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We’re in a war folks; make no mistake about it. We’ve won some skirmishes, but we’ve had a lot more defeats than victories. We haven’t turned the corner yet – I don’t even think we’re on the right damn block. We aren’t winning, but we can win. It will take time, and patience, and determination. I’m a life-long fan of the Boston Red Sox, so I know about all three.
The Republicans control the media, the courts, and the Congress. The one thing they don’t control is the course of events. The war in Iraq is the most obvious evidence of this; Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of their smug little cabal can suppress pictures and video of Abu Gharib, they can sneak in the bodies of soldiers into Dover in the dead of night, they can do their photo ops in front of cheering, hand-picked crowds, but they can’t change reality, and the reality is that the war was a mistake based on a lie and the American people know it.
They know that Bush’s little escapade to prove his manhood to mommy and daddy is killing their children, and they know that the cost of his foreign policy penile implant is ruining the economy, and they know that all of his blathering about Social Security in the face of almost universal rejection serves only to prove his determined detachment from reality. They know stem cell research is a worthy endeavor, they know the Schiavo affair was an embarrassment; they know ramming right-wing appointees down our throats is wrong, they know religion isn’t science; they know the earth is warming, they know we need to preserve what little pristine land we have left. They know Tom DeLay is a crook, they know Bill Clinton got railroaded; they know that any religion that preaches intolerance is wrong; they know that people that love each other should be allowed to be together. They know the rest of the world takes our jobs so that the Ken Lays of the world will get richer; they know the rest of the world used to admire us, but now hate us. They know the last two presidential elections were stolen; they know that we get the government we deserve.
And why won’t they do anything about it? They’re just like the poor woman whose husband beats her nightly, but won’t leave him. They’re like the hacking smoker who knows the cigarettes are killing him, but won’t put them down. They’re like the couch potato with heart disease who won’t make themselves get out and walk once a day. They’re afraid – afraid of change, afraid of the future, afraid of the unknown. They need to be told the truth, every day; they need to get the information that the mainstream media won’t give them; they need to be pushed, and it’s our job to do it.
The people running our government are hypocritical, lying scum, who would sell their own mothers down the river to make a buck. In their lust for power, they have made the same mistake the German industrialist class made in the 1930’s when they backed a little-known functionary of a minor political party as chancellor, thinking that they could control him. I’m not saying Republicans are Nazis – far from it – but by co-opting the agenda of the fundamentalists and letting the radical elements of their party control the reins in an effort to further their ambitions, they have at best guaranteed their eventual ruination, at worst the ruin of our entire country.
I don’t know if we can stop it – we can try, and trying in itself is a noble thing. I’m reminded of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books; in them, the Encyclopedia Galactica was created, not to prevent the coming dark age – nothing could prevent that – but to shorten its length. Every thing that we do, every blog we write, every e-mail we send, every phone call we make, every candidate we work for, every heart and mind we change will shorten the dark time that I believe we have already entered. My wife often tells me that I should stop bitching about the state of things and try to change them. I may have an opportunity in the near future to be a part of the local Democratic Party organization; if it comes, I’m going to take it. I’m going to stop bitching and get to work.
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