| October
14, 2004
So
now it all comes down to the home stretch. I wish I could say that
I felt confident about a Kerry victory, and by all rights this should
be a blowout. By any measure, America and the world is worse off
than four years ago, in great measure because of Bush's disastrous
policies. The economy is a mess, health care is a joke, Iraq gets
worse every day, environmental laws are being eviserated, the middle
class is being sqeezed into the ranks of the working poor, and so
on and so on.
And,
yet, the race is a statistical tie. Why is that? I fear, and I am
not alone, that were are now witnessing what Orwell warned about
in 1984. This country is sliding into fascism, and another
Bush term would be disastrous. If he doesn't start World War III,
then he will almost certainly cement the GOP hold on power, and
the right wing hold on media and information in this country. We're
not going to have a democracy by the end of this decade. We will
something else, something far less.
So,
as you can guess, I'm worried. I've often tried to be optimistic,
to keep you pumped up, but the truth is that I'm genuinely worried
about this election. It could go either way. We have record voter
registrations and GOTV efforts. The GOP has Sinclair, voter fraud,
discarded ballots, "terror alerts," and Karl Rove. And
it all comes down to that group of Americans who are ignorant, uninformed,
and frankly, don't care. This election could be decided by Americans
who think the Swift Boat Vets are legitimate; who never read; who
don't remember anything for more than a week; whose reality can
be easily controlled and manipulated.
It
is the worldview of the selfish, ignorant, and greedy. If it isn't
happening to me, right now, then I don't care. It never happened.
And if Bush tells me everything's okay, then I'll buy that, too.
I don't want to be bothered; Friends is coming on.
40%
of Americans, and 62% of Republicans, still believe Saddam was the
one behind 9/11. 85% of college students can't spot Iraq on a map.
We read an average of 40 hours per year, and spend over 2,000 in
front of the TV. Abu Graib? What's that? Was it on TV tonight? I
didn't see it. Sinclair Broadcasting's Republican ties? What's that?
Did Jay Leno make a joke about it? If I didn't hear it, it didn't
happen. Iraq? Afghanistan? Where are all the dead soldiers? Where
is the violence? Was it on the nightly news? I didn't see anything.
If it's not on TV, then it didn't happen. It never happened.
Why
are we in Iraq? Because we're fighin' the terra'ists. Bin Laden
is our enemy. We are at war with Usama Bin Laden. Saddam Hussein
is our ally (true in the 1980s). Saddam Hussein is our enemy. We
are at war with Saddam. We have always been at war with Saddam.
Bin Laden is our ally (also true in the '80s).
Do
you see how this works? Do you see how the public can be controlled,
told how to think and what to fear? This is all deliberate. There
is no "war on terror." It is the Permament War, which
is a Permement Peace. This war is never meant to end.
It
eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve
the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs.
The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects,
and the object of war is no to make or prevent conquests of territory,
but to keep the structure of society intact. It would probably be
accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist.
A
peace that was truly permament would be the same as a permament
war. This is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: war
is peace.
This
is what we are up against. This is what we are facing today, and
what our nation will become in a second Bush term. This is why the
November election is so crucial. We are facing one of the crucial
moments in history. The wrong move will reverberate through the
decades. And this is has me feeling so worried.
Please
understand, dear reader, that I don't wish to discourage you or
sour your hopes. We can still win this; we can stop the emerging
American Fascism while the cancer is still young. But we cannot
look away from the nightmare that now faces us. We must look it
directly in the eye and face it head-on.
We
need to pay attention. we need to question our leaders. We need
to stop always being afraid of the boogeyman in the closet. We need
to stop being docile consumers and active participants in democracy.
If that democracy were to whither and die on the vine, it will be
dead and buried forever in the ground. |
