What can America look forward to if the GOP holds onto the House and Senate in November? For sure, we can anticipate the further destruction of any opposition as the Republicans continue their drive for permanent one-party rule. "Our goal is to inflict as much pain as possible," said authoritarian GOP honcho Grover Norquist. "It is not good enough to win; it has to be a painful and devastating defeat. We're sending a message here."
In addition, we can anticipate continued packing of the appeals courts with more jurists in the authoritarian mode, serious cracking down on opposition websites and writers on the internet, the continuation of corruption at the highest levels as lobbyists buy corporate access to the writing of laws, and further movement toward the assumption of "unimpaired executive authority," to use Cheney's spine-chilling term.
And, no doubt, we can expect more wars abroad (Iran? Syria? Venezuela?), carried out with bullying, self-righteous certainty of victory -- which, since these guys never learn, and are clueless and incompetent as well, will backfire in America's face. Again. Chalk it up to greed, power-hunger and the arrogance of empire. (Bush's unwavering support of Israel's destruction of Lebanon is a proxy case in point.)
Is the situation hopeless in moving this country away from authoritarianism, and restoring America to its great foundations, its adherence to and respect for law? Dean concludes with this:
"Research, however, reveals there is a solid majority of Americans who are not right-wing authoritarians, that there are countless millions of liberals, moderates and conservatives with conscience, people who shudder at the prospect of giving away our hard-earned democratic principles, and who cherish our liberties. These are individuals who question their leaders and their policies, and that is as it should be.
"Democracy is not a spectator sport that can be simply observed. To the contrary, it is difficult and demanding, and its very survival depends on active participation. Take it for granted, and the authoritarians, who have already taken control, will take American democracy where no freedom-loving person would want it to go. But time has run out, and the next two or three national election cycles will define America in the twenty-first century, for better or worse." #
First published by The Crisis Papers and Democratic Underground 8/1/06.
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).
Over the last couple hundred years, beginning with Mary Wollenstencraft, hundreds of women have written millions of words explaining the ills of patriarchal dominance and submission but let one old, white man get an half-assed epiphany that took him a decade to "get" and, whoa, late breaking new concept. Call it "authoritarianism" instead of patriarchy and, once again, men can be let off the hook and given permission to forget and ignore several thousand years of their vile treatment of women, logically culminating in the present situation of men willing to blow Earth to smithereens rather than share power with women.
To paraphrase the woman reporter on the Clarence Thomas hearings, They not only do not get it, they don't even know what "it" is. Come on boys. Face your glorious history for what it is, the loony lie of male superiority.
You might think you'll die from the shame and guilt of facing up to it, but you won't. Face yourselves so we can begin to evolve, ending the violence and aggression that necessarily follows sexual repression and the segregation of women into the narrow rolls required by patriarchy, the ultimate pollutant.
by
Mar (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 155 comments)
on Saturday, August 12, 2006 at 9:16:48 AM
Of course there's some truth to what you say (but how do you fit female authoritarians into this hypothesis?). But who on earth cares what we call this multi-faceted disease? The point is what do we do to combat authoritarianism, male chauvinism, sugarism, or whatever? I suggest that it might be more effective to stop our circular firing squad and unite our energies to take aim at the real enemies of democracy, those who would use fear and terror and police-state tactics to control and dominate.
by
Bernard Weiner (154 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Saturday, August 12, 2006 at 11:45:31 AM
2 comments
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