There is No Choice "C" in the Battle to Restore Democracy to America
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
On Saturday, we wrote in our e-mail alert that we believed that liberals who smugly disdain outrage and think that if they are "polite and civil" democracy will be restored, that these people are cowards and deserters from the battle for democracy.
This was written in reaction to e-mail subscribers who have left our BuzzFlash alerts because they think that we are too "shrill" and "angry."
We are thankful for the dozens of BuzzFlash readers who urged us not to change a thing about BuzzFlash -- and we hadn't planned on it. (See: http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/BuzzFlash_Signup.html)
The truth is that in life you don't always get the choices you want, particularly in politics and government. In this case, we are currently confronted with Choices "A" and "B": a dictatorship disguised as a democracy or the restoration of the democracy and Constitutional rights that were granted to this nation in 1776. There is no Choice "C."
Let's put it this way. If a thug comes toward you with a baseball bat, we don't think you are going to dissuade him by saying, "Oh, you don't want to bust my knees. Wouldn't your mother be ashamed of you?"
Try that and you'll be hobbling around on a walker for the rest of your life, if you survive.
It is incredibly self-indulgent at a time when the forces of good and evil are battling for control of this great nation to think that you can somehow change society by just being nice. Anger and outrage make many a person uncomfortable, but no one said fighting for democracy and decency would be like reading The New York Times followed by a leisurely Sunday brunch.
At first, many of the Jews in Germany thought that being civil and polite would save them from the growing power of the Nazis. They thought Gemany was such an enlightened country that they could not imagine the nightmare of the Holocaust. But Hitler's Brown Shirts were not stopped by "civilized behavior." They used the legal process to firmly ensconce them in power, most notoriously through "the enabling Act" following the Reichstag Fire. Almost everything they did they were empowered to do by changes in law and a submissive court system.
The survivors of the Holocaust who founded the State of Israel knew there was no "Choice C." They knew that thugs don't respond to civility and politeness.
When you stand on the sidelines in the battle between good and evil, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
General Washington didn't run around counseling people that everything could be worked out by just sitting down and talking with King George, and holding themselves to a higher standard than the Lobster Coats.
Neither should we.
Here is the Saturday e-mail alert to BuzzFlash alert subscribers (it's free):
"Some BuzzFlash alert readers have canceled their free subscriptions because they think that we are too cynical and too harsh on Bushevism.
What makes us mad is that these fellow Americans are enabling an administration that is betraying our national security and our Constitution. Their sole interests are the preservation and expansion of personal power -- and the enrichment of corporations that are part of the Bush Dynasty network and financial supporters of the Republican Party.
The American people are just pawns in the Bush Dynasty "Great Game." And a lot of them are coming home in body boxes from Iraq and Afghanistan. (That country is falling apart, too, in case you haven't read the articles buried in mainstream newspapers.)
A lot of people thought Tom Paine was bothersome, too. But he helped create the ferment for a great democracy called the United States of America.
We are not going to let a bunch of self-serving incompetents sink this nation into a banana republic.
We're not about to give up.
Many Americans don't realize that the patriots almost lost the Revolution. If it weren't for Benjamin Franklin's artful wooing of French support for the "war of the colonies against the tyranny of King George," America might still be part of the British Commonwealth.
Liberty, freedom and democracy were worth a fight for the Continental Army. We, at BuzzFlash, believe so, too.
We could use 20,000 more e-mail alert subscribers, but the cowards and those who seek comfort over liberty are welcome to leave anytime.
If you know any ardent advocates of democracy with backbone, have them replace the deserters by going to:
http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/BuzzFlash_Signup.html
We aren't about to let the GOP Tories reverse the American Revolution and restore a monarchy."
A BUZFLASH EDITORIAL