Letters to the Editor
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They're not invulnerable, people
At this stage, if you simply throw up your hands in despair, or rant about secession, or assume things will only get worse until we live in an Orwellian, corporate-controlled autocracy where we're all treated like Gitmo "detainees," then you're part of the problem, no more useful to the cause than those peak oil wingnuts who dance on the grave of civilization with such glee and seem to look forward to the supposed starvation of billions.
It's my experience that a small but vocal group of people always despairs, assumes nothing can be done, and resigns itself to conditions getting worse. This type of thinking is really such people absolving themselves of responsibility for taking action; "If things are going to get worse no matter what I do, then I don't have to do anything to stop them." Such thinking becomes self-fulfilling.
Yes, we face substantial challenges, not the least of which is the increasing presence of corrupt companies like Diebold in the electoral process (as is happening in my state of California), but we also hold considerable advantages: a more aware, angry electorate, a few brave members of Congress are beginning to speak out, a strong cadre of progressive NGOs like MoveOn who can rally the troops and apply pressure, and most important, an election in November where we can throw out the festering power structure that is running our nation into its grave.
But before we can do that, we must stop thinking of the Bushies, GOP operatives and their corporate paymasters as invulnerable and omniscient. An earlier poster made the wise point that some folks always see the current situation as unchanging and set in stone, but the fact is that things do change. Walls fall. Governments are overthrown. In the same way, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney Grover Norquist and their vile like are not all-knowing geniuses; they are men who make mistakes, fall victim to ego and hubris, and have no idea of all the forces arrayed against them.
If the GOP was so all-powerful (and it's the entire GOP power cabal that's the problem, not just the Bush administration), do you think the Abramoff scandal would have broken and be in the process of bringing down Tom De Lay, Bob Ney and who knows how many other members of the GOP leadership? Yes, this is an uphill battle to be fought, in large part, against the apathy of our fellow Americans. But it's being fought against men, not gods. If we treat the Nov. elections and the fight for impeachment as what it is--a war for our nation--and prosecute it with the unflagging aggression, energy and passion that it deserves, we can take the government back.
Then, we start reforming the Democrats. Oy, there's another letter.