Given the fact that Sibel Edmonds’ lawyers couldn’t even be present in the courtroom when the government argued its case against her, I’d say it’s corporate rights that are sacrosanct.
Our situation can only go one of two ways. On the one hand, Mr. High Alert could prevail. The neocon leadership recently cheered the idea that “the rule of law must be abandoned in order for George Bush to protect us from al Qaeda." Bob Barr, who had the guts to stand up to that crowd and say that we owe our loyalty to the Constitution, was booed down. These people are prepared to see it through, right down to detention camps for fifth columnists, when and as necessary. Kellogg Brown Root already has the contract.
We can allow Cindy Sheehan to be escorted out of the State of the Union address—to become the enemy—while a Saudi with ties to terrorists remains seated, a loyal ally.
Or we can come together as citizens, across artificial but still extremely deep Culture War divides, to defeat our immediate common enemy, the incipient Bush dictatorship, and then begin to work out our long-term survival issues.
Unfortunately, as I see it, the biggest obstacle to our making common cause is the upcoming election. The sad truth is that the Bush junta includes the leadership of both corporate parties. Unless and until ordinary citizens from all political parties recognize that, we will continue to fight one another, and our real mutual enemy will defeat us under cover of our mutual recriminations.
In her opening shots of 2006, and no doubt looking ahead to 2008, Hillary Clinton has moved to the right of GWB on Iran. She has said that “all options"—by which I assume she means even pre-emptive nuclear war—must be on the table. Having thus ruled out any real debate on the issues of war and peace which are threatening our very survival, the stage is set for another prolonged round of the Culture War. Abortion. Gay marriage. Gay adoption.
And who’s going to stop her? Who’s even running against her? Even if somebody like Giuliani announces, will our interests be represented one whit differently? The GOP is engaged in the exact same pretend-play with its base. Moderate Republicans are supposed to be assuaged by the occasionally fiery outburst from Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe concerning illegal government spying, or John McCain’s faux anti-torture amendment. It’s an insult! To all of us!
I can’t believe I used to fall for this shit. I used to believe that Hillary Clinton was pro-gay and a feminist. I thought her “compromises" were necessary to win on more important issues, and as a gay person (black person, Latino, immigrant, worker, woman, fill in the blank), I was willing to make strategic sacrifices. No more. With Samuel Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, it’s clear that the whole course of leftwing compromise over the past 20 to 30 years has led to the collapse of the New Deal economic and social agreements and our entire constitutional system of due process.
But I would go farther and argue that even those who have engineered this state of affairs and see in the overturn of abortion or the persecution of gays the culmination of decades of unremitting effort have been and are being duped.
Consider the Abramoff scandal. Abramoff and his associates, Ralph Reed and Michael Scanlon, ran scams on Indian tribes. Abramoff would represent tribes who wanted to start casinos. He’d collect money from them and give it to religious right leaders like Ralph Reed and James Dobson, who would then make a stink about gambling being a sin, which would lead the poor Indians to give Abramoff even more money.
Do we really want to live by the literal word of God, as preached by phonies like Dobson and Reed, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson?
I think even some of them are finding that prospect a little less attractive than they had anticipated. I’m thinking here of James Dobson’s recent surprise compromise on gay partnership in Colorado, where he endorsed a proposal that would actually guarantee certain basic rights for gay people. It’s true that this compromise only codifies contract law that is already on the books, but in our current situation, with swathes of law being rapidly rewritten these days, it is still a significant endorsement.
And what about abortion? Already South Dakota’s passage of a draconian anti-abortion law is changing things. The will of the vast majority of the American people that abortion remain legal is being ignored. Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, and the Democratic Leadership Council, have all moved to the right on abortion, as well as on the war(s).
The crucial, central truth that will set us free is: there is no difference between the two corporate parties.
The only possible consequence of falling into the trap of treating this election as “winnable" by one corporate party or the other is division among the people at a moment when unity is our only hope of long-term survival. A slim hope, I grant you, but the only one.
Winning with either corporate party is a resounding defeat for 97 percent of American citizens, whose views will not be represented. The Green Party, on the other hand, actually represents the core values and priorities of a large majority of the American people, and that can only be more true as we watch potentially cataclysmic unfolding of climate change. Nor does the Green Party accept any corporate contributions.
Patricia Goldsmith is a member of Long Island Media Watch, a grassroots free media and democracy watchdog group. She can be reached at plgoldsmith@optonline.net.
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
