“Nations do go crazy sometimes, and the progression of symptoms we've been exhib

[Guest guest]

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/11/con04489.html

 

November 7, 2004

 

" Nations do go crazy sometimes, and the progression of symptoms we've

been exhibiting here in the Good Ol' USA has entered rubber room

territory "

 

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

by Ruth Lopez

 

Yeah, I know the drill: I'm supposed to 'get over it'. Well, I will

not pretend to act like this is fine. That the system worked. That we

did what we could, that they won honestly, or, even if they didn't,

that it's time to move on.

 

No, I am devastated and I weep for my country. But I am also as angry

as I am heartsick.

 

I am devastated because this time Bush really was elected. Not by the

vote count; oh no, voter fraud was rampant. What the Republicans did

in Florida in 2000, they refined in Georgia in 2002, and they got down

to a science this time around, especially in Ohio and, yes, Florida.

This fraud wasn't so " in your face " all across the country that it

cried out for us to rise up and do something about it, nope, it was

just enough for that precious 50% + 1 of the vote. Enough to declare

victory.

 

As for us rising up and doing something about it - 2004 proved what

2000 merely hinted at: we are not rising up. We are not going to. We

are sad but we will do nothing except make vague threats about next

time. Next time we'll get them. Next time.

 

That has sealed it. This is what has elected Bush. It is the

complacent acceptance that has elected him. Everyone, from Kerry on

down, has said, " Ok, time to move on " . That is Bush's real mandate. We

all just rolled over, and now we're lying in pathetic little blue

puddles of our despair, trying to pull ourselves up by our

metaphorical bootstraps by promising ourselves that we really will

show 'em next time. Meanwhile, Bush can do whatever he wants. Who's

going to stop him? Not us. We're going back to work, back to real

life; paying bills, buying groceries, catching up on the latest update

on whatever the murder trial du jour is, or whatever reality show is

out there; debasing the human spirit for 'entertainment' and

commercial revenues. We're busy, we're tired, we'll fight next time.

 

Within a few short hours of Kerry's concession speech, the left wing

focus shifted to how we will win next time. Next time. This pathetic

mewl of defiance completely falls within the definition of insanity:

repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. We are

like the poor weak little kid lying in the snow, bruised and bloodied

and nose snotty and bleeding and who can't find his glasses. As soon

as the bully who did it and his friends are around the corner, the kid

issues a feeble cry, " I'm gonna get you next time! I'll really kick

your butt then! " And then the hot tears really start. I understand the

need for defiance, but why should we believe for a minute that in two

years it will be different? That there will be no voter fraud, no

cheating, no dirty tricks? That they won't use these next two years to

get better at controlling elections than they are now? How insane is

it to pat ourselves on the back and say, " Gosh, look, we came so

close! Next time we'll do it; next time, yeah, next time " ? Wake up,

this was the time, and we took a licking and said thank you. There

won't be a next time, not as long as we lie to ourselves.

 

While we're sitting around sniveling and dreaming of our revenge, the

bully and his friends are going to get bigger and stronger. These

people dream of world domination. The American electoral process is a

minor impediment to them. Ignoring this reality is the road to

insanity and failure.

 

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but I say at least be big enough to see

this for what it is.

 

The next election will be less of an election than this election. Oh,

we'll get little victories here and there, enough to make this

Matrix-like reality significantly believable for the millions of us

who would truly like to believe that our votes count and, if they

didn't, we really would do whatever it takes, but, oh well, we came so

close. Next time we'll do it. Next time.

 

There will be no next time on those terms. This country is now headed

inexorably down a road that will take a generation or more to get off

of, If we even can. If America as we know it even survives.

 

Nations do go crazy sometimes, and the progression of symptoms we've

been exhibiting here in the Good Ol' USA has entered rubber room

territory. We are a people in dangerous denial. Don't participate in

it by accepting this insanity as your reality. Even as everyone around

you buys into the comfort zone of 'next time', stay strong by never

acknowledging it as your truth. Whatever else you do, for God's sake,

at least see this for what it really was.

 

The extreme right-wing of the Republican party has not only sealed a

majority rule in this election, they now have carte blanche for the

next two years to further consolidate their hold on everything that

truly fosters democratic participation: the media, the Supreme Court,

voting machines, gerrymandered Republican districts that guarantee

majority re-election indefinitely. You name it, their iron fist is now

wrapped around it. Even the Internet.

 

Never forget: by rolling over as we all collectively just did, we have

kept in office the man who granted himself the power to take any of

us, declare us enemies of the state, strip us of our citizenship,

torture us and jail us indefinitely, with no due process. Just because

they've only done it so far to swarthy looking men who don't really

look 'American' to Bush's supporters doesn't mean the rest of us are

exempt. All the warm fuzziness of network anchor assurances do not

change that.

 

We have given Bush two completely unobstructed years to enhance and

consolidate those powers before facing the electorate again. By that

time, the electoral process will be more akin to some bizarre national

obsessive compulsive ritual than any kind of real participatory

process: voting will become useless repetitive behavior compulsively

acted out to relieve national anxiety with no reality based

connection. We'll vote in record numbers again, the votes will be

manipulated, and our TV pundits will console us with meaningless

explanations. More insane behavior. But don't think about it now. The

kids have soccer practice to get to. Gotta' get gas. There's a new

terrorist threat. We voted, what else are we supposed to do? We're

busy. Besides, things aren't really that bad here. Look at how we

turned out the vote. We came so close. Next time we'll do it. Next time.

 

When the 2006 elections come around, and we're out there plugging

away, we'll still come soooo close, just not quite close enough. We'll

win a few, but we'll lose more. But there's always next time, right?

We'll do it next time. Next time.

 

Americans used to be so smug about Soviet elections. What a joke they

were. Not like us. Well, welcome to the new America. We'll all go vote

on our shiny new privately owned electronic machines, machines that

will be everywhere by the next national 'election', with votes that

will be counted by privatized vote counters. Don't worry your little

heads about paper trails or accountability. To question is to

undermine confidence in our leadership. Good citizens don't do that.

Go home and turn on your privately owned corporate media outlets who

will soothingly tell you that everything is all right. A few

malcontents may have to be put down, but the people will have spoken:

the Great Leader can continue his Holy Mission. God loves us, we're

Americans.

 

And the next election will be even less of an election than the

previous election. And the election after that even less. But they

will look great on TV.

 

Why are we taking this so complacently? I mean, seriously, what is it

going to take? When will enough be enough? Are we waiting for someone

to tell us what to do? Are we waiting for someone to do it for us? Or

are we so afraid to lose what we have that we will trade what we

should value most for it?

 

I think of the men who formed this nation. They were a tiny minority,

but they didn't wait for someone to tell them it was time for a

revolution. They thought; long, deep and hard, and then they acted.

One of those men said, " Any man willing to trade liberty for security

will have neither. " I don't think most of us can even conceive of the

true depth of that concept. These men, our founding fathers, weren't

poor. They had a lot to lose. Some of them lost everything. Some of

those signatures on your Declaration of Independence are names of men

who started out their fight wealthy men of property and who died

broken and penniless by the time it was over. But they believed that

freedom was more important than their wealth and comfort. These

weren't slaves fighting for their freedom, with nothing to lose but a

life of slavery. These were men who led comfortable middle and upper

class lives. Could that happen now? Who among us really has the

stomach for that? We are so comfortable. We are shackled by our

comfort and so terrified of losing it that we ignore the price we are

paying with our humanity, and our sanity. Never mind. Turn on the TV,

we'll fight next time. Next time.

 

The most important thing to be done right now, at the very least, is

to face the truth. Whatever else we do, and as hard as it is, at least

face this honestly. Acknowledge what we really know happened. Think,

for God's sake. What have we become? We just had a second sham

election and we did nothing about it except talk about next time.

We're killing tens of thousands of people who are no threat to us. Our

children are cannon fodder for the profits of the ultra wealthy. Too

many of us think this is a good way to be because it is God's will.

This really is who America is right now. Refusing to see that while

dreaming about 'next time' borders on pathological behavior. Don't do it.

 

In Robert Heinlein's classic book " Stranger in a Strange Land " , there

was a character who was a 'Fair Witness'. A Fair Witness was trained

to be a scientifically objective witness, so objective that their

testimony in a court of law was automatically accepted as Truth,

unaffected by any subjectivity, emotion, or bias. We need to be our

own Fair Witnesses to this time in our country. Be rigorously honest

with yourself about this.

 

In WW II Germany, the good German citizens of towns downwind of

Auschwitz and Dachau swore that they never knew what was being done by

their government. As hundreds and hundreds of thousands of bodies were

incinerated not even a few miles upwind of them, they swore they never

noticed the smell that was horribly obvious to the liberating

soldiers. They didn't want to know and therefore they didn't. Perhaps

they did it out of misguided nationalism, or fear for their very

lives, but they did it. They were as insane as the Nazis. Ignoring the

truth is the road to insanity and failure.

 

We have to be like the few in Germany who held on to the truth and

their humanity through the darkest times. Like those who worked in the

resistance. Who hid Jews at their own peril, because it was the right

thing, the sane thing, to do. Who looked at the truth head on and

survived with their sanity and their humanity bruised but intact. We

have to be Fair Witnesses to the truth around us, never giving in to

the easy and comfortable propaganda that let's us off the hook. That

starts with a brutally honest look at what just happened.

 

When madness is all around, like a turbulent, relentless sea, the only

thing worth hanging onto is a hard, unflinching grasp of the truth.

 

No matter what happens now, at least hang on to the truth.

 

Ruth Lopez

Florida

[Guest guest]

The author of this rant piece obviously hasn't taken the time to look

at what's really going on out there in the sea of complacency she

claims we are drowning in. There are numerous battles being fought,

not only against the election results, but against Bush being able to

hold on to his office in the form of lawsuits and impeachment.

Instead of ranting about giving up, it would further the cause of

these fight-back oraganizations if we seriously joined the cause and

DID something rather than complain about doing nothing. Now is the

time to look for the seeds of organization and propagate them into a

real movement. It's all so very disjointed, and to find them you have

to really dig, but impeachment movements are out there for anyone

concerned enough to look. I've read of riots over the election

results...nothing on the TV about them so don't bother waiting on a

news report for encouragement...and meetings all over the country to

try and organize a movement towards public action. It's up to the

individual to seek these jump-off points and get involved. Over half

the nation is up in arms over what happened November 2nd, and there

is strength in numbers. We have a real chance of making a difference

if we can just pull together and become one on the cause. I realize

this is a huge task. Considering that we have no central office and

no media voice, the largest part of the task will be unifying the

seperate and splintered movements already underway. But I have faith

that it can be achieved. Start the chant in one corner of the nation

and keep adding voices until it's a booming sound that can't be

ignored.

Just my two-cents, but I refuse to give up.

Kat