July 22, 2002
(Another)
" Dictatorship on Your Doorstep" by James R. Elwood & Jarret B. Wollstein is more than just something that strikes fear into your very core -- though it certainly does that, and for good reason. But ironically, by facing squarely the grim prospects that now confront the American people, it provides a measure of hope.
New Morning in AmericaPeople are waking up to the outrage that has been perpetrated upon working Americans, the vast majority. And once their outraged is aroused, the results of their collective actions show them how powerful the people are. And not just in democracies.
Many kingdoms have fallen when they have outraged their people badly enough. This great aura of power projected by the self-styled rulers, and blasted at us through their pet mass media channels is an illusion. It could vanish with a click of the fingers of the vast majority that has been left out of the administration's agenda. It's that simple.
I heard a report on WBAI today that the administration was backing off from its push to repeal posse comitatus, the law that prohibits the military from acting as police in American cities. It's hard to find words any more. You can't say, "This is the most outrageous thing ever..." because everything they have done in rolling back civil rights qualifies as that. And yet they always try for the most outrageous grabs for dictatorial power. Is it possible that the population of America has not noticed that? Is it possible to believe the polls that tell us that a huge percentage of the population "approve" of the president when he is wrecking the lives of so many people? I don't think so.
Beginning with the outrageous insult upon the tradition of democracy pulled off so cynically by James Baker, Tom Delay and the Bush/Carlyle clique in Florida in 2001, this group has pushed every day to overturn all democratic laws and human rights in America and to grab absolute power for their corporate junta. Is it any longer possible for anyone to deny that? Is anyone so blind?
The Bush-Cheney crew only back off when the public is sufficiently outraged to cause trouble, such as when the military tribunals were announced, and now when posse comitatus was threatened. The mistake for them is that when they arouse the people -- who are by any measure extremely tolerant of the outrages of politicians -- they cause them to become self-conscious, to feel their own power.
Maybe Americans are waking up.
-- By David Cogswell