Reply #90: We take for granted

[marions ghost]

that our Democracy is strong and functional. We are told from childhood how great it is. "Protect and defend the constitution" to most people means --be ready to fight physical wars....not --"defend the government from criminal insiders." That really shouldn't be our "job" if our democracy is functional.

Not many could have imagined the losses and abuses that we have witnessed in recent years. Even those who recognized that our system is flawed could hardly imagine this dysfunction, this degree of corruption. It's reminiscent of the final phase of ancient Rome all too often these days...with an overlay of Orwellian nightmare.

It is hard for those of us who DO comprehend what is going on to do anything about it. So it's not surprising that those who have even less insight and information to work with, have even less ability to confront it. But I do think that many still have a feeling of unease, of things not working, of distrust. They sense that something is wrong but not how to fix it. And how do we fix it?--Not an easy question for those of us who have paid attention. "You have to start with accountability" said Sherrod Brown on Meet the Press (Ohio Senate Debate) yesterday, in reference to Iraq. I would say that we need to expand that accountability to the whole list of grievances against this administration and congress. And then we need to move way past these criminal abusers.

When you remove the mechanisms that prevent abuses of power and you remove the ways in which the people have access and input --you create oligarchy, which can be seen as tyranny of a powerful group. That is what we are now living under. It has been relatively easy for that to be accomplished in a populace trusting in an illusion of democracy. For example, even progressives had a hard time seeing that the election system has been hijacked. Thankfully they are now getting that at least.

We are in a time of slackwater as people wake up to the awful truth. I am hoping there is a tsunami
behind it. We need an internal cleansing.