What are we becoming? - Democratic Underground

JTG of the PRB

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Thu Mar-22-07 07:22 PM
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What are we becoming?

Every time I open the newspaper, turn on the TV, or search the Internets I see it. When I turn on NPR or Air America, I hear it. When I look at a picture of people like George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, or those of their similar ilk, I feel it in my deepest soul.

It's the intangible yet palpable fear that, as a nation, we are slowly spiraling out of control. It feels like the very pillars of government and accountability are crumbling before my eyes. It's as though we've become some sort of Bizarro America - no longer the land of the free, a nation led by ideals and great leaders and supported by great people, both patriots and rational citizens at the same time.

Sometimes it feels like we're prisoners in our own country (we can thank the Patriot Act and all its liberty-crushing friends like the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for that), with barely anybody supporting an irrelevant Presidency with absolute power and without a single clue. A citizen's patriotism and love for his country is questioned if he raises objections to the "leadership" provided by the current Commander-in-Chimp. People are verbally assaulted for disagreeing and voicing their opinions. A grieving mother cannot speak her mind without being labeled a traitor. Sometimes the true patriots, those who deeply love this country and want to protect it, its image, and its people, are dismissed as "peaceniks" or "weak" or lacking the stomach for the fight we never should have started.

There are madmen and madwomen running this country. Some of them are insane on the surface, while others suppress their madness as it seethes and boils beneath their exteriors. They lie, they cheat, they cover their asses, their memory becomes hazy at inopportune times, they attack anybody who opposes them, and they march forward blindly without a clue as to where they're going. One roadblock after another arises, and yet they sidestep them, one after another, with a maze of smoke and mirrors and misleading statements.

I was under the impression that we voted back in November for change - a change in leadership, a change in direction, a change in the doings and goings of this country. Maybe the change is emerging in the form of all the madness that has been bubbling to the surface of the Potomac swamp (otherwise known as Washington, D.C.) over the past few months. It seems like a new scandal erupts every few weeks, and there is more and more damning evidence against this Administration every single day.

And yet... They continue to hold their course. No firings. No reprimands. No discipline. No investigations. No subpoenas. No oath. No cooperation in any way, shape, or form. The worse things look, the tighter President Bush and his cronies cling to their illusions that they are above the law and they cannot be taken apart, piece by piece, until all the skeletons in their closets are laid bare for the whole world to see.

I wonder what we will become as a nation. Will be become blind and sluggish, too tired to fight the Power in the end? Will we destroy ourselves fighting every possible angle and paranoia and fear? Will we enter another era of Isolationism - not by choice, but because all our friends in the world community have abandoned and withdrawn from us? Will we descend into moral anarchy where every word, every gesture, every thought is questioned and dissected and analyzed to death in an attempt to determine motives both real and imagined?

Will we be the country we once were, the country we should be? A world leader and an open partner in international business and affairs? A pillar of strength to make the world stronger through out actions? Or will we continue to spread a poison of mistrust throughout the minds and hearts of the world? Can we ever reverse the image the liars, the cheaters, and the pure evil have crafted out of us? What will we be tomorrow? Next month? In 2008? In 2012?

What will we become? Who will we be? Who can we trust, who can we defeat, and who will defeat us? More importantly, whose fault will it be? The Administration? The lies they told? The people who put them into power? Or are we all to blame?

One thing is certain: we will all have a role in crafting the future we create for ourselves. I wouldn't mind a seeing a little sanity return to our corner of the world. One man can only take so much madness.

Thanks for bearing with me. I've needed to rant for a while, and I haven't been able to articulate my thoughts until now. Come to think of it, this is still pretty inarticulate. I guess the madness is still around.