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April 27, 2007
Would we storm the soldiers keeping us from the ballot box?
As Americans turn away quite leisurely, keeping tuned to internet shopping and American Idol, the foundations of democracy are being fatally corroded. Something has changed profoundly that weakens us unprecedentedly: our democratic traditions, independent judiciary and free press do their work today in a context in which we are "at war" in a "long war" - a war without end, on a battlefield described as the globe, in a context that gives the president - without US citizens realising it yet - the power over US citizens of freedom or long solitary incarceration, on his say-so alone.
That means a hollowness has been expanding under the foundation of all these still- free-looking institutions - and this foundation can give way under certain kinds of pressure. To prevent such an outcome, we have to think about the "what ifs".
[...]
What if the publisher of a major US newspaper were charged with treason or espionage, as a rightwing effort seemed to threaten Keller with last year? What if he or she got 10 years in jail? What would the newspapers look like the next day? Judging from history, they would not cease publishing; but they would suddenly be very polite.
The average Human being of any year is psychologically and biologically identical to the average German, Italian, or Japanese citizen of 1925. In this regard, America is not special or unique; we even have our own home grown fascists. These are, unfortunately, dangerous times for our democracy. We've seen a slow hissing slide great freedom to grave peril. An entire political party measures "progress" in the number of rights they can strip from Ordinary Americans...
Indeed, one of the current crop of candidates for president "threatened to challenge the law imposing term limits on elected New York City officials and run for another full four-year term, if the primary candidates did not consent to permit the extension of his mayoralty" (post 9/11 via)
When the next crisis hits, will we meekly sit by? Or will we do our duty as citizens to keep our nation free? History will judge us either way. It is up to us how that judgment is written...
Posted by Andrew at April 27, 2007 09:37 AM