councilor.org
| Source | News for Social Justice Action |
| Date | 04/10/30/14:14 |
| Picked this up off the Quaker peace concerns email list today. It is
written by one of my near neighbors, Randolph T. Holhut, who has been a journalist in New England for more than 20 years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books), and can be reached at randyholhut@yahoo.com. 'One Last Chance to Save Our Democracy' ... And We Better Not Blow It by Randolph T. Holhut Dummerston, Vermont - Thursday, October 28 -- What is democracy? The great essayist E. B. White was asked that question by the Writers War Board in the summer of 1944. This was his reply. "It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don't in 'Don't Shove.' It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in voting booths, the feeling of communion in libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn't been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It's the mustard on the hot dog, and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is." I've thought often about White's words over the past few months. This nation has gone through all manner of trials and tribulations over the past two centuries, and has managed to survive. It has managed to survive because of the most powerful idea the world has ever known -- that we, the people, are the government. Power comes not from a king. Not from a man on a white horse. We, the people, are from where all power flows in a democracy. It is exactly what George W. Bush and his followers fear the most. The Bush administration's contempt for democracy and the rule of law is well documented. They believe in force, rather than consensus. Dissent is not tolerated. Disagreement is not allowed. Facts are irrelevant. You are either with us, or you are with the forces of evil. They have shamelessly manipulated the fears of Americans in the post-9/11 world for political gain. They have lied brazenly and repeatedly and got away with it. They say God is on their side. They believe that they alone know what is right and good, and that all who disagree must be destroyed. Quite simply, it is the antithesis of democracy. It is a stew of theocratic fascism that threatens to destroy all we hold dear. Because they believe in the righteousness of their cause, I don't think we'll see the scheming men of the Bush administration go away quietly should they lose the election. They are doing everything in their power to discourage people who aren't Bush supporters from voting. They plan to contest the election results in the courts with such ferocity that it will make what happened in Florida in 2000 seem tame by comparison. Everything up to and including armed force is not out of the realm of possibility, for we know that the Republican Party of George W. Bush cares only about power, and will do anything to keep it. Should John Kerry prevail and win with a solid majority that cannot be stolen away from him, we know the Republicans will not accept his legitimacy, and, just as they did with Bill Clinton in 1992, they will work to destroy his presidency before it even has a chance to begin. I hate to think we may be on the verge of civil war, but the depth of the political divisions in this nation and the willingness of the GOP to exploit them have made it almost impossible for a Democratic president to govern. Republicans believe they are on the verge of assuming permanent control of every level of government, and that this control is their birthright. John Dean, the former Nixon legal counsel who definitely knows evil when he sees it, is right when he recently wrote that "only a miracle, it strikes me, can prevent this election from descending into post-election chaos." This fear is the fruit of an administration that doesn't believe in democracy, only in the maintenance of its own power. And too many Americans have either not noticed, don't care, or think that a one-party theocracy is a splendid idea. As a proud member of what's become known as the "reality-based community," it's hard to stay optimistic. My sense of despair over the past three years has grown with each passing week, as I have watched the gross incompetence and brazen lies of the Bush administration destroy nearly everything I love about this nation. "This isn't 'politics as usual' -- not even an extreme version of it, not McCarthyism revisited, Reaganism times two, or Nixon in a Stetson hat," wrote Moscow Times columnist Chris Floyd last week. "There's never been anything like it in American life before: a messianic cult backed by vast corporate power, a massive cadre of religious zealots, a highly disciplined party, an overwhelming media machine and the mammoth force of history's most powerful government -- all led by men who 'create new realities' out of lies, blood, theft and torment." It may sound melodramatic, but it is true. The fate of our democracy really does hang in the balance in this election. Regardless of what you think of John Kerry, it is imperative that he win. The Bush cult must be swept away, so that our government can begin the process of being returned back to its rightful owners -- we, the people. |
Copyright (c) 1998, Joongpil Cho