A Democracy is a wonderful thing. There are other good ways to govern but it you look at what the founding fathers intended it was about everyone being equal (we know who they defined as everyone at that time was probably white men--but still--great idea).
It was also about an equal say, the pursuit of happiness, freedom. Above all we live in freedom. The one thing that we cannot ever give up is our freedom. But we are headed in that direction and very quickly. It only takes two elections to turn the Senate into a majority for the other side.
Freedom and Democracy depend on a few critical things and we have lost one of them. It is devastating. He who controls the message controls America. Freedom and Democracy depend on the truth, access to the truth. Equal access to the truth. We no longer have that. That is one of the first things the Republicans stole from us.
As we speak they are rewriting history. They are blaming everything on the Democrats. Frankly, there are some Democrats, that Republicans in the mainstream media call on consistently to represent us they know that these "Democrats (or liberals)" can be counted on to say that Democrats are doing a terrible job.
Who hears this? Everyone, other Democrats, Independents, and to their own delight republicans.
But here is the truth: We are now getting all of the country's problems blamed on us by a media controlled by the right wing, we are risking our freedom because republicans want to rule, without us, forever.
If we don't start to get our message out and fast, we may find ourselves truly governed by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson, and their entire crowd. One glaring example: Sarah Palin endorsed Bob Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race and that was a great boost to him. Even if it did not boost the Independents (and there is some evidence that it did) it certainly put the seal of approval of the Republican Party on him. That vote is very motivated right now, they smell blood. And I will take you back to Paul Krugman on that:
And if Tea Party Republicans do win big next year, what has already happened in California could happen at the national level. In California, the G.O.P. has essentially shrunk down to a rump party with no interest in actually governing — but that rump remains big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster.
The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.
The problem is that the right has been very effective in painting us as capitalist hating wild liberals who want to pay for everything and have huge government. And here is how they back it up... I read some article in a Boston paper and they called a "Democrat" for a comment. They called Jane Hamsher. Now, would you say she speaks "officially" for the Democratic Party. No. I don't either. Neither of us has been elected or appointed to anything. I would say that as a Democrat I can give an opinion. I would not represent myself as a spokesperson for the party as that would be wrong for people who do not agree with me. And Arianna Huffington is starting a new right wing publishing venture of some sort. Yet every week she goes on TV and lets them call her a "liberal pundit."
Paul Krugman is right. If we want to live in freedom we have got to find a way to have our message reach America. We have reversed course and now we are the rump party. We may find ourselves being told that we can go to their church or to jail.