Democracy is an eleventh-hour phenomenon. It is an action, not a thing, and it occurs always at the edge of civic catastrophe.
To be worthy of the name, democracy is inclusive. That means even those who detest it – calculating authoritarians and economic opportunists – can always claim a part in the action. Worse, they have the advantage. The rules don’t apply to them. To the despot, a lie that seeks to get or keep authority is not a lie. In fact, it can appear to the villain as a moral imperative.
And so, in America, egalitarian democrats are always at risk. The U.S. Constitution was meant to empower us. But we must be ever-vigilant defenders of democracy and sometimes a stubborn Resistance. We should remain proud and hopeful because, so far, we’ve saved America from a permanent authoritarianism. Tough as today’s fight for universal health care is, we are in the fight. In fact, we are a handful of votes away from winning the fight. That was unthinkable not so long ago.
A politically overheated imagination, however, can easily warp its struggles with the true perils of democracy into something like Captain Willard’s passage up the River Nung in Apocalypse Now. We see frightening visions in the mist rising from the inky river’s surface. The monster Kurtz waits somewhere up ahead in the night. Courage seems quaint. Something more manic is called for. The struggle for the light turns dark, when it’s the engagement itself that should create the light. Such a trip even gave the actor pretending to be Willard, Martin Sheen, a heart attack.
Life at the eleventh hour is hard, another reason the totalitarian temptation survives. Humans want stability and calm. Wouldn’t it be easier to just do what we’re told, especially if the only real demands are to shut up and watch television?
Danger is not doom, and confronting menace with eyes wide open doesn’t necessarily require a 24/7 adrenaline high. In fact, democracy’s enemies try to create the fatigue and demoralization such physical abuse produces.
Democracy requires thinking, and urgent calls to action can often be translated, “No time to think. Just act.” There are such pressing times, of course. Now is one of them. But no soldier can fight at the front for the full duration of a war. Battle fatigue is probably why the army of activists who helped elect President Obama appears less engaged in the monumental fight over health care. Don’t misunderstand. Many progressive activists are engaged (with FDL helping lead the charge). We’re gaining ground, too, despite the efforts of the Right, with its millions of dollars from the insurance industry.
I confess that it is hard sometimes for a writer like myself to resist the allure of alarmist rhetoric. Evolution made us alert to danger, and cries of danger command attention, and attention to our ideas is a fond hope of every writer. Early warnings of mortal danger can enhance the appearance of wisdom, too, though most cries of apocalypse prove the very opposite. We could, perhaps, avoid the temptation if we’d remember that Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H out-earned Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now at the American box office.
The frenetic pace of our lives makes it seem like every moment is a tipping point. Failure to recognize that the time is nigh could mean lost opportunity or certain defeat. Isn’t this the message strategy of the car salesman, trained to keep the customer on the lot until a sale is closed? Haven’t we all felt, deeply, the anxiety of being pushed to act before we’ve had time to think? Democracy can’t bear it. Democracy needs thought.
But if democracy is always in danger, when then is it okay to take a break from its defense? Well, never. That is the bind we find ourselves in.
One solution, of course, would be to finally win some distance from the precipice, though I see no possibility of that. The abyss, I think, will always remain in the geography of democracy.
We’ll get the rest we need if we’ll just pause and recognize that we need it. As I said, danger is not doom, and it is always better approached with calm than with panic. Attention to our colleagues is also important. Reinforcement, relief and moral support are crucial. We also help when we resist too frequent cries of danger. Such calls wear us out, and they drive away some who simply can’t handle the news of danger any longer.
The lion sleeps, and so does its prey, and the fragile gazelle lives on an edge of a disaster every bit as real as democracy’s. Neither creature, of course, can dream of apocalypse, a nightmare reserved for the species that can actually create the last catastrophe. All the more reason to get some rest.
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Terrific post. So appropiate for the day and time. Thank you.
We should remain proud and hopeful because, so far, we’ve saved America from a permanent authoritarianism.
Very true, and we need to keep up that effort always.
The danger comes back perpetually, as we are reminded by the fight for health care. The corporate welfare element will fight without mercy to keep the poor from safe, secure lives if in that corporate mind, the costs might be incurred by them. Of course, the costs to society are ignored by that element, and the disaster that we’ve encountered shows how it affects us all if wealth is concentrated at the top where it stays, not re-entering the society at large.
The wealthy and enlightened who are our very real elite know that the fight is for the whole country, not just the poor, and includes the wealthy.
Thank you, thank you. I hope it’s understood I don’t mean stand down, I mean pick one another up, create hope, boost morale, go have a beer every once in awhile on leave…
don’t get off the boat
don’t get off the boat
So true. It’s why I find myself up and writing away, or planning the next day’s tactics, or just worrying, at three in the morning. Really, I think I wrote this as a reminder to myself.
Just outstanding work, Glenn.
And how sadly ironic, a similar call to act is what Bush used to drive us to invade Iraq. It can be used, this seeming courage in the face of doom, to wrangle a frightened public to lash out blindly.
We need to somehow distinguish one from the other, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least, if this argument takes hold, to hear wingnuttia strike the public with a contrivance like “You Lefties screamed when George Bush insisted on attacking Iraq – you said we needed to steady ourselves and think it through.”
No kidding.
Well put. Have you ever noticed that there’s a line in the script of every action movie ever made: “Go, Go, Go!” Always three times, always from the group leader to the band of good guys or bad guys on the attack. “Go, Go, Go!”
Humans can look like a herd of antelope who hear the danger signal, and the turn about, run this way, that way, and then head off in the chosen direction lickety split.
..and exhale.
Ah, feeling better already.
Personally I find solace in the truth that in the end, love and hope will always trump hate and fear.
Always, even tho the battle never ends.
If you’re like me, you didn’t “reason” to that hopefulness. It’s just there. That, I think, is a great blessing.
Great post as usual, Glenn. I am able to step back from the edge and often. It is, I believe in my case, that I’m older and have seen so many things that somehow didn’t happen. I sometimes step away from the Lake because the pressure starts to build and I can’t breathe. Some people can stay at
fever pitch all the time but I cannot. I do have to think.
Thanks for reminding us that is okay to rest – in our minds.
In other words, the struggle is the struggle of life itself. It wouldn’t be life if it wasn’t.
One thing in our favor is that some (a very few) “lions” in each generation have empathy that extends to their nominal prey. Or they may realize that if they make it impossible for the gazelles to live, much less thrive, the lions themselves will eventually die. This is why most revolutions throughout history — the ones that succeed, anyway — are started either by reformed lions or by gazelles who have had a taste of lion life yet also became empathetic instead of greedy as a result.
Yes, we can be a pretty dumb herd.
Unless we regain the initiative – place insurance companies ’sense of civic duty’ in their real context, the social and economic benefits of having an entire nation taking care of themselves before they need emergency care, the humanity of including everyone – we will probably lose this. It’s well past time to have the big guy refocus the country on the actual debate and set aside the frenzy.
It is possible to act boldly without actually destroying something, and that has been obscured by the blur of the news cycle.
That ability of yours is apparent in your posts. In fact, I think it is part of the healthy habits of the FDL community, which is far more thoughtful than many, and certainly an aggressive leader in the fight.
Thanks, Glenn.
Democracy is our partner in a profound relationship. Democracy deserves open minds and open hearts. It deserves hope and brother- and sisterhood. It deserves courage. It deserves patience. It deserves thoughtfulness. It deserves honesty.
It deserves our protection as it protects us.
I really like the way you’ve extended the metaphor here. You are really right.
I am alarmist, and with cause. To use your metaphors, our democracy is at 11:59:50, morphing, not so slowly into oligarchy. Our citizens have been sold the idea, as was I, that the US was and is the best in everything. Because that’s a fact, we can rest on our laurels and watch UFC or some brainless sitcom, and our Republic will prevail. It won’t.
And so, in America, egalitarian democrats are always at risk.
Socialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating state, worker or public ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with an egalitarian method of compensation.
Someday this war’s gonna end. That’d be just fine with the boys on the boat. They weren’t looking for anything more than a way home. Trouble is, I’d been back there, and I knew that it just didn’t exist anymore.
If it did nothing else, the post seems to have allowed some breathing space for some considerable brilliance from y’all. Very well put.
I have an right wing authoritarian and drug addled windbag story. Rushbo only allows comments from “dittoheads”. They are people who think the same way America’s Greatest Anal Cyst does. Or Rush tells them what to think if the issue is a bit complicated. Last week, Charlie the Ditthead called in and reported on the Jim Moran-Howard Dean public meeting. They are proud of themselves. Dean was supposed to speak but he was booed and heckled so much he could not be heard. Then when Dean was asked questions he could not answer them. Howard Dean is so dumb, he should go to school and get a degree.
Charlie the Dittohead was delighted they were able to shout down Howard Dean. Rush agreed and suggested this tactic be continued. Rush also says real Americans do not need to be organized. So corporate lobbyists and their teabaggers are not real Americans?
CHARLIE THE DITTOHEAD: Okay, anyway, Howard Dean was supposed to speak.
RUSH: Ah-ha.
CHARLIE THE DITTOHEAD: And he did not because the 20% of us that were totally outnumbered there –
RUSH: Yeah?
CHARLIE THE DITTOHEAD: — booed and heckled him so badly that he was not able to get up and give his 10- or 15-minute speech, whatever it was supposed to be. And Moran was so sad that he had to turn over every question, almost every question to Howard Dean –
RUSH: Well –
CHARLIE THE DITTOHEAD: And it was… He just couldn’t answer ‘em…
CHARLIE THE DITTOHEAD: Oh, yeah, and we were down there on the floor. We were totally outnumbered and we got there early enough. There were plenty of union people there that got in there ahead of us and they passed out all their signs and they were obnoxious and they wouldn’t leave us alone.
RUSH: Charlie, I gotta tell you, I’m so proud of you people for showing up and doing this.
CHARLIE THE DITTOHEAD: Oh! I was so hoping you were going to say that, because there was an 80-20 split, and we shut him out. I’m so proud of us.
RUSH: Well, that’s great. You should be proud of yourselves.
CHARLIE THE DITTOHEAD: I. Am.
RUSH: This is great stuff. This is passionate America. We keep hearing, “The DNC and Obama’s ground soldiers are going to ramp up all these organized events.” To do what? To pressure fellow Democrats to vote for government-run health care? That’s pretty bizarre. They claim to represent “real America.” Really? Real America doesn’t need to be organized. Real America doesn’t need to be paid to attend town hall meetings. You showed up on your own, Charlie, as is everybody else showing up to protest these things. Real America does not want government-run health care. The DNC and Obama’s ground troops are not real America. They are operatives…
Excellent post. I’ve believed for a long time that many of my generation (graduated college 1964) fell asleep at the switch after the Civil Rights movement and the Anti-Vietnam war agitation, and especially after McGovern’s defeat. There were a lot of reasons: burn-out for some, but for most it was the need or desire to work one’s way up the social and economic ladder through hard work. Other people could take care of democracy. Of course, we all voted and even campaigned for our candidates, but it took too much time to really fight the Old Man who turned the tide to the right in the 1980s. And in the 1990s it was still ’someone elses’ job.’
Then we woke up after 2000. But it was almost too late.
Yes, but while the alarms are still ringing in the firehouses, some need to remember to take a break and suck a little oxygen before heading back into the burning house.
That would cost $8000 per year for every man woman and child to pay the price.
Are you and everyone else willing to pay up?
Glenn – I like the Take a Breath, Step Back and Look at The Bigger Picture attitude you remind us of with this post. Thank you, thank you.
I guess you could buy a big-ass flat screen instead.
While I am loathe to bite, let me just say this – you are talking, it would appear, about an private company insurance premium for everyone, and I am not.
You beat me to the fun answer.
Damn and blast!
I’ve been reading Rules for Radicals and have found it apropos to the current ‘Politics of Change.’
The tone of your post, Glenn, touches upon some of the topics as well.
It’s a book everyone should read.
Or, put a down on a red Mazzerati? Too fast too live, too big to die.
This is simply one of the finest pieces I have read in a long time.
Thank you for reminding us of the inherent need of reflection to maintain the delicate balance between fear and faith.
That’s a lot of money. Our family would go under with another $16K (for two of us) per year tax hit. That’s why we must question this expenditure boldly. It’s can’t be worth it for the middle class.
And you have one of the finest pseudonyms, no foolin’. Thanks for your very kind words.
Peace dude.
You graduated college 1964, GI bill, or dad’s money, or government loan or – least likely – work through school? However you did it, you seem to have done pretty well for yourself. Then you justify falling asleep at the switch after Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam agitation: burn-out and the need or desire to work one’s way up the social and economic ladder.
Hope your law practice or corporate office is doing well.
You’re right, other people can take care of democracy. Thanks for you votes and campaigns for our candidates. Too bad it took too much of your time to really fight the Old Man.
My 12 year old tv works just fine.
Pay no attention to the grump above. I’d like to add to your thought that many of those activists of the 60s and 70s went into nurturant, critical lines of work: nurses, educators, peace corps work, public service, NGOs, etc. etc.
The obvious facts of history point out the truth of your honest analysis, and I’ll take that honesty over a thousand critiques. Thanks.
Speaking of 11th hours, there are reports that the rats are leaving the ship. Stock market insiders are cashing out of the market in record numbers.
I should say that this follows reports from a few weeks ago that CEOs were redeeming their stock options in record numbers as well. My own timeline suggests an end to the current suckers rally before the end of the year, flux in 2010, and depression in 2011. However if the stock market should collapse instead of just running out of gas, depression could come more rapidly.
Parenthetically, the link above has a link to a Foxnews report of Jay Rockefeller wanting to give the President a “killswitch” for the Internet. As paranoid as Jello Jay is, I still think that Cheney has him beat by miles.
Ignoring my own advice, then, I say turn the goddamned thing off of FOX and go do something for your neighbors.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Glenn W. Smith and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
“Democracy…is an action not a thing and it occurs always at the edge of civic catastrophe.”
Another chunk of truth from the scripture according to Brother Smith…but maybe I could add that life in the human community is always lived on the razor’s edge of civic catastrophe and it is acts of democracy that serve as the balancing wand for our reckless character.
Thank you, Brother Smith, yours is indeed a voice of democracy.
KEEP THE FAITH, FEAR IS IS JUST A FOUR LETTER WORD!!
Danger is not Doom.
Perfect. I hope some folks around here chew on that one for awhile during their frantic tea-leaf reading.
Yes, Norske, old friend, you are right, as usual.
There are always grumps and critiques. It seems it must be an easier way for some. I say, Action is the antidote for despair. And, it’s helpful to Keep On The Sunny Side.
Some call me a Pollyanna.
“…always on the sunny side.” Yea, a silly-sounding sentiment mocked by some, but who can really disagree with it in their hearts?
I hate to make you loth, I don’t have private insurance numbers exept:
National health spending is expected to reach $2.5 trillion in 2009, accounting for 17.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). By 2018, national health care expenditures are expected to reach $4.4 trillion—more than double 2007 spending.
The National Coalition
on Health Care
304,059,724 – Jul 2008
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division
I think 2.5T divided by 304M is 8222.
That’s $8000 for every man woman and child in the US.
Now if doctors and nurses work for less under your plan, great. If the union construction workers build the hospitals for less, great. If companies provide MRI machines and x-ray machines and beds and uniforms and everything else for less, grea.
If everybody cuts their costs by half because there is no insurance company involved, we could save $4000 out of $8000 a year for you and me.
I just hope the nurses and construction and factory workers can pay their $4000 share with their reduced wages.
Same here. I take long breaks. I remember reading something Arlo Guthrie said about activists, to the effect of ‘I’ve seen so many old guys die trying.’
Maybe there are people who have never experienced the positive affects of that sentiment. I have only lived in my shoes, so I can’t really explain why others are the way they are. I’d like to think we all have choices, but, again, I only know what it feels like to be me.
I’ve had the good fortune to talk more than once with Arlo Guthrie. Each time he set me on a better path. Once, at a Willie Nelson FarmAid concert I covered as a reporter, he listened patiently to some nervous ego-nuttiness from me (I was compensating, for crying out loud, standing with Arlo, Roger McGuinn and Taj Mahal and bragging about something or other) when Arlo said something like, “Doesn’t the work speak for itself?” Another time he just mentioned the possibility of change that inheres in all of us, and how he respected a person who could change. A very wise man.
Amen,brother!
You might enjoy reading a terrific essay by William James on this account of what me might know of others. On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings.
I saw Arlo on tee vee. He turned Republican. Sad.
Thanks, Glenn. I took a peak and it looks like something I can read this afternoon. I’m live in Southern CA and surrounded by smoke from several different fires and it’ll be over 100 again today. A good day to read.
Peek and Living. Sorry.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has !
Margaret Mead
I watch neither librul or conserv TV (which I’ll bet you can’t say).
I understand Obama said there would be savings to off-set the costs.
Really?
My numbers don’t include that because it’s not defined. But I do provide numbers, not just snark.
Any you’ve posted 14 responses of 48 on your own article? Defensive or boosterism, or just care and feeding of your article?
Good remembering, Twain. Good, old Margaret Mead. Indeed.
When did Arlo Guthrie “turn Republican?”
Arguably, a very misguided step. Here’s his reasoning, in a NYT interview last month:
“One of them was failing miserably.” Like, “we need (more and) better Democrats.”
Mr. Smith, I don’t know if you are familiar with Jung and his studies on synchronicity.
However, the William James essay you so kindly linked is “karmic coincidence” for me,personally.
I will savor and treasure both this thread and the essay for a long time to come.
Thank you again.
Thanks, Glenn … was so grateful your post had a kind of zen agenda. Reading the shares since I posted, hard not to think of “crisis” as being danger + opportunity. Time to embrace the opportunity. Like hitting bottom in the addiction recovery process. You have to reach a bottom to turn it around. I hope the “bottom” America has reached is enough and we don’t have to go further, but some seem so determined to take us lower. Sigh. But I will focus on the vision and not the vision-snuffer-outers. :)
Thanks for those comments. It is difficult for me to engage in a discussion about life and death that centers on what we can afford or not afford. The fact is, America CAN afford to provide good health care to everyone, but we’ve chosen not too. And that, in my opinion, is a tragedy, moral and practical.
You head in a worthwhile direction when you mention the waste of the private insurance industry. The fact is, private insurance drives up the cost of care and provides nothing — nothing — in the way of a contribution to a healthier America. They are leeches on the lifeblood of America, and they do it in the name of “free enterprise,” but it’s really just trading in death.
But, again, I find it jarring when health care is reduced to abstraction.
Me too! I’m printing that essay now, because I prefer to read the hard copy. I can highlight, put it down, contemplate and then come back again.
When one considers that we are the only species of God’s creatures who have been afforded the ability to think ,speak, and write, it is ennobling to read the profound messages and the sheer magnificence of the language in James’(and Glenn’s) essays,don’t you think?
What a wonderful lesson in Samurai.
It’s
as has been said before.
Don’t tell Woody.
And I thought: My God… the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men… trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love… but they had the strength… the strength… to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral… and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling… without passion… without judgment… without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us.
Morning, Glenn. Thanks for another of your always-thoughtful and thought provoking posts.
Alan1tx, Glenn is one of the kindest posters around, usually staying in comments to chat with us readers. No boosterism about it, you can’t be a cynic when it comes to Glenn.
Glenn I’ve been thinking about this subject for a long time. Recently I was in the hospital and the nurse came in to take my BP. I was reading around the blogosphere as she was working and at one point she looked up in astonishment and said “What are you reading, your bp just went up 30 points. Put that thing down.”
AS engaged as I am in this issue – our Dem club has had speakers about health care at our last two meetings, we table at the Fri. night street fair in Monrovia and talk to lots of not-always-polite or well-meaning folks – I am considering stepping back two steps for a while. You are right, the edge is always lurking just ahead. I don’t have to walk right up to the edge every day.
Namaste, Glenn. You are good for me.
I didn’t hear anything if you didn’t . . .
Yes. I enjoy a huge fondness for language and thoughtful thinking. Yum. Without those two things, life would be very boring to me. I’m not a sports fan, I don’t watch much tv except for a few news shows and Bill Moyers. So, reading for me is pretty much it. And, gardening. My two part time jobs are 1) A bookstore and 2) a gym.
I feel like I am in a dark hour of history and like Twain @11 I have to disengage, but I know a truth beyond all truth that is beautiful to contemplate.
Everything is everything
Everything is one thing
One thing is everything
My mantra when all is falling around me.
And Dowah @64
Yes
Thanks Glenn for the great post
And you, Mommybrain, are good for me, and that’s just how it is supposed to work. In this way, we all rest, but the movement never does.
Language and thoughtful thinking….
What ELSE separates us from the beast of the field?
Never mind, I see someone else got it!
We’re ahead by a very slim margin, IMO
“Language and thoughtful thinking….
What ELSE separates us from the beast of the field?”
The double edged sword – cognitive reasoning and cognitive dissonance.
I wonder…if cognitive reasoning cannot resolve cognitive dissonance, is stepping back to primitive fear/hate/anger the default backup plan?
This is what happens when I think too much on Sunday.
Hey Glenn, I’m happy to have found my way to your Sunday salon. These are words to live by… easy to lose sight of reduced effectiveness when we are always on duty. And easy to forget that we are not alone and that there are others standing at our shoulders or ready to get up and get back in the game.
Thanks to Frank who posted the transcript up-thread, I’ll remember to head out to a Town Hall meeting tomorrow afternoon. Can’t send these folks to Congress and not stand up with them from time to time.
A very thoughtful essay, Glenn, and well worth a read. They never stop, so neither can we, but we really should rest once in a while.
Is the US moving toward a Tyrannical form of Government?
Is it a government that can take the following (First Amendment of the Constitution):
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”
1. And prohibit the free exercise of religion through out the various states even the Constitution is specifically speaking to the Congress?
2. And mock the very people who peaceably assemble to petition the Government for a redress of Grievances?
3. And enact and propose laws and policies that have a chilling effect on free speech in public, over the telephone, on the internet, over radio and television?
Is it a government that has embarked on a long history of making promises to seniors that it can not live up to in the future?
Is it a government that is so Out of Control that it threatens to economically enslave our children and grandchildren?
Is it a government that needs “A Civilian Security Force” as well trained and funded as the US Military without establishing a goal or letting the Congress and American people know what this FORCE is to do.
Is it a government that looks the other way on illegal immigration but prosecutes those in our government who conducted legal interrogation with our enemies that provided evidence to save lives in our country?
Is it a government that goes to great lengths to try and reinstall a central American President who broke the laws of the Constitution of his country, which were upheld by the Legislature and the Supreme Court of that country and has a very Timid and Tepid response to the release of a Mass Murderer from Great Brittan?
Is it a government that cannot write a bill of less than ONE THOUSAND PAGES in an effort not to let all those who represent Americans in our Representative Republic a chance to read the bills and have a full and open debate on its contents but are forced to rush to judgment?
Is it a government that picks Winners and Losers in the Banking Industry and decides who continues to exist and who folds?
Is it a government that ignores the Constitution in Bankruptcy Courts and takes control of the Automobile industry while pushing bond holders and preferred stock holders out of the picture?
Is it a government that has over three dozen advisers to the President who are accountable to no other branch of government and are not confirmed by the Senate?
Is it a President that has convicted felons, communists and socialists as his advisers?
Is it a government that wants to take the most effective health care system the world has ever known and “reform” all parts of the system in order to exert full control over the delivery and care of Americans (yes, some parts could use reform but the entire system does not need to be under government control)?
Is it a government where the elected officials of both parties act like the Ruling Elite and exempt themselves and their staffs from the Laws and Rules that they pass to Govern (or control) we the people?
Is it a government that ignores and circumvents?
1. The Second Amendment to the Constitution: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
2. The Ninth Amendment to the Constitution: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
3. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Is it a government that lectures and turns its back on Israel while allowing a Terrorist state to develop nuclear power?
It is a government that would cost America jobs and a standard of living by instituting an energy program based on questionable science without allowing the country to use all the natural resources at its disposal and without insisting that other large economic powers implement the same energy programs?
Is it a government that seeks to take the end of life decisions away from individuals and the family and put them in the hands of bureaucrats?
Is it a government that goes well beyond the bounds of its Constitutional authority in the Census by doing more than a decennial count of American Citizens? One example is the counting long term visitors to the US, illegal aliens, and others for the apportionment of Representatives in Congress. Another is asking personal questions of citizens that have no basis in the Constitution and probably violating their right to privacy under the Constitution.
The answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article is yes. We now have a very tyrannical for of government in the United States, one that was not envisioned by the Founders and the Constitution. Should we throw off this form of government as suggested in the Declaration of Independence and start a new one – absolutely not. We need a non-violent response- a peaceful revolution – to the tyranny that has been building over the last century and has become crystal clear in the past six months as the government moves faster and faster away from the founding principles of this country. We the People need to speak loud, clear, and respectfully to our leaders remind them that they are Public Servants. We need to make the 2010 Elections the SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION and elect those who believe in the ideals of the Founders and the Constitution.
Is it a government dominated for the last 40 years by conservatives (I presume, your party) who hate government and have no desire to see it work properly, efficiently or humanely?
Why, yes.
Here’s my solution: Dump Texas, let Democrats govern for the next 40 years and then revisit this scene.
Very funny, but the funniest thing is
You neo-cons had your chance for eight years. You left this country and the planet a huge pile of war and crimes, after you stole the election.
The privatized Shock Doctrine Health Care System is a disgrace and it needs to be destroyed because it is destroying the lives and health of millions of people.
That is funny too considering all the Bushies that are doing “time”. Actually socialists have run for president and received millions of votes. No candidate would ever admit being one of you, a neo-conservative.
Take what isn’t broke and would work and help recover and break it re health care faux reform. Rachel calls it “this ethical freakshow of a universe.”
At this point (55) you have a total of 5 comments, about what I cannot fathom. I see that you can perform 8th grade arithmetic on numbers about projections of things to come as opposed to actual measurements of anything actual.
This whole post is about being calm when Chicken Little comes with the news that he thinks the sky is falling. It’s about helping your neighbors.
What help do you have for us?
TexasReader@78
Is it a government that seeks to take the end of life decisions away from individuals and the family and put them in the hands of bureaucrats?
Substitute health insurers for the word government much truthier eh?
We need to make the 2010 Elections the SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION and elect those who believe in the ideals of the Founders and the Constitution.
Our founding fathers didn’t roll that way bud. Their ideals were the antithesis of everything you have implied in your comments.
O/T ,sort of
Well, this could be considered a hopeful sign of accountabilty in government,although not OUR government.:
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Former Israeli PM Olmert chargedAug 30, 2009 … Israeli ex-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is indicted in three cases of corruption, the attorney general’s office says.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8229521.stm – 3 hours ago – Similar
Uh, some of here in Texas would prefer you bring the revolution here!
If you had studied civics in school you would know that everything you wrote is 180 degrees off. For example, we do not have the best health care system in the world, of the industrialized nations we are among the worst. Other countries w/ nationalized healthcare have longer life expectancies and lower rates of infant mortality. That means they live longer and fewer children die at birth. I only explain that because you certainly don’t under the principles of democracy so why should you understand the effectiveness of healthcare?
Something tells me this was akin to Arlo’s message to the recruitment office shrink: “I wanna kill, I wanna kill…and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
yelling, “KILL, KILL.”
Thanks so much, Sherry.
That would take $8k for every man, woman and child....
My total SS income is $8868/year; I don’t pay any taxes, and my total monthly health care costs (including my HMO premium) can run as high as $300/month, even with Extra Help with Medicare D.
But I’d certainly forgo some of that income if it would help cover the folks I care about among the homeless, uninsured and under-insured working folks I’ve been talking with over the last two years who are, as I am, suffering with neuropathy. But they are getting no or really crappy medical care for their conditions, whereas my Advantage HMO coverage is reasonably appropriate for my chronic conditions.
As I read the HR676 bill, there may be things I might not like (I hate that it might take 15 years to convert the present for-profit system to a totally non-profit one, but that’s certainly longer that the 2013 first very limited entry into the Public Option that is now proposed for HR 3200.
I so appreciate Glenn’s post for it gives me comfort in the context of having decided in the last year that I will no longer “kill myself”, as I had for several recent years in aggressive, intense activism on behalf of those with neuropathy in my ever expanding world.
I could spend hours at FDL and lots of other places trying to educate myself and have no time or energy to work on educating others in my healthcare network; lobbying Rep. Mike Thompson or Senators Feinstein and Boxer; or exercising to improve my health status; or spending extra time to prepare nutritious meals; or nurturing my spiritual life in and out of the eucharist. And yet all five are necessary for my well being (and sanity).
For years people have told me that I must take care of myself or I can’t help others. Thank God I never married and had children to raise, and so didn’t have to fight the family vs. career battles of most women of my generation. But those who gave the loving warnings were right. There must be rest for the weary, there must be times for replenishment, there must be time for the joy of music and art and yoga and water aerobics and lap swimming, church attendance and meditation/spiritual reading, and planning to prepare healthy meals for my 90 year old Dad and me.
This last week I participated in an interfaith SacACT (Sacramento Area Congregations Together), which is a long time member of the national organization PICO (People Involved in Community Organizations)which was loosely based on a modified and softened Saul Alinsky style of community organizing. This was an “action” (vs. town hall) with a rep from Congresswoman Doris Matsui’s office present.
(She is not holding town halls and is coming under great criticism from the right wingers who long to excoriate her for her long history of liberal positions on many issues, especially services for the poor, some of which had been in partnership with SacACT, with which she’s had a long and fruitful relationship, as they’ve worked together on several health service expansion projects over the years.)
I had attended a SacACT “prayer vigil” earlier in the month that was really a simple pep rally attended by mostly white folks from numerous mainline congregations, but with a multi-racial/ethnic interfaith contingent of usual leaders/speakers. It was a nice event with a few tiny moments of actual inspiration. There were large posters and stick-on labels that said, “Our Community Supports Health Reform” but there was never any substantive content on what that meant, functionally, in relation to what kind of health reform that PICO wanted. I would learn more in weeks to follow.
I later followed up with the local and national organizers and a quasi-friend local board member to express my concerns about the paucity of information about the bills, what they did and did not cover, what needed to be changed/added/deleted, etc. I’d asked the local organizer if SacACT had taken a position on the bills; she replied that there was no consensus among the congregations yet. And none would be likely, until much later, as the board member later explained at the “action” last week, “It’s not appropriate to be discussing the bills very much as there are no final bills to respond to.” But don’t you see a need to try to form the content of the proposed bills before and during the continuing congressional debate? What if you don’t like, maybe even can’t stand what Congress comes up with? “We have no bills, there’s no need to spend any time on what does now exist.” But there are several bills pending, why aren’t you comparing all the bills and making recommendations, at least based upon PICO’s principles (which are reasonable, as per the document distributed at the event)? “There are no bills…….”
At that point, I gave up trying to communicate with my friend, who is a quite liberal, very well-off retiree. But I wanted to say: So, what if you get a bill that does not meet PICO’s accessibility and affordability standards, what are you going to do? Will you tell your reps to vote against it? When we contact our reps, are we going to tell them PICO’s “lines in the sand” or does PICO really have any? To what extent do any of the present proposals meet those bottom lines? And more importantly, does SacACT have lines in the sand and what analysis and advocacy plan, if any, have they done to insure that the bills meet them?
[And then I had to ask myself, and what systematic analysis have you done, MarChan? Very damn little, in all honesty, and I was ashamed, but I was also so tired and passed the hurting.stage to real pain again……]
We were gathered at the SacACT “action” to hear testimonies of a diverse collection of SacACT members. They ranged in age from a diabetic highschooler at risk of losing Healthy Family benefits because of California budget cuts, to a disabled and laid off prematurely retired widowed woman, to a very dear friend who is a much older parish nurse retiree, complaining about meds costing her and her husband an extra $250/month, [Let me tell you about a woman on disability whose meds cost $800/month, because of the Medicare D sell out years ago, I wanted to scream!], to an ordained nurse working in pediatric oncology and a woman family practitioner serving uninsured and MediCal families. The stories of all were instructive in reflecting some of the many atrocious limitations of the present screwed up medical industry, but the latter two were most moving.
[There were, however, absolutely no mentions of any of the many [for me] immoral provisions of the grossly profitable deals Obama struck with the medical industries in the proposed HR 3200 and maybe HELP bill, that I’m less familiar with.]
We heard one speaker talk about my former congregation’s long process of fact finding analysis of problems and minimalist review of the proposed legislative solutions. We heard the challenge to call our representative every week until there was a bill; those who committed to the challenge raised their hands, but I don’t know the percentage of those present who made the commitment. What were we to say?
“Well, when you call, you might just say, Get us a health reform bill.”
I nearly fell out of my pew seat. That’s all! Any old bill would do? For Christ’s sake, that isn’t enough, can’t be enough. Don’t you all understand that? I was in despair as I returned home to read the handouts distributed at the “action.”
In the document statement entitled, PICO’s Cover All Families Campaign, the first paragraph includes these two sentences
Health care is on the front burner in Washington, DC, but the outcome of the debate will be decided in our communities. Each of us has a vital role to play in making sure that this time health reform succeeds.
Well, it seems to me that just saying “Get us a health reform bill” isn’t fulfilling PICO’s mandate and it certainly isn’t fulfilling my evolving moral necessity of the position(s) on the various bills as I continue to educate myself in preparing for ongoing more lobbying of my reps and informing my health care communities about some critical issues, if only at most superficial levels, with my personal recommendations for what bottom lines should be.
So, thanks Glenn for calling me to rest but also to keep moving. Thanks to God for the grace to honor both calls. And thanks to FDL for being part of my intellectual and spiritual nurturance, even when God is never mentioned.
Blessings to all,
Hi Glenn,
Great blog post! I’m here to help out in the fight:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/7679
- Tom
Back at ya, TomR.