If the Democrats do win in 2006 (we) they should not let their guard down. I'm not saying that they (we) should be paranoid -- just serious. The Democrats now have serious enemies arrainged against them who have few self imposed limits on their behavior and who are willing to stoop to any new low to achieve their goals. As Roosevelt said the main thing to fear is fear itself -- and lies.
Nobody can defeat terrorism by launching a rain of Terror, and "terror lite" like "torture lite" and "fascism lite" have been the modus operandi of the Bush Administration, in an even more systematic manner than even they were during the McCarthy era. Fear has been the basis for their campaign, since the fall of the twin towers they have combined appeals of fear with dishonest rhetoric, twisted narrative, and skapegoating in order to get and keep power. They have promised security, and delivered insecurity.
They have taken the "war" to create enemies where they once had potential friends, and revenged the twin towers on innocents tenfold or even a hundredfold. They legitimately called on us to Unite and then attacked the bases for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. But then they used that fear to make up links to and launch the war in Iraq. To demonize even patriotic Americans like Kerry and win the 2002 and 2004 elections; And they took their attention away from Bin Laden while lying about the relationship of Saddam to him. Now, civilians are dying in Iraq by the thousands, and the war in Afghanistan is going badly, and so far all we've succeeded in creating there is an insurgency, a civil war between Sunnah and Shia, and tens of thousands of deaths.
While all this is happening abroad, at home they've launched wars against Gays, against secularists, and against women and the poor. Abroad they tell us that the Pakistanis and Saudis (who funded their nationals who attacked us) while looking the other way as the Pakistanis cut deals with Al Qaeda and provide safe havens for Bin Laden and the Taliban.
They have an awful record of keeping promises made to their followers, but that won't stop them from crowing about achievements and looking for scapegoats for their failures. If they can scare people enough they can create their hegemony long enough to create an even greater world wide fracase then they have already done and destroy our country and themselves in the process.
But with all that we democrats still can't expect the American people to believe our narrative, because these people have the money and organization to change the narrative, to rewrite history, and if we let them they'll do it. That is what this "docudrama" about 9/11 is about. It is the first step in creating a fantasy alternative narrative for their base.
This is nothing new, they've rewritten the history of the Cold-war; McCarthy, Nixon, Hoover era to lionize or at least rehabilitate those twisted people and paint a narrative in which international terrorism was justified because it "defeated" communism. They wrote a self-serving narrative about Vietnam that blamed the Press and the peaceniks for a failure that was largely a matter of really flawed military concept.
Reality isn't as important as power to these people. They have adopted Trotskyite, Goebbels and William Randolph Hearst methods and they know that what "really" happened doesn't matter as long as they control the narrative. To them they can have the real Bin laden as a partner, while telling the people of the US they are hunting him. They can let their ally Mussharif make a treaty with Bin Laden and allow Wahabi anti-Christian and Jewish propaganda to be the only education for the next generation of Mujaheedin, while telling us that he's in control and working for us. They know that they need to paint Bin Laden as an omnipresent enemy, who has hidden allies everywhere, and they don't need to really do anything to catch him and bring him to justice or to stop Al Qaeda from launching bombs and mad-bombers. Indeed if they stopped him that might stop the gravy train.
No wonder there are conspiracy theories that believe that Bin Laden works for them. This is a government that will lie in tandem, they believe in the maxim the government that lies together stays together. These are people who would convince us that Bin Laden lies under every bed, and in every opponant. Who would make Bin Laden a proxy for Satan and an excuse to clamp down on the Constitution, subvert our civil liberties, and spy on and defame opponents. This is terrorism redux. They are Bin Laden's allies in this. But they are such cynics that they can be both. I don't know if they are just fools who are taking advantage of a situation or as diabolical as the paranoids suggest. I doubt they are competetant enough to be aware of what the effect of what they are doing is. They probably really think that their fight with Bin Laden should proceed this way. They need a fight with Bin Laden as much as he needs a fight with them. Such people live in a fantasy world where things are how they want to see them not how they actually are. An agreement might explain why there have been no further attacks, our borders are still not secure, our ports are not.
They will rewrite history if we let them. They cannot be stopped from trying. We can counter their short term narrative, elect representatives who still believe in genuine democracy, but the long term battle is going to be difficult as long as they think this way; and as long as they think they can control the presses. It is no accident that folks from the security services have been scouring the national archives and other sources for things to re-classify. Their goal is not to protect the "national security" but the Republican Party Security from criticism. And the goal of docudramas like that of ABC is to create an alternative narrative to teach their children so that the poison can be spread to the next generation.
The unholy alliance between greedy interests and perverse moralists will survive any electoral defeat. The Republicans have learned to hedge their bets, and they are already preparing backup plans for what to do if they lose the house and Senate in 2006 -- and you had better believe it won't be pretty. They can't be fought on their own playground -- which is violence, simple-mindedness, fear and paranoia. They have to be fought on higher ground; rhetoric with good underlying logic and analysis, courage, and a willingness to face the facts without fear and by explaining realities in a manner that ordinary folks can understand. And we have to struggle to preserve the truth, because the whole idea of 1984 type tyrannies is to bury it. When O'Reilly calls for the arrest of liberal critics, he isn't kidding. He and his cabal are patient, they are preparing the ground for the future.
The only thing certain about New-speak Conservative Republicans like Bush is that if they say they'll be a Uniter, it means they (and his team) plan to divide and conquer, that if they say "The US doesn't torture," they mean that they have redefined torture to mean "organ failure," and that if they talk about fiscal responsibility watch your wallet! If they talk about keeping the US safer from Terrorists they mean to use that as an excuse to pursue another agenda all together.
From observing the behavior of the Justice department, the rhetoric and the intentions, it seems that when they talk about "freedom on the march" it seems that their plan is to march it out of the United States. That is the only possible explainations for the constant demands for plenary powers and the defective, arbitrary and perverse application of the powers they already have. We gave them power to go after terrorists and they have gone after "victimless crimes", dissidents, peace-niks, Reporters, Democrats and the CIA instead. The right to demonstrate has been abolished unless one has a permit. People still go to jail for years for crimes such as smoking dope (not smart even if it were legal), while folks who rob and steal from thousands of people go unpunished and folks who cause the needless deaths of tens of thousands get "Freedom Awards" or give them.
People are finally catching on that this is actually true and not just rhetorical excess. The deceptions about Iraq are finally starting to come to light and folks are realizing that we have a culture of sociopaths in the White House -- and that those who have been calling them that are not liars or exaggerating. Would that that were true. There is a chance that the Democrats can pull of an electoral victory.
It is slim because we Americans are a trusting lot who can be lied to again and again and still have trouble believing the liars are actually lying. Bush is crying wolf a third time, and we'll see if we are dumber than the folks in the fabled village or not. Will we rally to his rhetoric?
But this effort to redefine US law and create a permanent Republican Hegemony and police state is not going to be stopped by one electoral reversal. It represents a long term effort, backed by monied interests and simple people who believe that their opponents are evil and who may represent a minority but represent a large one. The "base" is people who really do believe that they are fighting to protect the rights of the unborn and not the rights of Exxon and Halliburton; People who really believe the US is promoting Democracy by an eternal war in Iraq; And people who believe that Democrats and "liberals" are akin to traitors and "Reds." Some of these kind souls are willing to kill to protect the unborn, kill cities in the name of freedom and go along with the end of their own civil liberties in the name of fighting "terror." They also believe other lies they've been told. No matter how much we tell them that Bush is a liar, they don't believe us, they believe their ministers, preachers, priests and Rabbis. They believe Dick Cheney. They believe Bush. And they believe the lies that are put into devious narratives by those people. I don't care if folks disagree with me. As Clinton says, they just need to tell the truth; to not lie.
Most folks are kind of in the middle. We don't like abortion. We'd love to see Democracy in Iraq and cheered for the Iraqis when the statues fell. And we are willing to go to great lengths to promote Freedom. that is why the efforts of the Republicans are so devious. For example if the Democrats succeed in repealing these laws and raising taxes on the rich, the Republicans are counting on blowback in the elections in the form of rich campaign coffers and deceptive advertizing in 2008. They have loaded all the costs on the system in such a way that the pain is not going to set in until they are out of office and someone tries to pay the debts they incurred. You can already see Robert Novak building this narrative for the Republican Come-back.
Those who know Bush is lying but back him anyway belong to a cynical set who don't like paying taxes and have the money to pay politicians to tax other people or borrow money so they don't have to pay taxes. Those people don't care if Bush is lying or not. Like Robert Novak their big issue is whether they have to pay for it or they can get other people to pay for it. Bush sees them as his "real base" and has said so at meetings with them. He means it. You can see the motivation and germ for their efforts in this editorial by Robert Novak:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak07x.html
He doesn't really care about balanced budgets, he only cares about who has to pay for the debts. And he knows that sooner or later the economy is going to suffer for paying back those debts. And when it does the economy will have to inflate to reduce value, or deflate. Either way someone is going to suffer, and his narrative is designed to make sure it's folks like you and me and not his Country Club set -- and that he's going to put the blame for that suffering on any politicians who try to do something about the bleeding of middle and lower class wealth into the super-rich and into the ground.
For folks like Novak if they shout "class warfare" it means that they've already launched one. They really do think the rest of us are rubes. I've seen them in action, most of the elites (left or right) in this country despise "outside the beltway" from inside the beltway -- and despise "flyover country." They see wealth creation as win-lose, while talking about "trickle down" or how their wealth floats all boats. In a fair society it might, but not ours.
These cynical folks have discovered that if they have the right positions they can profit from the war, pay less taxes, loan the government money, and make money three ways; war-profiteering, rent-seeking, and tax cuts. And they ahve a machine to keep that power in place. All the emphasis on "getting them over there so they won't attack at home" -- while running a defective criminal and diplomatic effort is designed to increase the real risk while maintaining that the Republicans are the saviors from that same risk is designed to maintain that money machine. They "know" that law enforcement and diplomacy can't stop Terrorism by themselves because they also know that they have limited resources to fight terrorism and that terrorism keeps them in power. They know what all of us who understand the situation know, that Moslem extremists are certain to attack again, and they are creating a narrative among us "simple people in flyover country" that their draconian methods are the only thing that will protect people, but that if something happens on their watch it is despite those draconian methods, while if it happens on the watch of Democrats it is the result of traitorous malfeasance. We can be certain that the propaganda machine will blame Democrats for the next terror attack especially if the Republicans lose in 2006. That machine nearly guarantees a blowback in the next election if people continue to buy their lies.
So the only way to defeat them is to keep the air-ways free, to liberate the press from prior restraint, retaliation, secrecy, and corporate monopoly and oligopoly, and to develop a permanent project aimed at protecting the middle ground of Democracy in order to force the politicians and folks backing them back into fighting in the "middle zone" of a politics that respects the constitution, is truthful and respects us voters. That may require a revival of anti-trust efforts, repeal of some old laws, and genuine campaign reform aimed at making elections more transparent, accessible, and better debated. And it will certainly involve recognizing the sheer extent of corruption we've built into our political system without recognizing it for what it is. The lies have to stop.
We need liberals and conservatives and to see things from all POVs. We need people to work out their differences and make legitimate compromises not ones that benefit the "players". We don't need violent and authoritarian Righties and Lefties setting up to duke it out in the streets; or a police force with unchecked power and a veil of secrecy over all their actions. We need to read and protect our Constitution not abandon it.
Chris
Posted by cholte at September 9, 2006 04:51 PM