I grieve deeply to see how America has failed to meet the present urgent challenge-- indeed the very challenge that our Founders were most concerned that America should be able to meet. These are dark days for any true American patriot.
WHAT MAKES A TRUE PATRIOT
The true patriot is the one who loves the heart and soul of his country. In America --the nation whose essence is said to be an idea-- that heart and soul is the system of government given us by our Founders and the democratic spirit embedded in it. It is that system and that spirit that have allowed Americans, for more than two centuries, to live as free people in a society that, by the standards of human history, has been reasonably decent.
The true patriots are not defined by their enthusiasm for the victories of American militarists, but by their devotion to those principles for which –as we declare every Memorial Day– so many Americans have laid down their lives: principles of limited government, human rights, and the rule of law.
The true patriots are not those who wrap themselves in the banner descended from what Betsy Ross sewed, but those who carry forth that "Spirit of '76" enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the spirit that made our forebears willing --in the name of liberty and of the proposition that governments are instituted to serve the people and derive their just powers from the people's consent--to put their lives on the line.
THIS IS THE VERY THREAT OUR FOUNDERS WARNED US AGAINST
Now there has arisen --from within the American political system-- the very kind of threat that our Founders feared most: a lawless and usurpatious presidency systematically assaulting our constitutional system.
The picture of presidential lawlessness could not be clearer. The case has been made powerfully and in detail by responsible and knowledgeable Americans-- by people like Bruce Fein, Elizabeth de la Vega, Glenn Greenwald, John Dean. They show the unmistakable pattern of conduct by which the heart of America --"a nation of laws, not of men"-- is being destroyed by this Bush regime.
(There's no point here in going through the litany of lies and crimes and usurpations that are already fully exposed in news accounts, in books, in court findings. Anyone who has been paying attention --and is willing to know this dark truth-- must by now not know it. And anyone genuinely seeking such knowledge can readily find it.)
This is the very danger the Constitution was created to counter. The whole structure our Founders gave us was organized to help Americans prevent precisely what this regime has been doing.
And now we can see: at all the levels of the American body politic, America has failed to rouse itself to fight the battle our Founders intended for us to fight.
The people have failed. The free press has failed. And now we can see clearly that the Congress has failed. America has proved itself unworthy of the heritage handed down to us.
THE FAILURE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
Our Founders knew that we, the people, would need to embody "republican virtue" to be the kind of citizenry required to preserve such a noble experiment as the American democracy. We would need to practice the "eternal vigilance" that is the price of liberty. We would have to be ready, in Jefferson's words again, to refresh "the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
We the people, in the face of this brazen crimes and lies of this Bush regime, should have been out in the streets in our millions. We should have been raising a deafening hue and cry, demanding our America back.
But, except for a relatively small fringe, the American people have stood by and let our birthright as free Americans be stolen from us. (And nearly a third of us still regards loyalty to this criminal ruling group to be a virtue-- enough to hold an entire political party hostage to this evil.)
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
I have no other words but support and hopefully reassurance. Here's why.
1. Despite all the efforts of the unlawful and criminal regime we have in power they do not seem to have developed a cadre policy necessary to spread its wings. They continue to be isolated in some small circle and no matter what they do we do not see mass pro-Bush rallies and fanatics rummaging the streets. They try their best, but no cigar so far.
2. The media is the media. They more and more are getting bored. Again, they are not being lashed by the whip but work for money and money comes and goes. People seem less and less interested.
3. Bush and his cronies are desperate in covering their asses. The regime which is confident in its power should not do it: why should they? They have the power but they have no goal: no matter what we say here there is no such goal as 'dismantle the New Deal' for the simple reason that their puppetmasters are not really so smart.
4. The people did not fail- failure is in the eyes of the beholder. In fact, I would argue that our Founding Fathers were very lucky: if the English were smarter and instead of being arrogant and stupid would have immediately move to concessions with France and extending the trade pirivileges to the Colonies with amnesty, it could very much so happen that all Continental Congress would end hanging from the trees. People now have different stakes and one of those stakes is mere sustenance which so far seems to be disconnected from the perils of the regime. Truly speaking, most of our people still know much better who Marie Osborn is than say, Ken Lay. The status- quo is maintained and as such people just live, you know.
5. American Business is business and Bush is bad for business. That will hopefully bury him.
6. The harm done to the democracy, the very spirit of this country is irreversible, though as also the danger we are in. No matter what happens it is not the country we loved and not the country of the free, neither even of free enterprise. It is the country of discontent. But, welcome to the club- find me on the map the country which is not of discontent. The reasons could be different but the result is the same- we are in trouble. But we have been always that way- since we existed on this Earth. The US had been very lucky for a long time: this time is over.
by
Mark Sashine (53 articles, 19 quicklinks, 250 diaries, 3574 comments)
on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 12:35:02 PM
Andy, ever read Wendell Berrry? He wrote a ' citizen's response' to Bush policy in Y2001 and there he predicted a lot we are talking about. He is one a magnificent American.
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Mark Sashine (53 articles, 19 quicklinks, 250 diaries, 3574 comments)
on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 2:02:23 PM
What is blocking so many of you from respecting what the Founders gave us in OUR Constitution: the option of an Article V convention so that we could circumvent the three branches of the federal government. An Article V convention is the only legal, peaceful way to get true, deep political/government reforms that the current fatally corrupt, dishonest and rigged political system will never give us!! Come on over to www.foavc.org and become a member.
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Joel S. Hirschhorn (132 articles, 34 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 526 comments)
on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 3:25:52 PM
Why would one entrust today's America to revise the Const.?
Evidently you envision that such a Constitutional Convention would produce a better document.
But I can't see why you'd believe that?
Do you think that the population that has done so little to protect this one, that has shown itself so susceptible to manipulation by people who reduce them to their worst and most fearful selves, who don't bother to inform themselves, would show great wisdom at such a convention?
Do you think that the American body politic has such a favorable balance of forces between the good and the evil, the wise and the foolish, that the results of such a convention would represent the best among us?
I myself see no reason whatever to expect that a Constitution written today out of the process that would unfold in putting together such a convention would be superior to that which came out of a gathering of some of the most exceptional political figures ever to rise to the top of any human society anywhere.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (314 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 146 comments)
on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 3:36:27 PM
As for me, I'll continue to do what I've been doing for the past more-than-three years: follow the word seem to get (from wherever) on what to say or do.
When I got the word to write this "Lament of a True Patriot," I also got a second word to write a piece called "OK, Al, Don't Run; But for God's Sake, Speak Out!"
I'll be publishing that here within the coming week.
Whether that, or anything else I do, or anything else any of us do, will be availing, none of us can know.
But if we do what we can, we'll be better off than if we don't.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (314 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 146 comments)
on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 6:13:14 PM
If the house was ‘afire’ and imminent danger and death were “perceived”…Dad and mom would rush to save their children, their valuables and lives would they not?
If a husband came home and found his wife being raped and his house robbed…would he not do everything in his power to stop the abomination and crime and mete out the punishment deserved by the criminal?
American Citizens do not perceive the crimes.They are not registering.This is the problem!People of any race, creed or country will get up off their backsides and defend their homes, families and livelihoods when the “fight or flee” response is triggered.We are not seeing this natural response.
People are slow to defend against pick pockets for obvious reasons.We have them here in a thousand ways – taxes, Federal Reserve, defense spending, inflation, etc. Now, an armed robbery is more apparent (Hmmm, parallels?Just not perceived by our brothers and sisters…why? )
If individuals could see the sand running out of their life clocks, they would know what time it was and how much they had left; and live accordingly.In the USA today, life is a beach.I wish I knew how to wake people up!If citizens will step over a woman stabbed and bleeding on the floor, ignoring her pain and the situation (you’ve heard the story) without offering aid or comfort, what is left but to ponder?If citizens find themselves too busy to take interest in the macro affairs that dictate their petty realities, what is to be done to awake them?Unless the TV’s are turned down, and the hair on the back of their neck stands up, I am afraid the sleeping dogs will keep doing just that.
Find an antidote to the mass anesthesia and we’ll have something.Reveal the truths about the mass deception and “piss people off”, and maybe the American blood will boil instead of the frogs themselves.There needs to be 1) Message, 2) Distribution, 3) Repetition & Positive Reinforcement, 4) Realized Sense of Loss.
Our representatives and the system in which they are absorbed are compromised.Anyone who reasons and observes deeds and action can see we are sold out.Keep shining the light and doing the midnight ride – morning always comes, even if we’re not here to greet it.
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boomerang (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 306 comments)
on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 5:42:40 PM
This to begin with. The dialog ought to be shifted. We already know what's wrong and we already have enough evidence to know that the folks who we once elected were not suited to the responsibility we gave them.... times a' wasting.
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