Reply #20: would have happened by now [View All]

[m berst]

For every outrageous thing that the administration does, they do two things that make it more difficult to stop them. I think if the backlash hasn't happened by now, it may never happen.

I could be wrong - and I hope that I am - but I think we are headed for catastrophe, and the idea that people will wake up when things get bad enough can be a dangerous illusion. Germany was a heap of smoking ruins and the people still had yet to wake up to the Nazis, and 30 years after the war was over you could hear true believers in any working class pub in the country. So the capacity for denial is almost infinite.

The party leadership is counseling working within the system, or compromising with the opposition. Here, we see people engaged bickering over dozens of issues, and regardless of which side you take on them, both sides of each argument have one thing in common - denial of the massive scope of the crisis. The "get over it" ideas are gaining in momentum.

I hope that I am wrong, but I sense the air leaking out of the room. The "realists" have won out over what they call the "fringe" or the "sky is falling" people, and we had better hope that they are right.

People who are comfortable have a sense that they can weather the coming storm, and jeer at those who express alarm. For those who are already at risk, it is clear that they don't count to the people in power and the comfortable ones who control the party and the discussion. Over the next few months, more and more will be put at risk, but that will happen gradually and will be invisible to most people.

So I think it is every person for themselves now, and we will have to hope that the casualties are not too severe.

If the events of the last few months have not convinced people that this is not politics as usual, what ever will? And clearly, with all of the time and energy being spent arguing for and against the DLC and the like, people think that it is politics as usual.

I think something very, very strange is going on. Of course, I felt that back in 1999 when I first heard Bush and saw the coalescence of the Dominionist movement with corporate power and reactionary politics. It looked like a recipe for unimaginable tyranny to me. I tried to warn other Democrats then that this was something new and different and very dangerous, and that if we approached it as politics as usual we would not be able to stop them.

I said that all bets were off and anything could happen. "Such as what?" they asked. I said think stolen elections, think the wholesale dismantling of the government, think war in the Middle east, think massive new police powers on some pretext, think the Constitution at risk. After all, that is what this gang of people who are running the country said they wanted to do.

"That can't happen, what are you smoking?" So I asked, if I am right about any of this, would you then consider what I am saying? "Of course, if any of that did happen I would be right there with you on all of this."

Well, it all did happen, and then some.

Then, during the primaries, people said "we can talk about all of this stuff after the election. First, we need to accomplish mission one! Oust Bush!" No one wanted to hear then that something strange was going on and that Bush could not be ousted by politics as usual. So I asked "if they steal another election, can we then talk about the extraordinary threat they represent?" And of course the answer was that we would all be hitting the street in that case, so don't worry, they won't get away with it again.

And now, we have a lot of people, including most of the leadership, advocating that we continue to try the same tactics and strategy we used in 2000 and 2004, with the only exception being that we become less alarmist, less "radical" and "left wing" and move further to the right.