Time for pitchforks

[ljm2002]

Okay people, this is the last straw.

Oh sure, we had a disastrous terrorist strike on 9/11, and it looks a lot like the Bush administration was, if not actively complicit, then passively complicit; then we had an illegal invasion and continuing bloody occupation of a country that neither attacked nor threatened us; along the way we saw the active erosion of any scientific foundation whatsoever in our government agencies responsible for pollution control, for health research, for protecting the environment, for protecting the food supply, and any other place where science might be thought a normal part of their everyday business; we have seen the disinformation campaigns in full swing, especially where global warming is concerned; we have recently seen how they not only stacked the Supreme Court with rabid rightwing religionists, but have filled the DOJ with poorly educated religious wack jobs who waltzed into high-profile, high-status jobs with nothing more to commend them than a wink and a nod and a few lies about their actual experience.

And every one of the aforementioned things cries out for impeachment if not revolution.

Today the rabid rightwing religionist base got their first big payoff from the Supreme Court. The court ruled, essentially, that a grown woman's life is of less consequence than the potential life of the fetus she carries. The court, apparently concerned that too many women are having recreational late-term abortions, removed one of these fun-filled procedures from the allowed repertoire, because they are quite sure that they, and not medical doctors, have the ability and the right to dictate what is and is not proper procedure when a woman is carrying a dead or nonviable fetus and her own life is threatened.

We all know what's going on here. We here at DU discuss it daily. But there comes a time when we need to quit asking ourselves how the "good Germans" allowed Hitler to happen, and do something about it. Because the fact is, we are now the "good Germans". We allow it. According to our founding documents, the government does not exist without our consent. And how can people of conscience consent to the current cesspool that is our national government?

I do not use such words lightly. I am an idealist, and at a pretty early age I took to heart the ideals that this country was founded on. I especially liked the "all men (people) are created equal" part, as well as the part about having to overthrow the tyrant when they just would not hear the voices of those they governed.

Are we there yet? I think we are. I am getting ready to write to my representatives and tell them this: stand up to this and find a way to fight back NOW. Also stand firm on the Iraq war funding bill -- it's bad enough we are funding it at all, there is no place for any so-called "compromise" that only further compromises our principles and gives Bush more of the same blank check he had to begin with. I will also tell them that I am preparing to retract my consent, and will work to get others to do the same, unless we start to see big changes and fast.

Sorry. There is just too much sorrow and rage right now. George W. Bush is, indeed, the biggest disaster to have ever befallen the United States. Let us not go down in history as a cowed and abject populace who let him limp to the end of his term while the damage got wider and deeper.

We need to start a movement. We needed to do it years ago. But now would be good.

[stevietheman]

1. There's plenty of rage to have a revolution about, but...

I have no interest in fighting for late-term abortions. I doubt you'll find many who will. Pro-choice shouldn't have to mean pro-macabre.

[ljm2002]

3. Well that's an interesting frame...

..."fighting for late-term abortions".

No, I am suggesting that we fight for the right of a woman to have the very best medical care available in a given situation -- sometimes that really does mean a late-term abortion, and sometimes it really does mean the procedure that has now been outlawed. I am suggesting that we fight for the idea that a woman's life is at least as valuable as that of the fetus she may be carrying. I am suggesting that we fight the idea that the politicians should be able to outlaw accepted medical procedures that are used rarely and always to save the life of the mother. I am saying that if the choice is between the woman, or the encephalitic fetus, then the choice is clear and the people involved in that particular life drama should be able to make that choice without Big Bro looking over their shoulders.

Furthermore, I am not suggesting that is the only reason -- you saw my list. It's just, at this point for me, the last straw. Not the last straw for GWB and crew, I reached it with that bunch years ago. No, this is the last straw as far as I'm concerned for the whole stinking sorry lot of them. If they won't stand up for us -- and all the evidence is that they will not -- then it's damned well past time for us to stand up for ourselves.

[KingOfLostSouls]

2. I agree

republicans have demonstrated their willingness to use violence against us.

if republicans were coming up the street for you and your family to try to harm you, which we all know is only a matter of time, are you going to peacefully go along to your grave?

or take as many of the motherfuckers with you?

I for one subscribe to the Jim Webb "kick ass and take names" style of liberalism and I think its only a matter of time before we'll have to start fighting back to protect ourselves from conservatives.