First of all, let me tell you that I don't have any links to breaking news stories in this diary. No calls to action, no petitions to sign, no donations to make. Just some (mostly) rhetorical questions.
At what point will you stop posting to DailyKos and other sites like this? At what point will you stop reading it on your home or office computer, where your visits can be tracked back to your real identity? When will you stop talking about politics at the water cooler or on the phone with your friends and family? When will the bumper stickers come off your car and your campaign yard signs and t-shirts go into the garbage?
Because I can see - and if you're honest with yourself you can too - a day in the not-too-distant future when that Kerry bumper sticker is going to get you a ticket. And when visiting DailyKos on your office computer is going to get you fired. And when that comment you made at the water cooler about the Vice-President is going to bring a knock to your door late one night.
Follow me below the fold and let's talk about it...
There was a time in Castro's Cuba and in Sadaam's Iraq and in Mussolini's Italy and in Stalin's Russia, early in their careers, when people could have discussions just like the ones that happen on DailyKos. When people sat in coffee shops and bars and talked about what the government should be doing and why one party was more fit than another and why some parties weren't fit for anything at all.
Then, slowly in some cases and all-to-quickly in others, those conversations ceased. Some people saw the writing on the wall and just stopped showing up at the coffee shop or the bar or the village square, and some people didn't figure it out in time and just disappeared.
For all the complaints anyone can muster about the United States of America, we've had it pretty good here from a free-speech perspective. Yes, there have been hiccups along the way, but for the most part, you and I have been free to have open discussions about politics and governing. I'm not talking about the more extreme examples, like flag-burning or half-million-person marches, or political convention protests, I'm talking about what we're doing right now, you and I. Thinking, talking in a civil tone, assembling (digitally or otherwise), simply engaging in a free discourse of ideas. But I feel it changing. Don't you?
I'm probably overreacting. The Democratic Party might well win one or both Houses of Congress back in November, and no matter what you think about the Dems, they'll be more open to free speech issues than the alternative. We'll probably be freely slinging barbs at each other over presidential primary candidates soon and this will be forgotten. But what if I'm not overreacting?
What if the Republican majorities in both Houses of Congress not only remain, but grow in November? Will you still feel comfortable tuning in to MSNBC at 8pm to listen to an anchor take potshots at a government clearly obsessed with "subversive" elements knowing that your cable company can record your viewing habits? Will you feel comfortable reading DailyKos knowing that your visit can be tracked directly back to the computer on your desktop?
Will you feel comfortable cracking wise in public about the president's latest attempt to use the English language? Will you feel comfortable signing your name to that letter to the editor?
Or will you stop and think, "This may not be a good idea. I like this job, and more importantly, my family needs me to keep this job. No, I don't think I'll hit the `send' button on this diary comment."
Will you think about how sad it would be for your daughter to grow up without a father because you insisted on wearing that Edwards button to the company picnic? Will your kids wander why mommy just didn't come home from work ever again because you signed that petition that one day? Worse yet, will you ever recover from the guilt from the time your child or your parent or your spouse or your friend was tortured because of your comments?
Or will you just decide politics isn't really worth discussing. That there are things in your life that are more important than who the next state representative in your district is. That speaking freely isn't as important as being with your family, even though things are ... different ... now.
I don't know. I hope I never have to answer any of these questions. But I can't help thinking about them. Patrick Henry famously said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Can you say that? Can you mean it? I hope I can. But I'm not sure. Are you?