America has never really fully lived up to its ideals. The early nation countenanced human slavery and maintained a powerful, unquestioned patriarchy. But the great words of Jefferson's Declaration and the noble goals laid out in the Preamble to the United States Constitution told of the aspiration to a future where all humans could live in freedom and dignity. Lincoln understood that the Civil War was about this issue, giving voice to it in his immortal Gettysburg Address ("a new birth of freedom"). America, in short, was always a place that was in the process of becoming. Its people often acted foolishly or cruelly and they showed all the weaknesses and shortcomings of people everywhere. And yet the best part of our ideas always inspired most of us with the vision of a nation headed to a new kind of greatness, a greatness not just of military power but of justice and opportunity. There were always the crooks and the conmen, always the people who only paid lip service to the ideals, but they never really seemed to be running the show, at least not for long. They would always be exposed and ultimately defeated. It really seemed, therefore, that the United States might some day be the great example for humanity, a startling and unique aggregation of all the elements of humanity bound together by a set of ideas into a new kind of society, one in which the rule of law was above all and the preservation and expansion of human well-being and freedom were the ultimate objectives. That was the hope, the dream, the vision, that stirred the best in us.
Now, that vision is in the gravest danger it has faced in more than 140 years. Our nation has been captured by a set of individuals so fanatical, so ruthless, so ill-equipped to govern, and so contemptuous of our traditions, laws, and ideals that the very survival of our nation is in question. Driven by greed and cronyism, they are systematically bankrupting our nation and imperiling the economic future of our descendants. Led by the truly frightening and dangerous Dick Cheney, they are destroying the system of checks and balances which is one of the crown jewels of the system of government James Madison so carefully constructed for us. A bizarre coalition of laissez-faire ideologues, religious fanatics, cynical business leaders, and what can only be called neoimperialists has seized power, aided and abetted by a media that has been compromised to the point of paralysis. Many in the media are now the outright allies of and collaborators with this coalition, clouding every public issue in a mist of lies, distortions, and misdirections. The very institutions on which our country rests are under assault. A movement to transform America into a theocratic empire is well under way. And standing in the middle of all this, doing what we can, is a group of people who are often seriously divided and uncertain as to what approach to take to stop this nightmare from triumphing--most of the Democrats, the vast majority of the independents, and a small but truly decent minority of Republicans who see what's happening and are genuinely appalled by it. It is we who must dig in our heels and say no:
NO to illegal wars generated by lies and pseudo-patriotic wardrum beating.
NO to the use of torture and rendition as tools to destroy our enemies.
NO to the alliance between radical Islam and far-right fundamentalist Christianism.
NO to the attempt by the far right to interfere with and regulate every intimate sphere of human life.
NO to the abandonment of the poor and underprivileged.
NO the concept of the "unitary executive", which is simply a fancy term for dictatorship.
NO to the destruction of the Bill of Rights in the name of "security".
NO to theocracy.
NO to empire.
NO to the use of the media to manipulate and confuse public opinion.
NO to the cozy little Beltway culture where those who govern and those who report live in a mutually beneficial symbiosis that threatens the very essence of our country.
NO to a future impoverished by the short-sighted greed, looting, selfishness, and profligacy of today.
NO to cronyism, the rewarding of incompetence, the celebration of mediocrity, and the entrenched power of lazy, indifferent, adolescent-minded, upper class sociopaths like George W. Bush.
Our nation is in profound crisis. Any way you look at it, it is up to those of us who still believe in it and who still love it despite its faults and shortcomings to save the vision of our founders. We can still achieve the society they aspired to, but the time is short. The radical Right has rigged the system in its own favor--stacking the judiciary, dominating the airwaves, buying out or bribing gatekeepers in every direction--and their resistance is, as we have seen, savage and utterly unprincipled. But we can prevail if we have the courage to call corruption and authoritarianism by their true names. We need toughness, we need courage, we need brains, and above all we need backbone.
No more concessions. No more compromises. No more surrenders.
Here we stand--for America and for a future that can still be ours, if we want it.
God Bless America--now and for all time.
2 comments:
Joe~
You said essentially the same things I said yesterday, but said them far more eloquently and with much greater understanding than I did.
Somehow I doubt Nancy Reagan ever considered you would be using her slogan in your blog.
Great job! How is Hawaii treating you so far?
xoxo
Thank you, Bill. Coming from you, that means something. Hawaii is treating us pretty well, so far. We just celebrated our first Fourth of July here and I have to say they do it up big on Kauai. Some day you should come and see for yourself.
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