We must first recognize that we are no different than any nation that has ever succumbed to the disease of authoritarianism. The provisions of our Constitution are no protection, so long as those in power regard it as something inconvenient to be circumvented, rather that the sacrosanct document it needs to be.

In order to overcome the authoritarians we will need to overcome two very important hurdles which Mr. Conason's introduction fails to mention, two key elements that will continue to sustain a deep divide between America's people and its politicians.

The first is a rampant corporatism. In order to maintain their power, the economic elite foster a narrative equating freedom and democracy with the neo-liberal style "free market" economy. In fact, what we have is not the free market at all, or even true democracy, but domination of US economic, domestic and foreign policy by just a very few giant corporate elites. Its most visible manifestation is in the press, which it quite literally controls. Does anyone really expect CBS, owned by giant military contractor GE, to do an exposé on whether our military spending is bankrupting us? Instead we hear about illegal immigrants, homosexuals, and "anonymous government sources" telling us that our next bogeyman is Iran, wedge issues designed to keep our eye off the real game. Nothing has changed since the Iraq debacle.

The other problem is our broken electoral system. Its winner-takes-all setup cuts off at the pass any emerging party that is more in tune with changing public opinion. Many will claim that there are no viable third parties to begin with, but this is a self-fulfilling prophecy, since it is nearly impossible to make a difference by launching one under our current system. This allows our two major parties to comfortably entrench themselves in power, offering in fact few substantive differences between them. Politicians must thus spend huge amounts of money differentiating themselves from their near-clones, making them subservient to those who have the money.

We will only recover from this if enough Americans refuse to be distracted by self-serving patriotic propaganda of Freedom and Democracy and the American Way and recognize that we are in deep trouble.

... Doug Hamilton. He was president and general manager of the LA Galaxy when he died. He was only 43.

... Glenn "Mooch" Myernick. He was Bruce Arena's assistant coach for the US Men's National Team that competed in the last World Cup. Before that, he played in the old NASL, and on the US Men's National Team, where he served as team captain in '78, and he coached the MLS Colorado Rapids. He was only 51.

... David Vanole. Vanole was the starting 'keeper on the 1988 US Olympic team, and later helped the US National Team qualify for its first World Cup in 4 decades. He went on to be the goalkeeper coach for UCLA, the 2000 Olympics Women's National Team, DC United and the New England Revolution. He was only 43.

Even if what the authoritarian groupies of this president say is true, that their Dear Leader is Good and Virtuous and only has our wellbeing in mind, their logic is fallacious. Because this sets a precedent. If the Good Leader leaves office and is followed by an Evil Leader, these powers will certainly be abused. This is why, no matter how virtuous our leaders are thought to be, we do not trust them. Instead, we must demand transparency and accountability—because we are a Nation of Laws, and not Dear Leaders.

That said, there is nothing remotely good about our current Dear Leader, or the sycophants who lick his boots. They have demonstrated again and again that they cannot be trusted.

The Republican cries of "voter fraud" have nothing at all to do with actual fraud, or fairness, or democracy. This is about allowing only the "right" people to vote (pardon the pun), and the "right" ideas to prevail.

Republicans always know what the result ought to be; any voter who is not going to support this result is by definition ignorant, perhaps unpatriotic, or maybe even fraudulent, and needs to be either shown the light or prevented from voting. Whatever the case, we are definitely not to be trusted to vote without Republican guidance in the process. For an example of this mindset, here is Rush Limbaugh, commenting recently on California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger:

"If he had the leadership skills to articulate conservative principles and win over the public as (former President) Reagan did, then he would have stayed conservative."

Translation: California's voters are too stupid to hold the "correct" views unless they are led to them by a Dear Leader.

So, like Oklahoma's Finest, Senator Inhofe, our beltway pundits are "outraged by the outrage."

It's time for an enema. When the Democrats regain control of the presidency, and get a firmer grip on the House and Senate, their #1 priority needs to be to break up the media conglomerates, and reexamine whether the on-air media (TV and radio) are serving the public interest in their use of the public airwaves.

This needs to be the #1 priority because we apparently cannot even get no-brainers like simple oversight without resistance from the corporate media. It shouldn't be necessary to explain why oversight is necessary. That we have to is a scandal. That our news media actively resists this simple concept is an even bigger scandal. If we can't get some diversity and competition in this industry, it will be next to impossible to implement the simplest reforms.

Think about this next time you hear about Barak Obama's parking tickets.