If you have been reading the paper, watching TV or surfing the web, you know that this nation has taken one step forward and two steps back. Bush’s news conference yesterday literally put me to sleep. He said nothing new but the “If we don’t fight them there we will fight them here” propaganda (sure, just like the Vietnamese communists). I was awakened by my wife swearing at the TV set. Enough is enough, but what the hell can we do? I felt helpless yesterday to do anything. I felt betrayed by the Democrats that voted to take out the benchmarks. The nation has been betrayed by their unwillingness to stand up for their convictions that this war should be stopped, and betrayed because another Carrier Group is now off the coast of Iran.
I understand that the Democrats couldn’t get enough votes, but that wasn’t the prime reason that they gave in. They could have fought it again. They could have used the power of the purse to stop this war in its tracks. Who would have blamed the Democrats for not funding the soldiers? Do you actually believe that if funds were not approved that they would have been put in harm’s way? I’m here to tell you that it never would have happened. What would have happened is that the troops would have been forced to stop offensive operations and to save money by sticking to their home bases. They would not have run out of ammo or food, they would have gotten the money from other places.
Isn’t that what we want the American Army to do? Don’t we want them to stop offensive operations in Iraq? So why did we fund this war again? I know why, we funded this war because Democratic politicians didn’t want to seem non-patriotic. It would have been less than “politically correct” NOT to fund them. They are still trying to play it both ways, “We are against the war, but we must fund the war”. It just doesn’t make sense. The political cloud that they don’t want over their head is now over their heads and it’s raining like hell on them. Now the Democrats look like weaklings in their subservience to Bush, and the truth is that they are just that; weaklings.
So that leaves us with the same old question. What the hell can I, as a citizen, do to stop the Democrats from being “Republican Lite”? After all, they are made up of the same demographics as the Republicans. You see very few middle-class people walking into the House or the Senate. Big money campaigns have just about stopped the average Joe’s and Jill’s from being able to get themselves elected. Congress is still indebted to the corporate caucus for their campaign monies. We all know it takes millions to get those Congressional and Senate seats. Let me say this though, THAT IS NO EXCUSE FOR SELLING YOU SOUL TO GAIN OFFICE! This has all gone on long enough. I believe that the majority of Americans are sick and tired of the status quo. If I feel helpless, than I’m sure that most of you feel helpless, because I’ve found out by writing hundreds of articles and getting thousands of comments and e-mails, that I am not unique. Not by a long shot. This is why I have to assume that most Americans are sick and tired of the Republicans with their thuggery and vote stealing tactics, and why they are sick of the Democrats because of their lack of backbone and their dual-personalities.
So what do we do besides get angry? What do we do besides scream at our family and friends? I tried to start a new political party, and it failed miserably. At this point in time, a new political party is not feasible. The only recourse we have, other than to pick up a gun and start an armed revolution is to use the old maxim; if you can’t beat them, join them. I believe it’s time that the Democrats learned a lesson in civics and the Republicans learned what one person; one vote means. The only way that we can accomplish our progressive/liberal goals is to hijack the Democratic Party, and to put the party right again and take it out of the hands of the wealthy and give it back to the working class.
There is only one way to accomplish this. We must register and join the party. We must be activists within the party on a grand scale. I know that many of you are doing just that, and I also know that there are many of you (myself included) that consider yourself “independent”. It might make you feel better to be an “independent” and therefore feel no responsibility for what the Democrats or Republicans do, but the situation is now so grave, that we don’t have that luxury. If enough former Democrats go back into the party and raise hell by being gadflies at the local and national level, we may be able to change it. There are not that many other choices. We can raise hell from inside of the party more effectively than from the outside looking in.
The politicians will not listen to you when you write to them and they see that you are not registered in their party (They don’t listen when you are). Still, not belonging to the party gives you no rights. It also does this; If the Republicans start “caging” votes and “miscounting” as they are prone to do, if you are registered Democrat, and the votes don’t reflect the number of registered democrats in your district, then that gives those that contest skewed election results much more ammunition.
Don’t join the Democrats because you like them for God’s sake, join because you don’t. Join because you want to change the party, you need to change the party; you have to change the party. Why? Because it is the only party we have! If I believed any other party could change things, I would be there. The Greens, god love them, just don’t have the numbers or the machinery. Maybe in the days ahead, but not now, and now is what matters. We have to be inside, not outside railing at television with clenched fists. We would be better off screaming at a local political meeting. We need to get people inside to chair committees. We need to push like we have never pushed before.
This is not just about Iraq or Iran. This is class warfare between those that would take everything, and give the rest just enough to survive and do their bidding. The discrepancies between the haves and have not’s has never been so great in the history of America. This is a fight for wealth and political equality. It’s not just about foreign policy; it’s about national policy also. It’s about our rights being stripped away in the name of this phony “war on terror”. This war they speak of is a war against the citizen’s of this country. Standing off to the side of the fray with your “independent” banner to shield you from criticism won’t help you keep your basic constitutional rights. The point I’m making here, is that if you don’t deem these rights worthwhile enough to fight for them, then you are not worthy to have them. It’s as simple as that. When you see the slogan “Freedom isn’t Free”, it isn’t about soldiers dying in a horrifying, putrid war that we started for our own nefarious reasons, it’s about paying the price to keep your rights. According to the Constitution, they may have been God-given, but God isn’t going to stop evil people from taking them away. Just ask the Germans and the Russians and every other group that lost their rights.
I know I’m going to get hammered on this, I don’t care. I don’t love the Democrats. The very reason I’m going to join them is so that I can change them. They can’t shut me up. If you join, they can’t shut you up. We are not the “far-left crazies” they talk about. For God’s sake, I spent most of my life as an American Soldier! I know that most of you out there aren’t “fringe group members”; you are concerned Americans no matter what the convoluted Mainstream Media wants to call you. Get up and fight! We may indeed lose this battle and be saddled with a fascist oligarchy, but at least you can do everything in your power to make sure that doesn’t happen. If that means trying to change the Democrats from within, then so be it.
Just remember, this isn’t a hypothetical situation. It is reality. Your reality, my reality. Before they regulate me to a class that must work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with no unions and no representation, I’ll die before they put me in that box. Let me tell you all, that’s exactly what they are trying to do, and they are succeeding. It is all about wealth and power, and we are not immune to the lessons of history because we are Americans. Being American gives us no protection from class warfare. Either you put up, or shut up. Everything is on the line…everything.
