...in both the republican and democratic primaries... Ummm...
Well, these four simple sentences sum up my feelings very nicely.
And those intentionally hackable voting machines (10-minute video) will only continue to make matters worse. Here is an eloquently written, incredibly powerful and very revealing commentary by Ms. Devvy Kidd, just published today (1/10/08). Ignore the title. The commentary is much more general than the title suggests. I strongly urge (nay, beg) you to read it. If you don't have time to read both her commentary and mine, then skip mine and read hers.
As for the promised "answer" to my Square-Peg-in-a-Round-Hole Survey entry, it can be found among this group of (ultra-liberal?) San Francisco Democrats.
[Note 1: Just so my two regular readers know, none of the criticisms in this entry (most of which I wrote on January 9) are aimed at them. That would certainly be a foolish move on my part. My criticisms are aimed at the majority of Americans in general. If my two regular readers tend to feel criticized at any point, I can assure them that it is only as a result of "collateral damage" and not intentional targeting. Ha.]
[Note 2: I guess I had a lot to say because this entry grew really long, and I have failed to find very much deletable material. I hate it when I cannot stop writing, because I know most people don't like reading long entries of this sort. Even if they try to read all of it, their brains start to tune out after a few paragraphs. The same is true of me. Nonetheless...]
Political Versus Non-Political
I shall try to return to writing only non-political entries in this non-political blog, but I may fail. Why? Because in writing non-political entries, I cannot help but feel like a resident on one of the many lesser Philippine Islands just after the start of World War II. My island has not yet been invaded by the enemy, but that is only because there are so many islands to invade, and the enemy cannot invade them all at once. In the meantime, and in spite of the overwhelming evidence, most of my neighbors are living in denial, refusing to believe that our island will be invaded. They refuse to listen to my "doom-and-gloom" warnings. "So," I ask myself, "Should I listen to them? Should I try to relax and enjoy myself and pretend that our little island paradise is not going to be taken over by evil people in the not-too-distant future?"
I've always been really terrible at living in denial. I've also always been really terrible at NOT being eternally vigilant ("The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." -- Thomas Jefferson; "This isn't just another ho-hum, rah-rah election, and we cannot treat it as such." -- Devvy Kidd).
Abrupt Change of Analogies
I don't mean to imply that Americans will soon be living in a nightmare reality straight out of a science-fiction movie. I get tired of people always assuming that's the sort of scenario we "doom-and-gloomers" (aka "realists") are predicting (although this science-fiction masterpiece is truly an allegory for our times). Tyranny is seldom as omnipresent as it is in the movies (Hollywood has really warped our perceptions of reality). Billions of people have lived perfectly quiet, peaceful, productive, and even happy lives in such totalitarian regimes as China, Vietnam, Laos, the former Yugoslavia, the former communist Poland, Uganda, Iraq (prior to 2003), Argentina, Chile, etc., etc. That means that many, if not most, Americans could easily live pleasant, and even happy, lives under those same governmental conditions. I mean, if all we really care about is work and sports and buying imported junk at Wal-Mart and watching TV and partying, then...? Who gives a flying [expletive] if a few extra Americans are spied on and arrested for crimes that shouldn't be crimes? Who cares if the United States will become part of the North American Union without public or congressional approval? Who gives a flying [expletive] if we are all required to carry National ID Cards to PROVE our innocence whenever we are randomly challenged by high-school educated, control-freak law-enforcement officers? [Just today, 1/10/08, a disgustingly ignorant (i.e. dumbass) neo-con editor in the local daily rag strongly endorsed the National ID Card and told us to grow up and accept it.] Get this straight: I don't want to live the type of quiet, peaceful life that people live in totalitarian countries, even if it is a Norman Rockwell-ized and/or Hustler-ized American version
Stop Dreaming
And please don't delude yourselves into thinking that a democratic president is going to restore our lost rights if she (or maybe he) is "elected" later this year, because that isn't going to happen. They are just as bought-and-paid for as the republicans (except one). Sure, it took semi-civilized republican thugs in the Bush Administration to grab unconstitutional powers in a series of brazenly hostile moves, but in January 2009, the much too civilized democrats will gladly (quietly) hang onto those unwarranted powers once they get hold of them. And the troops will definitely remain PERMANENTLY in Iraq on those fourteen PERMANENT U.S. bases.
And most Americans either don't see it or don't believe it, or else they don't care, which leads me to write about...
Some Very Intellectual "Hippies" of the Eighteenth-Century
Our Founding Fathers started an incredibly unique experiment on the North American continent 221 years ago (although at least one of them had a feeling that apathetic, unappreciative and easily misled Americans would eventually neglect that "experiment," or find it impractical or contrary to their needs, and thus abandon or lose it; and he was right). The Founding Fathers were idealistic dreamers, the kind who, if they were alive today, would be scoffed at by the American public and demonized by the corporate media. These Founding Fathers were somehow presented with a one-in-a-billion opportunity to set up a government unlike any the world had ever seen before. The odds that such a rare bunch of theoreticians would find one another in this vast world, much less get the chance to conspire together like a bunch of naively idealistic college students, is, well... That's the sort of story that should rightfully be considered science fiction, because the odds against it happening were astronomical. Even the vast majority of average Americans in the 18th century would probably have set up a theocratic government if they had gotten their way. Thank God those few idealistic (Deistic) dreamers got their way instead, against all odds.
The Constitution: Death by a Thousand Cuts
The problem is that there were a lot of powerful, greedy Americans (and even British) in the 18th century who had no intention of rolling over and dying just because those few dreamers had gotten their way (this is a fact that contradicts the simplistic, patriotic crap we all learned in school). Powerful, greedy people were just as much the norm then as they are today. The idealistic dreamers were the aberrations (literally). The powerful people didn't see the newly adopted Constitution as some sort of sacred document. To them, it was nothing more than an impetuous, even blasphemous, limitation on the powers they had "rightfully" enjoyed for millennia. They and their idealogical descendants have been trying to dismantle it bit by bit ever since, and they have been wildly successful, especially since 1913.
What Woke Me Up?
I used to be a staunch "Mainstreamer." In other words, I usually argued with those eternally angry, cynical Americans who were always trying to warn me that there isn't a whit of difference between the democrats and the republicans. I also scoffed (usually silently, since I'm a polite sort) at the "kooks and nuts" who were telling me that there are certain sinister elements within our government and corporate power centers and that they have "agendas." That isn't to say that I scoffed at every conspiracy theory the way far too many people do (I have common sense and a degree in history, after all). I've always believed there was an organized government plot to kill John F. Kennedy. I've also long believed there are some very bad elements within the CIA, but for a long time I didn't think the organized corruption extended much beyond that agency.
So, when did my resistance to the idea of taking a peek at those "kooky" claims first begin to weaken ever so slightly? That's easy. The George W. Bush presidential campaign and its accomplices on the Supreme Court stole the presidency in 2001. I saw that theft VERY CLEARLY with my own eyes while it was happening, so I didn't have to be awakened to it afterwards; nonetheless, I eventually learned the intricate mechanics behind that brazen theft (thus ended my lifelong admiration for the Supreme Court, to put it VERY mildly). What was equally as shocking to me was the fact that the mainstream media stood by and pretended the theft had not taken place! In fact, that [expletive] loser Tim Russert actually had the nerve to tell us all to accept it and move on.
After that theft, I watched as the blatantly obvious lies and the corresponding loss of our constitutional freedoms accelerated at a rapid pace.
Furthermore, I knew -- with every ounce of my intellect and common sense -- that the Bush Administration and the mainstream media were blatantly lying about Iraq long before we invaded Iraq. I screamed all of my common-sense refutations against those lies at my TV screen for many months before and after the invasion. Much to my... what? -- "Pleasure"? "Displeasure"? "Sadness"? -- every claim I had made about Iraq and our reasons for going in -- AND NEVER LEAVING* -- turned out to be 100 percent accurate.
Throughout all of it, I was aghast that even the most reputable journalists, whom I had once admired, were suddenly lying so blatantly and so obviously that even I could see it without doing any official fact checking whatsoever (as of 2003, it still hadn't occurred to me that I could do political fact checking on the internet; can you believe it? I didn't know that many honest journalists and truth-seeking citizens had fled to the freedom of the internet). It was obvious that something very unhealthy was afoot in our nation, so when I finally found myself with lots of time to do the research, I jumped in. It wasn't long before I discovered the real value of the internet.
The Irreplaceable Internet
After living most of my adult life with a "mainstreamer" attitude and a corresponding disdain for those conspiracy theories that sounded too unrealistic or too paranoid to be true (yes, there are a few of them), I had a weak moment about two or three years ago. As I sat there in front of my computer, steaming mad about yet another treasonous Bush/Cheney crime and subsequent media denial of that crime, I thought to myself, "Aw, what's the harm? I'll just take a peak at one of the more intriguing kooky claims on the internet and see what all the fuss is about." I told myself I would take a shower as soon as I was done in order to wash off any potentially communicable mental diseases.
Imagine my shock when I discovered that their evidence and proof is incredibly solid, and the vast majority of them are anything but kooks and nuts. "Wow!" I thought. "If our government and the media are lying about that, then what else are they lying about?" So I clicked on the links and took a peak at a few other closely related theories and saw even more highly reputable people making equally reputable claims.
At that point, for me, there was no longer any possibility of unlearning what I had learned. I've always been a radical supporter of the Constitution, even as a kid (in fact, I wrote a "Declaration of Independent Kids of America" when I was in fifth grade), and so I wasn't about to remain silent in the face of all that information. I just didn't realize how stubbornly close-minded most Americans, even my closest friends, would be when I approached them with this sort of information. So I slowed down a little. I thought, "If I approach them carefully and rationally and explain that I was once just like they are, then maybe they will be more willing to listen."
Nope. Not true.
The corporate media has done too good a job of lumping legitimate theories (that would send powerful people to prison if pursued) in with crazy theories.
-----
* Long before the invasion began, I knew with all my heart that we had no intention of leaving, no matter what they were telling us.
