ABC's debate: Threat to democracy

Part of why I moved to Canada a year ago was because I was fed up and concerned about the conduct of democratic institutions like what I witnessed tonight by ABC News.

Soon after the move, I was asked to speak on Fox Radio on why I decided to leave.  My answer: Because I love America and the values that are America should be what protect people like me from being excluded and denied my civil rights.  The weakening of the American democracy had reached a point where its promise was no longer standing up for what was right. It had become too painful to be a direct target in the divide and distract politics of my nation, the same politics used to threaten the core ideals of American and that were making me a political football for being gay.  

Watching tonight's debate from my new home in Toronto was another painful reminder of these dangerous assaults against republican ideals and democratic values, against people like me and a lot of other Americans and others throughout the world.  And - most of all - against America itself, as an idea and a nation.

I moved to Canada one year ago to this week.  I moved to take a stand for the ideals of American democracy, for the promise of America.  I also moved to live in a country that respected my civil right to a civil marriage and where there was little tolerance for using civil rights as political football.  Tonight I witnessed the painful problem in full force that drove me out of my home nation, and that also drove a criminal regime into the highest and most powerful offices.  And just as when I decided to move, tonight I mourned the dream and promise under such deadly assault.

When I was a guest on Fox Radio just months after I moved, I experienced first hand how effective and deadly divide and distract can be.  I was attacked for being gay, told that America was better off without me. Of course, not all Americans think this way (most don't), but the media and political elite use the few who think this way to divide and distract.  This is tolerated by an entire political class, both Democrat and Republican.  Too many Democrats show their tolerance by trying to avoid, rather than denounce, such tactics. They "move to the center" - which is in fact far from the center and more reactionary than moderate.  They vote in opposition to civil marriage, sign laws like the Defense of Marriage Act, and refuse to call divide and distract for what it really is: harmful to America, mean spirited and headed in a dangerous direction.

After 2004, I felt threatened by the radical right, let down by the Democratic party and afraid for my nation.  I believed that democracy was under attack by an army flag carrying zealots who deep down (and in secret) despised the very notion of democracy.  These zealots were leading us to torture, to wage illegal wars of aggression and to tear apart our communities with hateful divisions that should have no place in a democracy.

My hope is that America can bring itself together.  My hope is that the connection between the shameful conduct of ABC News and the shameful acts of torture, illegal war of aggression and the politics and divide and distract can be revealed.  My hope, for both America and the world, is that the People can unite against corporate assaults on democracy and reject this kind of politics once and for all. But watching the debate tonight, and seeing how Hillary Clinton worked so hard to advance divide and distract politics in the past week, makes me fear for the worst.  

Having moved from the United States because I could not stomach being tossed around as political football for stakes as high as war and torture, I cannot emphasize how important I believe this matter to be.  America's weakened democracy creates a crisis of global proportions that we must all be concerned about.  What we witnessed tonight was a wholesale assault on the very idea of democracy - everywhere.  This assault led directly to the war in Iraq, to the torture in secret prisons, to the breakdown of the economy and to the takeover of government by a ruthless and anti-republican elite.

A lot is a stake in the next election. If we can not turn back the tides of radical anti-republican reactionaries now, it will be even harder into the future.  So tonight, as I reflect on my one year anniversary of having moved, and think about how painful the past seven years have been for me and many other Americans (and Iraqis), I hope that the tides can be turned back, that we can unite around a new politics and defend democracy, for American and for the world.