Dude, Where's My Country?!?!?!?
So while smiles are plastered on for the cameras and hands are shaken, and "compromises" declared, we've now legalized torture and indefinite detention without due process of law. We're created loopholes around habeus corpus. We can no longer, as a nation, claim any kind of moral high ground. We're supposed to be better than this.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. --Friedrich Nietzsche
Digby's had the best series of posts on this travesty I've read anywhere. Especially this one.
People and societies don't just wake up one morning to find they no longer recognize themselves. It's a process. And we are in the process in this country of "defining deviancy down" in ways I never thought possible. We are legitimizing torture and indefinite detention --- saying that we will only do this to the people who really deserve it. One cannot help but wonder what "really deserves it" will mean in the years to come as we fight our endless war against terror.
That's the thing that people who think it's A-OK to torture or imprison "them" without due process don't get. It doesn't take much for "them" to become "us." When it's acceptable in current political rhetoric to label those who don't support the Iraq war or Shrub's policies as "terrorist sympathizers," it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to picture outspoken critics being "disappeared" to gulags or worse. If you've ever watched the movie "Sometime in April" about the Rwandan massacres, the dialed up rhetoric of hate radio led neighbors to slaughter neighbors in the most brutal ways imaginable.
When even the opposition party won't stand up and speak out against this, what hope or recourse do we have? I can't help but think we're about to enter a very dark period in this country's history. The last six years have been a downward spiral, but I'm afraid we haven't hit bottom yet.
posted by Susan B @ 8:00 PM
4 Comments:
"Sometime In April" was chilling because I see parallels between the hate rhetoric of the Rwandan radio, and the extremist right wing of the GOP, and their mouthpieces that dominate talk radio and cable TV news. This one party rule that has taken over our government has pulled the republican party, and to some extent some members of the DLC DINO's, to the very extreme right, and yet continues to claim to be amongst the moderate center. This latest compromise is nothing more than concession to the administration to continue to break the law and give cover for past misdeeds. Our country is most definitely in a Constitutional Crisis. I never thought I would be nostalgic for the cold war. Having thousands of ICBM's pointed at us was nothing compared to the fascist dictatorship that is being cultivated by this administration's embrace of the concept of the unilateral executive having ultimate power over the Legislative and Judicial branches of our government.
Yeah, the eliminationist rhetoric scares me too. For some of these rightwing nutjobs, it's gone from keeping liberals out of power to wiping them off the face of the earth. And this is different than their "islamofascists" HOW?
I've just ordered John Dean's book, Conservatives Without A Conscience which should be a pretty interesting read. Hey, even Dad who's a dyed-in-the-wool Republican thinks his party and our country have been hijacked.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is becoming must watch TV. This evening, KO hit another one out of the park.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/25/olbermanns-special-comment-are-yours-the-actions-of-a-true-american/#more-10525
I too am looking forward to reading Dean's book. Man, I remember when I used to only read fiction, and didn't have to constantly keep tabs on the abuses against humanity wrought by this misadministration.
Olbermann's been pretty amazing. He's always been one of the most intelligent of the talking heads, but now he's showing himself to be one of the most courageous. His 9/11 commentary gave me goose bumps, as did his commentary the other day about freedom of thought and speech.
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