Letters to the Editor
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@ Paul R.
Translation: Ooops! My bad!
Now Paul, not at all. People from your POV are never going to agree with people of mine on a great many issues, and it didn't make sense for libertarians to favor Democrats for quite some time. (Tho it did make sense not to vote, which I had taken to doing.) What binds us right now is that the things the left (excluding Stalinists and allied types) has always had in common with 'tarians are the most pressing matters du jour -- civil liberties under attack and authoritarian power running amok and beyond control. Not to mention opposition to a neocon war cult.
But we can return to our regularly scheduled disagreements when the immediate crisis has been averted. In the meantime, do you realize that I put you on the frontpage of LGF, albeit Johnson omitted my link to your Altemeyer post?
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without reading all the comments ....
My apologies if anyone already made this point.
1. Ledeen is a fascist/fanatic. I'm convinced of this.
2. Ledeen's clandestine meetings with Ghorbinafur are also mentioned in Woodward's State of Denial.
I would add that I think that we are seeing a tide turn on this administration. But these people will be back. Ledeen did the same thing during Iran-contra and look how long it took for America to forget it and let it happen again.
The problem was that Bush et all got into power in the first place. There are some very deep flaws in our democracy now (both Kevin Phillips and Chalmers Johnson address these very well, as well as David Kay Johnson doing a definitive expose on the rigging of the tax system to transform America from a meritocracy to a plutocracy).
I'm saying this to be pessimistic. I just want everyone to realize that this is just a start.
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argh, error
I meant to say, "I'm not saying this to be pessimistic, but realistic"
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Freedom from cultpolitik would be a greater point of achievement
Thank you, Glenn. And thanks to so many thoughtful commenters.
Yes, the tide changes. Thankfully. But let us not forget that shorelines erode or are built up by deposits from every fresh wave.
Just as we grant too little time to mourning hundreds of thousands of lives lost too soon, we must not be made drunk on any victory, for every real enemy of humanity works in the shadows against any weakening of their own still very real power.
I, too, am tempted to conclude that a Greater One awaits to lead us from the dank swamp. I find it essential to fight that, for it is in the expectation that we can rest - as a champion comes forward to lead the forces of government - where every society is inevitably betrayed.
Eternal vigilance should not be just a military catchphrase, but the obligation we agree to as the price for a free society. Great democracies have inevitably fallen by such internal weakening more than by the work of foreign operatives.
Pogo was right about the real enemy.
There is no Next President to serve as Saviour. Your heaven suspiciously bears little resemblance to mine and that will always be so. National introspection is healthy but healthier when coupled with personal introspection: how can we remove our cultural and experiential blinders and think beyond the conventional? What are the vital lessons to retain while looking with the eyes of Cady Stanton and Einstein and Hawking and Berners-Lee to expand the future beyond the past (and present) constricts?
First on my list is to end the cult of celebrity in elective politics.
Yes, I see a growing conscience in John Edwards that's mindful of the evolution of RFK. Yes, I see that it's well past time for a woman president or a non-white president, so much so that it can supersede other issues to those within those demographics. Yes, I fear why so many shrink from the Kucinich impeachment proposal and wonder why the obvious need is not more obviously met. And I see how the media marginalizes (and self-professed progressives are surprised by the words of) Mike Gravel. How many have gone so far as to read his wikipedia bio before concluding 'he can't win'?
Old habits are hard to break. New alliances are hard to build.
Be assured, however, that old alliances are working overtime to prevent the new from achieving institutional reform that might threaten their hold on capital and power. They never go gently into any bad old night or better new day.
Envision a world where masses of Americans communicate with masses of Iranians. And North Koreans. And Sudanese. Can peoples agree online to not buy into their governments' predatory and parochial aims, to refuse to fight each other when their leaders say 'jump'? In Afghanistan and Africa, tribal rivalries stand in the way. In Iraq, it's sects. In the US it's political parties and long memories of old regional conflicts.
In these divisions, powerful exploiters promote the widening of chasms. It's up to us to evade their predation.
There is more than one sea needing change.
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DCLaw1 sounds just like Winston...
...before he got his head stuffed into a cage full of rats.
Don't get me wrong--I like his optimism.
But where The Big Money is concerned, I just don't share it.
There is, after all, a reason the house always wins. And it's got nothing to do with how fair the players think the game is.
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Glenns' gone Meta
Wow Glenn! You're post today on Moyers blew me away. It's something you can just "feel" now. It's got momentum, it's gaining strength.
I'm grateful to people like Jon and Stephen and Keith who break the politics of Wash. down to the nth degree. Nothing but bare bones and nothing to dispute. I don't understand the need by pundits just to write editorials by overuse of metaphors, lengthy unintelligible quotes from the WH, and comparisons to past wars, past Presidents. I can tell you write from the gut Mr. Grenwald. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your honesty, real emotion, real opinion that is carefully worded. It's a switch from so many other writers who aspire to be in on political "talking points". I like your originality. I like your guts.
Thanks for opening eyes to the Ledeen-Italian connection. thanks for the piece on Jon and Moyers (haven't seen it yet though).
Thanks for keeping an open mind to the meta-gestalt world connecting all of us. Now all we have to do is convince those afraid of change-that change can be a good thing.
Thanks,
Bethincary