Letters to the Editor
Arvin Hill
Published Letters: 55 Editor's Choice: 2
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The Constitution is no longer a living document.
[Read the article: PBS's "Frontline: Spying on the Home Front"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While this helps explain why the Democrats are rolling over and playing dead, it DOESN'T explain why the Republicans seem so unconcerned with the power being wielded by Hillary.
Paul: Republicans, unlike Democrats, have a near scientific understanding of how to operate effectively as a minority party. They created the Unitary Executive Monster and have every reason to believe they can reign it in at will. Given the bureacratic, pedestrian, uninspired performance of Democrats since Iran-Contra, I concur.
Any Democrat who ever voted to give Bush authority not only for the war, but for any number of other egregious assaults on the Constitution, can very easily be brought to heel. Were it otherwise, the Democratic Party wouldn't have sold us out to begin with. They are trained dogs and nothing more. With her triangulation, capitulation and Third Way shell games, few would be easier for Republicans to control than Hillary!.
Political theater demands the appearance of opposition. Today's risk-averse American public demands nothing. Until we're willing to risk getting our heads cracked to restore Constitutional governance, we will get exactly what we deserve: an oligarchy which becomes more venal, brutal and oppressive each day it is allowed to rule without any meaningful resistance.
William: The Catch-22 analogy is apt. And the point you make about mass advertising versus targeted advertising cuts to the crux of the Democratic Party's refusal to acknowledge reality. Party leaders and consultants can talk about framing all they want, but message-craft isn't the problem. Sadly, the only guiding principles of the Democratic Party are:
1. Don't piss off Republicans.
2. Ignore criticism from The Left.
3. Get ready to govern again when voters tire of Republicans.
That's it. That's all there is. And a lot of pretty platitudes that mean absolutely nothing.
ondelette: Yes, it is depressing. By all means, cry. I certainly have - and do. But when we let go of the halcyon dreams of years past and bring ourselves to face the unvarnished reality of what has happened to our government, our society, our SELVES, we can rightly view the struggle as a perpetual one which is fundamentally generational in nature. Forget about what *we* have to look forward to for our remaining days, for it is undoubtedly dark and dispiriting, and start thinking about what our progeny will have to endure because of our unwillingness to fight for the noble beliefs we claim to hold dear.
As for the patent issue, get the patent; then recover the cost and use the proceeds, if there are any, to sew disorder into the status quo. It's a formula that worked extremely well for The Authoritarian Right... another lesson we can't claim to have learned if our idea of activism is funding the same grossly corrupt political system responsible for the boot on our throats.
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Lastly, the suggestion of amending The Constitution is laughable. We have an executive branch that doesn't subscribe to it. A Congress that doesn't subscribe to it. Federal and Supreme Court justices who don't subscribe to it. A public which barely even knows what The Constitution was - and cares even less.
Whether The Constitution is amended or folded into a paper airplane, the end result - as things now stand, and will stand for the foreseeable future - will be the same. Those who look to The Constitution to save us are using a broken compass. It is a dead document, and adding amendments is the equivalent of exhuming a corpse to give it a shot of botox and a nose job.
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We Have All Been Abandoned.
[Read the article: All hail the king]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For the entire duration of King Bush's reign, your Beltway Donkey Pals haven't given a damn about The Law. Clearly, they still don't.
A common refrain in the early days of 2001 was "Give Republicans enough rope and they'll hang themselves." Six years later, the only thing I see hanging is a rotting Constitution and a bunch of gawkers pretending one party lynched it.
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Shame on you, Joan.
[Read the article: Keith Olbermann calls it "betrayal"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What Keith is talking about is THE WAR. Collective punishment. Death. Injury. Displacement. Human misery on a scale that would be hard for any of us - or, at least those of us not in Iraq - to truly appreciate.
You, on the other hand, appear to be concerned primarily with Democratic politics.
For some of us, it's a moral issue, not a political one.
Your criticism of Olbermann underscores the single biggest problem with today's progressives; namely, that every action, reaction and inaction represents nothing more than a political calculation.
Truth is often over the top, Joan. Your focus on language rather than message will surely further your assimilation in the Royal Punditry, but it is precisely that kind of behavior that gives the Dems cover to do a whole lotta nothing.
And while Dems do exactly that - nothing - The Bush Machine continues its mission to provoke Iran into a full scale war.
Given the NeoCons' boundless enthusiasm for setting all kinds of horrific precedents, there is little doubt that their ultimate aim today is to use nuclear weapons offensively against Iran. As part of the chortling tsk-tsk-tsk'rs proliferating in The Beltway, you might want to stop and ponder your role - regardless of how small you may perceive it to be - in the actualization of such an unimaginable atrocity. Not to mention the ongoing one.
At best, you are myopic.
At worst, you are morally bankrupt.
Either way, you're dead fucking wrong.