A reminder of what's at stake in 2004

[bain_sidhe]

It's a long article, but well worth the read:


America as a One-Party State
Today's hard right seeks total dominion. It's packing the courts and rigging the rules. The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself.

...But if President Bush is re-elected, we will be close to a tipping point of fundamental change in the political system itself. The United States could become a nation in which the dominant party rules for a prolonged period, marginalizes a token opposition and is extremely difficult to dislodge because democracy itself is rigged. This would be unprecedented in U.S. history.

In past single-party eras, the majority party earned its preeminence with broad popular support. Today the electorate remains closely divided, and actually prefers more Democratic policy positions than Republican ones. Yet the drift toward an engineered one-party Republican state has aroused little press scrutiny or widespread popular protest.

We are at risk of becoming an autocracy in three key respects. First, Republican parliamentary gimmickry has emasculated legislative opposition in the House of Representatives (the Senate has other problems). House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas has both intimidated moderate Republicans and reduced the minority party to window dressing, rather like the token opposition parties in Mexico during the six-decade dominance of the PRI.

Second, electoral rules have been rigged to make it increasingly difficult for the incumbent party to be ejected by the voters, absent a Depression- scale disaster, Watergate-class scandal or Teddy Roosevelt-style ruling party split. After two decades of bipartisan collusion in the creation of safe House seats, there are now perhaps just 25 truly contestable House seats in any given election year (and that's before the recent Republican super gerrymandering).

...<snip>

Third, the federal courts, which have slowed some executive-branch efforts to destroy liberties, will be a complete rubber stamp if the right wins one more presidential election.

Taken together, these several forces could well enable the Republicans to become the permanent party of autocratic government for at least a generation. Am I exaggerating? Take a close look at the particulars.

More: http://www.prospect.org/print/V15/2/kuttner-r.html

[bain_sidhe]

1. Nobody cares about one party rule?

Just checkin'

:kick:

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

2. we've been complaining about one party rule for 40 years

this is hardly new.

[worldgonekrazy]

3. News flash: we've already got that

I just don't believe it. Everywhere I go I see people who vote Democrat wringing their hands and asking themselves "why don't the Dems do anything?" Why didn't they:

- Vote against the Patriot Act?

- Protest when much of the Patriot Act II was secretly pushed through Congress?

- Vote against the clearly disastrous and morally reprehensible IWR?

- Demand a *real* investigation into 9/11, rather than a bullshit whitewash job that we are so obviously going to be subjected to?

And so on.

Well I've got the answer for you. You might not like it, you might think I'm crazy, but just consider it: the Establishment Democrats are largely complicit with the neo-con agenda, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the police state and foreign policy.

This is why getting a Democratic president in is not enough. It will be like applying a band-aid to a severed limb. Instead, we need a complete repudiation of politics as usual. I think that is best embodied by Howard Dean, though John Edwards and Wesley Clark have potential for this as well, IMO (though I just don't trust Clark).

[redqueen]

4. I don't like it, but I don't think you're crazy

But I think it is best embodied by Kucinich. :)

[bain_sidhe]

5. News flash... no we don't, but we're close

We are at the tipping point. If the pukes are allowed to finish packing courts, the only thing that will remove them from power is bloodshed. Imagine *every* court in the land ruling like the supreme court did - if they don't like the results of an election - whether for President or dog catcher - they'll simply change it by judicial fiat. This article makes clear that if we lose the Presidency this year, the pukes will be able to institutionalize their hold on power to the point where no opposition is allowed, and indeed, will be punished severely.