October 19, 2008 at 11:59:34

Behind the Swift Armor of Our Democracy

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By Ron Fullwood (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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"Well, I would say that people who hold anti- American views," said Bachmann. "I don't think it's geography. I think it's people who don't like America, who detest America. And on college campuses, a Ward Churchill, another college campus, a Bill Ayers, you find people who hate America. And unfortunately, some of these people have positions teaching in institutions of higher learning. But you'll find them in all walks of life all throughout America," she said.

Matthews went on to ask the congresswoman, how many people in the Congress of the United States does she think are anti- American? "You've already suspected Barack Obama. Is he alone, or are there others? How many do you suspect of your colleagues as being anti-American?" he asked.

"What I would say -- what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look," answered Bachmann. "I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that."

"The People."

I guess she meant the people who live in whatever part of the country she considers "pro-American." The people in a vast majority of America, however, apparently didn't "love" Rep. Bachmann's invitation to bigotry at all. In the period immediately following her comments to Chris Matthews, her political rival, the campaign of Elwyn Tinklenberg, was deluged with support and cash totaling nearly $500,000 from American angered at the echo of the McCain/Palin siren of division and hate.

The one thing that the Charles Krauthammer's who've throw themselves in front of the impending McCain/Palin train wreck have mistaken is Americans' ability to tell the difference between those who wage bigoted attacks and those who are defending against them. To the dismay of the ultra far-right wing of the republican party and those who respond to McCain/Palin's narrow, scapegoating appeal, there isn't going to be a gentleman's response to their boorish, cowardly attempt to cast Americans they disagree onto the other side of their ideological battlefield, expecting the rest of us to line up behind them.

In this moment, we have the awesome and swift armor of our democracy in front of us to defend, handily, against the flailing politics of these petty pretenders who would lead us against each other to elevate their hollow selves. And, as demonstrated this week, Americans fully intend to exercise every instigation of democracy at hand to overcome these divisions and obstacles which keep us from prospering and growing together.

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Ron Fullwood, is an activist from Columbia, Md. and the author of the book 'Power of Mischief' : Military Industry Executives are Making Bush Policy and the Country is Paying the Price

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

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