Greetings, fellow Kossacks. How you guys been? I've been more or less lurking of late, taking of snark but not participating as much. I have tried to help out here and there by troll rating a few deserving posts into oblivion, and in some small way I feel as though I contributed to the benefit of our community as a whole.
I've noticed many memes changing on these pages over the past three months. The overall tone is decidely gloomier, and the diaries much more personal. What I can't decide is whether we are evolving as a group, or savoring the time we have left together. The cynic in me tends to think the latter, because the State of This Union is a frightful thing, the "F-word" is being spoken by people far more respectable than me with increasing frequency and less pushback, and judging by the comments I read we all have a feeling deep down in the pits of our bowels that something is coming, and it may be coming for us.
Update [2005-3-6 13:25:23 by bionicKitty]: Sorry, I had the Bankruptcy bill cited when I should have cited Santorum's POS modifying the 40 hour workweek. I fixed it.
I decided that it was time to check the State of the Union and it's relationship to the F-word, putting
my own predictions from three months ago to the fire. How do they measure up? How have our voices changed in the aftermath? Let's go find out together.
From Beneath You, it Devours*
In my last fascism-related post, I made some speculations about the things that BushCo might try to do during the next four years in the furtherance of instituting a pseudo-fascist state. I honestly didn't believe that some of these things would happen as quickly as they have, but that is my own fault for underestimating the audacity of the Anti-Christ and his minions (AC&M). But I know better now.
Predicted Objective #1: Strengthening Corporations
A) Worker Rights & Protections continues to be assaulted at the federal level. Worker's compensation laws, overtime, paid time off, group health insurance, education incentives, unions - you name it, it comes under assault.
And my oh my, have they ever. In 3 short months AC&M (ever notice how the initials for "Anti-Christ" could also stand for "American Corporation"? Strange, that.) have launched a full scale assault against the American worker.
- Social Security (UK Guardian)
- 40 Hour Workweeks (ILCA Online)
- Bankruptcy Overhaul (Delaware Online)
- Health Insurance for Children (Houston Chronicle)
- Unions (Everything Alabama)
- Higher Education Funding (News & Report)
- FMLA "revisions" expected to be next (Business & Legal Reports)
B) BushCo may even go as far as instituting national laws that are designed to trump worker protections at the state level.
Again with the 40 Hour Workweek bill courtesy of Santorum which includes a provision that trumps worker protection laws at the state level. Not content to stop there, AC&M is also responsible for:
- NCLB trumps states' rights in matters of education (The Conservative Voice).
- Reintroduction of the Marriage Protection Act this week (The Christian Post).
- Revenue grab from state coffers (Mohave Daily News).
C) At the same time, BushCo attempts to expand the minimum wage labor pool, which has the net effect of eliminating low-end "survival jobs" for middle class workers. This forces the middle class worker to be grateful that they have a job at all, and (more importantly) gets them to stay put.
- California study highlights growth in numbers of "working poor" (UC Berkley News).
- Revisited due to proposed "tips-only" status of service workers: 40 Hour Workweeks (ILCA Online)
D) Toughen unemployment assistance rules, making it more difficult to get unemployment benefits if you're out of work. Again, doubles the incentive to stay at a job with poor benefits, because you are also pushed out of the service jobs labor market thanks to item C.
1. Republicans push for stricter standards on unemployment assistance in
Missouri (News-Leader.com).
Predicted Objective #2: Loyalty Oaths for Trading Nations
...I would expect BushCo to implement some type of loyalty requirement on foreign countries who wish to continue trading with the U.S.
Okay, so that hasn't happened - yet - but we did get confirmation that AC&M preferrs loyalty instead of skill (Decatuer Daily Democrat). For the record, references to loyalty oaths are cropping up in obscure news stories, and I still believe that they will become more prevalant from AC&M and other institutions in the U.S. before the end of this year.
Predicted Objective #3: Continued Push Toward Single Party Dominance Politically
A) Local political structures get reorganized to ensure GOP dominance (a la Texas redistricting).
This didn't take long at all.
- California.
- Delaware (seems they managed to get districts redrawn in 2003).
- Florida (seems this happened in 2002 - where the hell was I?).
- Georgia.
- Missouri.
- South Dakota.
B) The GOP keeps doing what they have been to eat away at the Democratic party's financial base.
Exhibit A (emphasis mine):
Social conservatives, frustrated by the lack of movement on a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution, are shifting their focus to passing legislation this year that would allow religious leaders to endorse political candidates from the pulpit. Proponents of legislation sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.)...[snip]
Many Democrats and some Republicans say that the Jones bill is a thinly veiled attempt to bolster the Republican base of power in Washington.
By appealing to black voters on the "moral values" argument.
Exhibit B: AC&M courts Hispanics with Illegal Immigrant/Guest Worker Program.
Exhibit C: Abu Ghraib Gonzales.
C) Some of the more fringe political parties may be declared terrorist groups, and disbanded.
- Dora Maria Tellez
- Lynne Steward
- PETA
All of this, in a mere 90 days. It's like I've got a fucking crystal ball or something, no?
I didn't jump to conclusions. I took a small step, and conclusions there were.*
Are there really any naysayers left who want to argue that we are not on a downhill slide to a full-blown fascist state, if not in the midst of one already? Even Armando dared to utter the F-word, for heaven's sake. If that doesn't make you sit up and take notice, I'm not sure that anything short of a brownshirt at your door would.
My question to you people: What the fuck are you prepared to do?
You'd better consider your answer to that question long and hard, because it will decide the course of your future, my future, and the future of this country. But let me tell you this right now: If you're thinking anything along the lines of "we need to engage the GOP in bipartisan talks and emphasize our common goals," then you need to guide your little mouse pointer to the upper left hand corner of your browser and back the fuck out of my diary. I won't have any yellow-bellied bastards in my fucking tent, got it? So not one word of that whiney-ass concillitory "why can't we all just get along" bullshit.
Boys and girls, we need to get in the streets over this shiznit. We need to start in our small groups, wrap ourselves in our Old Glories, and remind this country that Democrats and Democracy are the same fucking word, and we need to do it NOW, because otherwise we're just acting like a cult of Jehovah's Witlesses reinforcing our own beliefs but never challenging or being challenged by them because we're too fucking afraid to mingle with "worldly people."
So, I'll ask you again (politely this time): What are you prepared to do?
Granted, I'm a newbie to this political gamesmanship, but it seems to me that if you have a computer and a printer, grassroots activism is pretty darn easy to do.
- Pick your favorite Democratic/Progressive issue.
- Design a simple flyer in your favorite word processing or publishing program
- Print a couple dozen copies of your flyer, preferably in color.
- Distribute your flyers by putting them on cars in the parking lot or on doors of homes.
- Lather, rinse, repeat.
Seriously, if the fucking chinese food restaurant up the street can inundate your door with fried rice specials, then you can take an hour out of your life and follow their example to preserve our freedoms. No human contact required. Coordinate with your friends to cover a wider area.
If you live in a neighborhood with an HOA-sponsored newsletter, take out an ad (those publications tend to be dirt cheap). Start a Progressive Issue club that meets one night a month and get it on the community calendar. Is it really that much of a financial investment to have a few of your neighbors over for four hours of wine and cheese and discussion on how you can gain traction in your own community, and fight back against the GOP machine? Start networking with like-minded folks close by now, kiddies, because once the FEC cracks down on forums like this, they'll be all you have left.
*those are all Buffy references.