mistake while promising that "this time" we have it all figured out. From equal rights to the basic morality of rendition or torture; from keeping strong our labor unions that gave us safe working conditions, living wages, retirement security, from protecting land and conserving our natural resources...we fail. We speak high-mindedly of yesteryear...of civil rights and suffrage; of Lincoln; of FDR; of trust-busting...and while speak glowingly of those things...we send another cadre of recidivists to make back-room deals that keep us on a circular path that will (or has) ultimately bring us back to a point where Civil Rights has to be fought for...again; where Lincoln can be marginalized behind a cloud of revisionist Confederate dander; where FDR's last name is pronounced Stalin; where corporate monopoly is good...and where the employer is once again King and Country to their employees. Bring back the company store!
Maybe I am alarmist. Maybe I am too pessimistic. Maybe I just see the world in a different way. Maybe I just see a world where the content of character should matter more than color, neighborhood, education, bank account, and who sleeps with whom. Maybe I just see a world where a "representative" government means...working FOR (you know, representing) the people, not against. Maybe I just see a world where greed triumphs over what is right time and time again. Maybe I see a world that is already inundated in its own filth and can't handle more population, more consumerism, more waste, more war, more ignorance, more indifference. Maybe I see a world where 1 billion people live a decent life with plenty of food, shelter, health care, opportunities to recreate...while nearly 6 billion more live at the mercy of the former.
Maybe...then again "i'm just a singer in a blog and roll band". You just keep telling yourself you're the smartest person in the room. You just keep laughing at the ridiculous: Freedom fries, flag pins, mama grizzlies...but at some point you might want to take note that oceans have islands of trash and the poles are melting while the people you mock for their stupidity and ridiculousness...are rewriting the rules of both the states and the nation. Freedom fries, flag pins and mama grizzlies...ridiculous? yes...but winning.