One of the video tropes of cheap spy movies has the unsuspecting hero get into the back seat of a cab or a limousine, only to be kidnapped when the duplicitous driver pushes the "lock" button. Well, last week, that is exactly happened to American Democracy.

You see, in 2006, the American electorate decided to get into the Democratic Party cab to leave the mess the GOP had made of America. But, surprise, surprise - the cab's license turns out to be owned by the DLC cab company. And, no sooner had we told them to take us "out of Iraq" than the cabbie starting arguing over what route we should be taking. He argued that the quick route out of Iraq led through a bad neighborhood, which he refused to drive through. So we fumed as he took us on a very slow and much more expensive route.

But, last week, when it was absolutely vital not to stop and pick up Judge Mukasey, cabbie Schumer/Feinstein just pulled over to the curb, and let Mukasey in. When the door closed, Chucky (yeah, that Chucky) pushed the lock button, while Chucky's bride, DiFi, held his hand in the front seat.

Democracy in America has a few months until our death cab arrives at its final destination, a police state. DHS plans to have airlines demand that passengers ask for permission to fly domestically. Border security is being beefed up. Blackwater is getting domestic Drug War contracts. The military buildup/propaganda campaign against Iran continues. The Blue Dog Dems are out in the open as de facto GOPers. Kidnappings and torture by our government will continue uninterrupted by any rule of law. The looting of the middle class enters its final blowout, as the smart money flees for the exits, while the suckers watch the dollar's value crash along with the real estate market.

----

At this point, I have zero confidence in the so-called leadership of the Democratic Party. Since they were given the majority, they have sold us out on issue after issue. And, just like the GOP, they have a huge "false narrative" running - about what their electoral mandate meant. To them, the mandate was to enact a bunch of piddling little tweaks around the social programs that have long since been raped by the GOP. According to crime boss Rahm Emmanuel, it had nothing to do with the Iraq War or the Constitution.

Don't look for me to suggest a way out of this mess. Rejecting Mukasey was the way out. The Democratic leadership refused to use their cloture-proof plurality to stop Mukasey. Since the Bush Gang couldn't argue that this was "national security" and since the office of AG has been vacant for a while, there can be no excuse that it couldn't have remained vacant a little longer - until we could find a nominee who isn't an authoritarian creep and a made man in Rudi Guliani's criminal gang.

Face it, rank and file Democrats, you have been sold out. Completely sold out. The four "mainstream" presidential candidates didn't even vote on Mukasey. And, they didn't make a huge stink about it afterwards. That tells you all you need to know.

What you need to know is that the middle and working classes have lost an organized national leadership. We are reduced to voting for individual candidates on their individual merits. And for me, merit is telling the truth about what is really happening in America.

Naomi Klein calls it "shock therapy". Naomi Wolf calls it a "fascist shift". I continue to hold the position that the so-called Election 2008 campaign is nothing but a gigantic, rigged distraction - akin to professional wrestling. The real action is happening elsewhere.

Mukasey is the real action. The Iran buildup and the Minot cruise missiles are the real action. The unravelling economy, complete with the subprime bank bailout, is the real action. The inaction in the face of climate change is the real action. The constant injection of religion into politics (and government money into fundametalist religion) is the real action.

Speeches and talking points for an election that will be run on crooked machines by crooked officials - if we don't have martial law by then - are an incredible waste of what little time we have left to save our democracy from this fraudulent corporatist duopoly. DU is making itself an irrelevant joke by the energy and vitriol it exerts fighting over the gossipy minutiae of this media-scripted farce.

----

Y'all can be like the true believer in the joke who sits patiently on the roof while the flood rises, refusing offers of rescue because "God will save me". But don't blame me when you drown and God says "I sent you two boats and a helicopter; why didn't you take them?"

Your only honest answer would be: "I took the death cab, instead."


arendt

Wish I could sum it all up so succinctly.

Rec !!

We should all feel that way by now ~ thanks, nice analogy!

But would one expect anything else in a cirrupt and decaying democracy transitioning itself as quickly as possible to the New Totaliarianism, which I call BushPutinism after it's Founding Fathers?

I think not.

It will be worse.

Beyond the huffing, puffing and blustering "speechifying,"
NOTHING of significance changes!
The proof is in the pudding and so far,
there is only one flavor coming out of Washington-
Neoconilla.
Doesn't seem to matter WHO controls what.
The results are always in favor of the corporatists.
BHN

And one that makes a great deal of sense.

But, I would add that I believe we lost our democracy before last week.

A Dem president will SAVE us!!!!! Don't you SEE!?!?!?!?

(Do I NEED the sarcasm tag?)

Thanks, arendt. Beautifully written, as always. And the honest truth, as always.

sw

It's never OUR fault. Never. Not as long as American Idol is on.

Recently I heard somebody say that 2004 was the most important election ever, and that because that one went the wrong way, 2008 will be the least important.

that gave me the creeps.

There's a lot of talk on this board of "Will we even have an election in 2008?" My answer to that is "why wouldn't we?" Elections have now become so devalued that the interests of our corporate masters are better served by having a meaningless election in 2008 than no election at all, because it creates the illusion of democracy. If they came flat out and said "we're going to abolish elections and install a dictator", there's a possibility (however slim) that people might actually wake up to what they were up to and rise up. A sham election provides a nice security blanket for we, the people, to reassure us that we still live in the land of the free.

But, if there is any resistance to another twisted imperial theft, there will be martial law. All indications are that Cheney will stay in power. If not him - Grover Norquist will be there with Rudy, Karl, Jack A operatives, and Ralph Reed. Cheney and Rumsfeld with Doc Z and Bolton will be running things through a screen. Erik Prince will have a Secretary of Mercenary cabinet seat.

A while back, you observed that I seemed somewhat in resignation.
You have summed up perfectly why.

((((((((((((Hugs to you dear friend)))))))))))))))

Thank you for putting into words my bleakest assessments and deepest regrets
about our future...

BHN

Good to see you BHN

a lot of good DUers on this thread.

:hi:

I can always count on reading great replies from my
favorite DUers when arendt pens his thoughts...

:hi: :hug: :pals:
BHN

All these plane rides and lunches with George cleared the area around the door.

All we need now is for Feinstein, Schumer, Landrieau, Nelson, Nelson, and a few other to approve of some Gonzales ike figure for the Supreme Court.

Just remember, we are being sent boats and helicopters... and we haven't drowned yet.

But it's close.

Essentially what the joke is about is failure to recognize the tools of salvation.

Those tools are all around us, some of those tools are even in congress. (couldn't help it )

You Are Completely Correct

And that, my friend, is a sorry fact.

through or if he is a big sychophant like the others. It is so late in the term of the Stump that I fail to see why anyone would even take the job. Let's hope we are wrong and that Mukasey actually has some conscience. It will be hard for him to keep mum about waterboarding since the military came out strong today with the insistence that waterboarding is torture and with the statement that none of the military personnel was to do any torture, including waterboarding.

The torture facility in guantanamo continues its operations. An unknown number of other facilities of ours around the world continue their operations. We learned today that there are at least 60,000 persons detained in the torture facilities in Iraq. They have simply defined the standard torture regime they are putting their victims through as 'not torture'. The fig leaf of putting water boarding outside that definition is just that: a bit of propaganda to divert attention away from the crimes they continue to commit across the world every day.

If Mukasey had a conscience, he wouldn't have been nominated.

For now, another :kick:

will have to do, I suppose.

I can't believe it hasn't gotten a
1000 recommendations by now...

BHN

It's time to ask some really interesting questions like what does the terms "democracy" mean and what function does it serve. Is it the electoral college? Is it geographic representation of popularly elected Senators? Is it the House of Representatives.

The originators of this concept knew what democracy was. They had no problem understanding it without having the term readily available. They're far ahead of us in our use of the term as a verbal 'totem' that our leaders grasp whenever they are about to steal something extremely valuable.

An agreement of the people
for a firm and present peace upon grounds of common right and freedom.
28 October 1647

An agreement of the people for a firm and present peace upon grounds of common right and freedom, as it was proposed by the agents of the five regiments of horse, and since by the general approbation of the army offered to the joint concurrence of all the free commons of England.

http://www.constitution.org/lev/eng_lev_07.htm

1. That the people of England being at this day very unequally distributed by counties, cities and boroughs for the election of their deputies in parliament, ought to be more indifferently proportioned according to the number of the inhabitants: the circumstances whereof, for number, place, and manner, are to be set down before the end of this present parliament.

Is it even possible? It should be obvious that supporting fascist leaders won't help any, even if they are Democrats.

What are the alternatives? Vote for progressives? Try to defeat these people in the primaries?

I think we should try to thow Pelosi out, just like Lieberman. Make an example out of her. I don't know what else we can do.

Schumer and Feinstein aren't up for reelection this cycle.

I agree.

again

You have not described how to make our next move, but you have described the chess board perfectly.

I would say that the next move would be to organize. Followed by a general strike. But that is laughable these days. Neither will occur until the downslide is already undeniable and has built far more momentum.

But let's look at the table on which the chess board sits. This thought hit me the other week and it stopped me dead cold. Evil often does not see itself as evil, but as good...good that has to make necessary tough choices in difficult times. Put Bush and his narcissism aside and think carefully on why the Democrats and Republicans seem to be playing Kabuki theatre, but are always pushing further down this fascist vector. They think they are doing "good", and are dragging the world into hell by their good intentions.

We are going to run out of oil...cheap oil, anyways.

Every biologist worth his salt will tell you that any given ecosystem can only sustain so much. The amount of living material in any system should be at eqilibrium with its environment. You can alter the carry capacity by adding some more available energy (food, usually), but for humans, we have replaced food with energy itself in the form of oil, and it is going to start to become scarce. What that means is that a LOT of people are going to die. Water, too.

I think that those dinners and plane trips that the Democrats take with * feature discussion of this....discussion of an impending human bottleneck of outlandish proportions. Brought on by our greed, of course, but nevertheless inevitable. Remember the look in Pelosi's eyes as she came back from that first dinner with *? She was ashen, and has appeared sad and scared ever since.

They think that by locking this country down and gaining control of what oil is left, they can purchase insurance that it is not Americans that suffer from the bottleneck. Their ratioanale is that if they do not do it, someone else will.

The thought chills me to the bone. Thank god it is just a thought, but it is plausable. The main article in Rolling Stone this month about global warming didn't comfort me, either.

fluid, flowing, like, molten wax... and you, the bright burning candle.

Superb. K&R :applause:

Did you happen to catch Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue praying for rain on the steps of the state Capitol? Sickening. Will Atlanta become the next New Orleans?

If you can bear to watch (Streaming Audio:MP3): http://www.gov.state.ga.us/
scroll down the main page to the 'Featured Stories', 11/13/07.

DU is on fire tonight. Never let it be said that DU is only one liners and snark.

Thanks arendt.

and you didn't ... like Dennis doesn't even exist, or isn't to be taken seriously.. where does Kucinich
figure into your picture? Or does he?

Dennis is running is the only thing that keeps me going.

Is there anyone else in America (other than just a few select few) who believe that,

"... merit is telling the truth about what is really happening in America.

None in the media of the main stream ... except for Keith Olberman ... and Joy Behar who bats it out of the ball park once in a while from The View, and Whoopi Goldberg, who is somewhat measured these days but does call truth to power ... and then those whose voices are forced into blogs because the main of the stream won't air them.

And, as for myself, I have been wondering when will we see on our television screens,scenes from right here in America, like those that are happening in Pakistan ... who will be the first to be put under house arrest by the bush police state, or beaten up into a paddywagon and thrown into a Bush gulag?

Chains and beatings are in the air ... it is only a short time before they materialize into a reality that will take many trusting souls by a hard hitting surprise.

K&R. Having come to more or less the same conclusion, I'm trying my damnedest to get out of the country before it's locked down. :(

to read this :kick:

arendt

Hello

A verry, verry good post. I hope you are wrong, but it sees as you may have it pinned down this time.... Verry good

And, if you want to emigrate, pleace come to europe if you can, we need all the peopole we can get to get a better future, and it looks like US are going hirewire... So welcome to Europe, if you manage to come to canada or another sout american countrys. I have the feeling that you are all welcome here..

Diclotican

Sorry my bad Engelish, not my native language

One of the best I've ever read on DU.
That sickening feeling upon hearing the locks click down - it's exactly how I have been feeling about the state of our country.

I remember hailing the cab in November '06, feeling so apprehensive, yet ... hopeful.
And then, when that cab pulled over to pick me up -- how relieved I felt! ... Out of the rain at last!
Then, the sickening *CLICK* of the door locks ...


You really nailed it.

With the fifth arm of government being the privatized military, doesn't it seem likely that wars will be waged for profit regardless of political opinion? The money-making enterprise is the real action -- our "candidates" are only campaigning to be the spokespeople for these "products."

:applause:

they just let us vote the way Saddam let the Iraqis vote. We think we have a choice but we don't. The game is rigged.

They won't let us have anyone who would unlock the damn doors and get everybody out of the death cab.

SAY it ain't so!

If you know where the problem lies and you feel the discussion and the action caused by the discussion is moving in the wrong direction, change the course of events. Don't take the cowards way out.

You think the election is rigged, who doesn't. Work at poles and at IT companies to see it does not happen and to hold those who caused problems in the past accountable.

You think the lending sub-prime market is a mess who doesn't. work to find answers to get more regulation back into the industry, to help those affected, and punish those who took advantage.

You think this administration has been using shock to put forth it's neo-fascist "second coming", ideology. So do I. Let's try to prove it. Get rid of them and all those with them, move on to the next phase and see what we have to learn from that.

in a brilliant fashion

especially when they so finely expose the truth. An excellent piece of creative writing and stark reality. K & R

:hide:

and this is one of them.

Excellent post.

DUers obviously enjoy feeling betrayed.

But the record shows otherwise. The Democrats showed the highest Democratic unity score in 51 years and backed the majority position of their caucus 91 percent of the time. This lays to rest the idea that they surrendered to the administration.

President Bush's success rating in the Democratic-controlled House has fallen this year to a half-century low, and he prevailed on only 14 percent of the 76 roll call votes on which he took a clear position.

"So far this year, Democrats have backed the majority position of their caucus 91 percent of the time on average on such votes. That marks the highest Democratic unity score in 51 years."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1728952&mesg_id=1728952
http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002576765.html

Don't let the media rhetoric fool you. The Democrats have acquitted themselves quite well--especially given their bare majority in both houses, and a relentlessly obstructionist Republican minority.

And while DUers are enjoying feeling betrayed, voters still strongly favor the Democrats:

Democrats hold a stable advantage in the Congressional vote (51 to 41 percent) – their new plateau for almost all of 2007. And more relevant for 2008, Democrats are well ahead (54 to 37 percent) in the 35 Democratic battleground districts, including their 2006 pick-up seats.

And perhaps even more relevant, the Democrats are running ahead (48 to 42 percent) in the Republican-held battleground seats.

Democrats have moved into a stable lead in the named balloting for Congress – bigger than the margin they achieved in 2006.

Voters hold their Democratic House incumbents (asked by name) in high esteem – a judgment stable over the last six months; while Republican incumbents are losing their voters – with their favorability ratings falling significantly over the same period, particularly in the last month.
http://www.democracycorps.com/reports/analyses/Democracy_Corps_November_6_2007_Memo.pdf

Very good post :hi:

Until they repeal the Patriot Act, restore Habeas Corpus,
revoke the Powers of War Act, uphold the Constitution etc,
Your numbers mean nothing.

The general public may not understand what MATTERS,
but some of us do.

I scarcely call raising minimum wage an accomplishment in
a country with out rule of law.
And for THAT, our elected representatives ARE responsible.

BHN

show statistically that the Democrats are gaining an edge, while continuing to chip away at our liberties, democracy, and constitutional rule of law.

whatever tinkering they may have done.

pretty good job of being accomplices to profiteers' war-crimes, going into major long-term debt to China, and subverting the Constitution, but they snuck in a minimum wage increase! Yippee! Running things for immortal, immoral corporate "persons" isn't of the people, by the people or for the people. Dream race: Dennis Kucinich vs. Ron Paul- no contest once they'd debate each other, but what fun, 'cuz they're both Davids going up against Goliath.

whether your color is red/blue /purple, big business will always continue to run it, anyone having difficulty with this is kidding themselves.

Thank you for posting this and trying to wake people up.

:kick:

When will we ever learn? When will we eeeeeevvvver learn????

"They Thought They Were Free."

:kick: worth reading instead of watching post-debate analysis on CNN.

And to those who tell me I have to vote for Whomever in 2008 "because of the Supreme Court," I say, "Where were the Dems when Roberts was being confirmed? Where were the Dems when Mukasey was up for confirmation? Why should I trust any of the DLC candidates to nominate a real counterbalance to the fascists nominated by Bush?"