Republic Car-jacked While Nation Looks On

But there's a lot left in this old gas-guzzling SUV of a nation worth saving, a hell of a lot of beautiful land and not a few wonderful people.  And maybe, just maybe those of us stuck in the back will be able to distract the driver and his fellow hoodlums from their attempt to run over the innocent bystanders of this theft – the rest of the people in the world – even if we can't jam the gears.

***

Fascism, the melding of big business interests with an authoritarian government under the big, patriotically decorated tent of a war of aggression, is a political formula that works— at least for four years.

John Melançon, my father, is right, and I am wrong.  I always argued people will not choose war and repression in a free election, but my fellow U.S. citizens (white people, anyway) have.  Whatever happens in the officially contested states, more people nationwide appear to have voted for George W. Bush than John F. Kerry, even accounting for a million or so disenfranchised minorities, the estimate for last time.  (Though the gap may continue to close as more precincts are reported, the AP's tally at 11:22 a.m. gives Bush 3.5 million more votes, 58,472,247 to 54,950,765 for Kerry.)

The disproportionate failure to count the votes of people of color, who are less wealthy on average than the rest of the U.S. and more likely to vote Democratic, as well as the disenfranchisement of such voters, may allow the electoral college to be stolen again.  Relatively close votes in Missouri and Nevada might have been affected, and the county-by-county numbers will have to be looked at carefully to determine the likelihood of wholesale fraud in Florida or Ohio.  Regardless, the overall vote will probably remain an endorsement of Bush by a majority of voters.  The fascist political formula, fear and hate, works.

The big question now is, will this congregation of chicken-hawks bent on world domination dismantle what remains of democracy and constitutional rule of law in order to stay in power indefinitely?  (Yes, I'm still refusing to believe people will continue to freely choose war abroad and an unaccountable, oppressive state at home.)  And more important, what are we going to do about all their schemes?

Politics, narrowly defined, is too important to ignore, but running for office is no way to build a true opposition organization, let alone a movement.  Our networks must be built outside the political structure, but must be ready to use politics to achieve our ends of justice, freedom, self-creation, and autonomy.

History repeats.  This is McKinley's second term.  The bad news is in the United States: the new imperialists didn't feel a need to nominate a Teddy Roosevelt for vice president.  The good news is in the rest of América: democracy is too strong in Latin America (and there isn't enough oil left) for a second century of U.S. imperialism.

With the war and the economy, Bush will be a very unpopular president in any second term— after the fact, as unpopular as Nixon became, if we ever realize our right to know this administration's actions.  Unlike Nixon there will not be an opposition party controlling the legislature, an independent court system, or the barest hope of a muckraking media to take him down.  We can work on the midterm elections.  We can try, against all odds, to give Feingold, Obama, Byrd and the remaining Democrats in the Senate the support needed to permanently filibuster any permanent change – meaning every judicial appointment.  The one area we can take control of now, by ourselves, is the media, by attacking a corporate media where outright lies are matters of opinion and distortion is the truth, where the killing of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis is not reality and bringing democracy to the remaining beseiged 25 million is, and where the words of the powerful are more important than their deeds.

We also, of course, create a source and distribution network of authentic journalism to take this space in the lives and minds of people who, with their current education-by-media, choose to prevent their neighbors from marrying each other and not to try a new president to see if both they and their neighbors would be more likely to have jobs and health-care.

Building an in-your-face authentic information network is also a good plan of attack because it means creating something of our own, building a part of the world we want to live in, instead of reacting to attacks on what little we had before.

We can't rely on the rest of the world to stop our government.  We have to do everything we can ourselves. Democracy isn't dead in the United States. Its new power in Venezuela, Uraguay,Brazil, Argentina, and even Bolivia, though not perfect or consolidated in any case, came from movements that broke long-ruling parties by showing up with 60, 70, 80 percent or more of the voting-age population. The same will be needed to have democracy born anew in the USA.

***

Mr. Bush, you didn't build this car.  You didn't buy it and it isn't yours.  In this neighborhood called planet earth, you may still wreak havoc driving our republic.  You and your power-drunk buddies may yet total it in a crash.  But the joy-ride for you is over.  Prepare to hang on for dear life as you lose the attention of the last sixty million hangers-on who think destruction is fun to watch.  The loyal opposition who united against you as never before in defense of our democracy will not leave our street.  We may not be able to stop you.  But has any of your gang checked the fuel guage since you hot-wired this SUV four years ago?

Worst of luck, Mr. President.  We're in this old car and we don't want it to crash, but if you drive it another four years not even a Ralph Nader airbag can save you and your posse from the results.  And we, the people, will climb out to pick up the pieces and maybe, finally, build our democratic republic way better than it's ever been.  I hear there are some hot new concept cars in Latin America.  You'll try to run them off the road, but they're newer, faster, stronger and have more safety features.  Don't forget you and your friends aren't alone in this jalopy, Mr. President.  And you're almost out of fuel.

Update [2004-11-3 15:28:15 by Benjamin Melancon]:This essay's title and opening paragraph have been changed since its initial posting.