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We
Will Never Forget
December
8, 2001
by Morris Smith
It's been a year they tell us.
It's been a year and supposedly, everything has changed.
Evildoers abroad have done what domestic larceny could not,
what judicial fiat could not, what simple-minded, single-minded
straightforward arrogance could not.
"After Sept. 11, George Bush was legitimately elected president
of the United States." Words of wisdom from the New York Post.
So that's it? Someone perpetrates leviathon evil against
us and we are supposed to forget all of the other ones? Someone
steals your car and you're supposed to forget that the week
before they burned down your house? Someone kills our people
and we're supposed to forget that someone else tried to kill
our democracy?
Osama bin Laden can't make George W. Bush President. Satan
himself couldn't make George W. Bush President. All of the
scoundrels on earth, every real or imagined evil, all of the
dastards who ever dared to shake a fist in the face of truth,
past, present and future, couldn't come together to bestow
upon this pretender the legitimacy granted by an election
of the people of the United States of America.
So now we're told now that Bush has grown, that he is no
longer the same man he was. (A claim that criminals all over
the world make when it is convient for them to do so.) If
he has truly "grown," then he should acknowledge what he did
a year ago. A man who has grown would now realize what his
"victory" has cost him and this country. Remember, this man
told us during the campaign that it didn't matter to him whether
he became President or not. He said that he would be happy
being Governor of Texas, living at his ranch in Crawford.
An honorable man, a man who has truly "grown," would feel
remorse for his actions and make restitution. He would apologize
to the country and resign.
How can he look at himself in any of the beautiful, ornate
White House mirrors, where men of honor, elected men, have
resided before? A man who has "grown" would be afraid that
the shade of one of those men would look back at him through
one of those mirrors, crook a bony finger in his direction
and whisper "Shame!"
But Bush will never see this apparition. He is too unfamiliar
with the concept of shame. His handlers insulate him from
it. He's not bright enough to know it exists. He manages a
trick astonishing even in these days, the ability to be both
shameful and shameless.
American University historian Allan Lichtman says, "It doesn't
matter how you get elected. What matters is how you govern."
Is this what passes for historical vision these days? Pathetic.
What kind of a country would we have today if George Washington
had decided that elections didn't really matter and that he
would continue to serve as President? Jefferson Davis was
elected. Can it really be true that it didn't matter how he
got elected, as long as he ran the Confederacy well? If it
doesn't matter how you get elected, why bother to have elections
at all?
Elections, it is said, are a political sacrament. They tell
us who we are today as a people. What we believe in. Where
we want to go in the future. Political hacks may, at times,
feel the need to undo them, to sweep them aside when they
don't give the results they desire. They do so at their peril.
Because when they do, they have to pay a price. And in this
case the punishment is steep.
It's called recognition.
We look at them and recognize that the person is a fraud.
We recognize the election was a farce. We recognize that the
title gained is illegitimate. We recognize that his every
pronouncement is without merit, spurious.
And this is a four year sentence. There is no reprieve. There
is no parole. There is no time off for good behavior. And
even if there was, there would be few less deserving than
George W. Bush.
His arrogance has been exceeded only by his ignorance. His
paranoid ruthlessness has been enough to sate palates both
subtle and gross. He has gone out of his way to push his extreme
agenda, to stretch his nonexistant mandate past the breaking
point. Even the most cursory glance shows that his agenda
is out of step with America, as much now as it was on September
10th, 2001. Rather than rely on some vague wishes about his
"growth," let us look at what we can conclude from his initiatives:
Working people matter less than corporations. Security matters
less than keeping workers out of unions. Personal liberties
matter less than control of the populace. Expediency in a
trial system is more important than getting the right person.
Secrecy is preferable to openness. Blind obedience is better
than critical thinking.
Lies matter more than truth.
But none of that matters we are told. A year later, no one
cares about the election of a year ago. We have gotten past
it, we have moved on. We are comfortable with the President
today. We know of his shortcomings and we accept them. We
realize that he is our President and that we must unite behind
him.
Well. Is that so? Must we blandly accept this larcenous bunch
and their never ending lust for power? Is it written in stone
that we will be voiceless, hunkering down in the bunkers of
our timidity? Is this the way America ends, not with a bang,
but a whimper?
I don't think so! Anger is a negative emotion, but it has
its place. And there is no better use for anger than when
viewing an wrong and seeking to right it. Seeing George W.
Bush making pronouncements that he doesn't understand and
pretending to show wisdom he doesn't possess should fill us
all with a rage approaching the metaphysical.
They tell us it's over, finished, a done deal. But we know
better. It's not over by a long shot. The fat lady isn't even
in the stadium, forget about stepping up to the mike. Not
only do we know its not over, we know exactly how long it
will last.
This fight will not end until January 20th, 2005, when we
send King George packing for his dry little ranch, just like
we did last November. And make no mistake, we will send him
slinking back to the dustbin of history; only this time his
cronies in the Supreme Court and his gang of political stooges
will no more be able to help him than will the staff of Enron.
He has a rendevous with his fate, as an asterisk to a footnote
to the appendix of history.
But until then, we must never forget. We must continue to
point the finger at the Emperor and remind him and everyone
else that he is morally bootless, unburdened by the restrictive
nature of ethical clothings, bankrupt of wit and overflowing
in unshirted indecency. He will fight us, no doubt, but what
good are the implements of power in the hands of one so stupid
and against so implacable a foe? We cannot be defeated, we
have right on our side.
We did not throw off the yoke of one King George, only to
have it replaced by another. Like William Lloyd Garrison,
we will not repent, we will not recant and we will not relent...
and we will be victorious!
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