Wednesday, August 25, 2004
The 4 R's
One of my earliest memories is of my mother quietly weeping while watching TV. It was November 22, 1963. She kept crying and softly saying “Oh my god they’ve killed him” over and over. I knew she was talking about the president somehow, and I remember trying to console her, as I saw the replays of him earlier on TV. “Look mommy, he’s still alive, don’t cry”.
5 years later I remember my father screaming and cursing at the TV in November 1968, as Nixon gave his acceptance speech. I watched in awe as a stream of invective came out of him that was only usually reserved for when I had done something really bad, or when mom didn’t prepare dinner properly.
My parents were always ones to hang the flag out 4 times a year, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. As an aside, it’s this last day, I think that ultimately separates the Democratic Party from the Republican Party. My father did not fight in WWII, getting a deferment supposedly for “flat feet” or so he said. He was president of a local labor union for several years. He hated the war in Vietnam and war in general. Still I remember him telling me once, “The only things worth anything in life are those things you have to fight for.” Of course, he also told me I was fat, lazy, and stupid and would never amount to anything, but that’s for another day’s entry. See my dad was also an addict. Before I was born it was alcohol, afterwards prescription drugs and who knows what else during those late nights where I would wake up to hear my mom and dad screaming at each other. Addictions make your behavior unpredictable. One day you’re a loving husband and father, loyal union leader. The next, a flaming anger filled asshole.
I suppose these events laid the groundwork for my democratic leaning political beliefs at a very early age, but I’ve actually spent most of my life being completely apolitical, ever since a grade school “campaign” project in 1972, when my class full of 12 year old future stockbrokers, investment bankers, advertising barons, Republican party officials and military officers bullied or sold the rest of the class into re-electing Nixon in a landslide. I attended a “rally” at my school wearing a McGovern button, which a larger kid promptly ripped off my shirt. His campaign message was “If you don’t vote for Nixon I’ll kick your ass”. I didn’t vote for Nixon. He didn’t kick my ass literally. He just won.
I became convinced from that day that “democracy” on a national level was really nothing more than natural selection, (only those with the biggest mouths, bankrolls and fists come out on top) and that “truth” was irrelevant to the discussion.
By the time I was old enough to vote, the temporary aberration of national sanity that elected Jimmy Carter was long gone, and I remained completely uninvolved throughout my 20’s and 30’s, when an actor became president, followed by his shadowy CIA directing VP.
I completely ignored the rise to fame and power of William Jefferson Clinton, who in my mind at the time was a turncoat Democrat dressed in conservative clothing. He held court at town meetings spouting forth on such conservative pillars as welfare reform, balanced budgets, free trade, and de-regulation of the media. He was hampered by a Republican Congress that blocked his every progressive initiative. Ultimately his inability to control his sex addiction filled Republican coffers with all the ammunition they would ever need to take back the White House.
And what did we get as a choice? His minion vs. another addict supposedly reformed. But as any AA member will tell you, a dry drunk is still a drunk at heart. It’s obvious from Bush's behavior that he may have stopped the drinking but he hasn’t stopped the “stinking thinking”. I knew how an addict behaved. I remembered it in my father.
All this brings me to the fall of 2000, and the rebirth of my interest in national politics. I cheered for Ralph Nader as he decried the 2 party system, called for instant runoff elections and demanded access to media and the debates. I watched as Nader called for a National Healthcare system, raising the minimum wage, higher CAFÉ standards for auto manufacturers, paid college tuition. Man, finally someone speaking my language! I actually registered to vote for the first time in 20 years. I watched the Nader-less debates and was shocked to hear commentators declare victory for Bush. I watched as Al Gore surrendered to his handlers, stuffed his progressive views down his “lockbox” and pandered to the “center”. I watched as the media skewered him relentlessly for little things that had no bearing on anyone’s lives should he be elected. (He’s too stiff; he said he invented the internet ad infinitum). I watched with disbelief that a president’s son could become president. This was America goddamn it, not a monarchy. I was practicing with my band the night of the election, and before I went to bed I tuned in to see some network call Florida for Gore.
I was literally glued to cable TV during the weeks that followed, simply in awe of the manipulation of the process, utterly taken aback by how wrong my childhood ideal of Democracy (majority of votes wins) was. I knew about the Electoral College from some civics class of the past, but could a guy really get elected if he got half a million LESS votes than the other guy? I watched in horror as conservative power addicts bullied, manipulated and lawyered their way in front of a Supreme Court already partial to their ends. Then just like that, with a Supreme Court party line vote, it was over. Wait a minute; FIVE fucking people just decided who rules the country?
Democracy as I thought I knew it was over, and not just in some grade school classroom election, but right here in real life.
So I had a lot of learning to do. I learned about the Electoral College (again). I started watching more cable news and getting on the internet. I learned more about Bush and his family history. I learned about some of the people Bush began to appoint to his administration. I read about the first Iraq war, how the U.S. had helped build Saddam’s regime, giving him aid and weapons during the Iran/Iraq war. How Reagan and Bush after him had funded Osama Bin Laden and the Afghan Mujahadeen in the 80’s against the Soviet Union. How these very same guys that were in power now were in power then. Some of them were even convicted during Iran Contra and then pardoned by GWB the first. How these guys wrote letters to Clinton urging him to attack Iraq during the mid 90’s. That this guy Osama Bin Laden was responsible for an attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.
Then 9/11 happened. I was in Cleveland at the time, my wife was in Washington DC, mere blocks from the White House. As it became clear who carried out the attacks, it hit me like a cold hard slap in the face. This was life and death. The choice of a leader for our country wasn’t about whether one candidate spoke poorly in public or whether one candidate snorted cocaine in his 20’s.
It was about “electing” an entire power structure that supports the kinds of policies that have led us to the point where our very survival is at stake. I began to worry about flying, about traveling anywhere. I began thinking like a victim.
But I continued reading. I watched as Republicans have used this screen of fear over the country to great advantage to pass a whole lot of legislation that supports power instead of people. I watched as they used this screen of fear to erect their own screen of secrecy around hundreds of government actions. I watched as a slow erosion of civil liberties is creeping over the country like a black cloud. I watched as redistricting battles are won by Republicans across the nation, reducing the number of available Democratic seats in the House of Representatives. I watched as Republican candidates for Senate advocate abolishing the public vote for Senators.
Make no mistake; the Republican party is using the climate of fear to mask an unprecedented power grab in this country. I cheered for Ralph Nader in 2000 as he spoke out against the 2 party system, but if Bush gets elected this fall, it’s a ONE party system we will be left with. If you think the fix was in for 2000, you haven’t seen anything yet. Four more years for Bush will mean no more years for Democrats, ever.
More media deregulation, more restrictions on the entertainment industry, more right wing judges, more elimination of Democratic representation through redistricting, more tax relief for non-work related income, the loss of social security, the dismantling of the social safety net (i.e. Medicare, Medicaid), more wars, more terror attacks, more discrimination, more prohibitions on personal freedoms, more of THEIR ONE TRUE religion on TV, in the schools and in your life. Is this really what we want?
So over the next 2 months...
Remember (how did we get where we are today?)
Read (what’s being done in YOUR name with YOUR tax money here and around the world)
Register (get registered to vote if you are not already)
Report (get on the blogs and do what the mass media refuses to do)
The 4 R’s can beat 3 F’s (Flags, FOX and Fear) any day.
5 years later I remember my father screaming and cursing at the TV in November 1968, as Nixon gave his acceptance speech. I watched in awe as a stream of invective came out of him that was only usually reserved for when I had done something really bad, or when mom didn’t prepare dinner properly.
My parents were always ones to hang the flag out 4 times a year, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. As an aside, it’s this last day, I think that ultimately separates the Democratic Party from the Republican Party. My father did not fight in WWII, getting a deferment supposedly for “flat feet” or so he said. He was president of a local labor union for several years. He hated the war in Vietnam and war in general. Still I remember him telling me once, “The only things worth anything in life are those things you have to fight for.” Of course, he also told me I was fat, lazy, and stupid and would never amount to anything, but that’s for another day’s entry. See my dad was also an addict. Before I was born it was alcohol, afterwards prescription drugs and who knows what else during those late nights where I would wake up to hear my mom and dad screaming at each other. Addictions make your behavior unpredictable. One day you’re a loving husband and father, loyal union leader. The next, a flaming anger filled asshole.
I suppose these events laid the groundwork for my democratic leaning political beliefs at a very early age, but I’ve actually spent most of my life being completely apolitical, ever since a grade school “campaign” project in 1972, when my class full of 12 year old future stockbrokers, investment bankers, advertising barons, Republican party officials and military officers bullied or sold the rest of the class into re-electing Nixon in a landslide. I attended a “rally” at my school wearing a McGovern button, which a larger kid promptly ripped off my shirt. His campaign message was “If you don’t vote for Nixon I’ll kick your ass”. I didn’t vote for Nixon. He didn’t kick my ass literally. He just won.
I became convinced from that day that “democracy” on a national level was really nothing more than natural selection, (only those with the biggest mouths, bankrolls and fists come out on top) and that “truth” was irrelevant to the discussion.
By the time I was old enough to vote, the temporary aberration of national sanity that elected Jimmy Carter was long gone, and I remained completely uninvolved throughout my 20’s and 30’s, when an actor became president, followed by his shadowy CIA directing VP.
I completely ignored the rise to fame and power of William Jefferson Clinton, who in my mind at the time was a turncoat Democrat dressed in conservative clothing. He held court at town meetings spouting forth on such conservative pillars as welfare reform, balanced budgets, free trade, and de-regulation of the media. He was hampered by a Republican Congress that blocked his every progressive initiative. Ultimately his inability to control his sex addiction filled Republican coffers with all the ammunition they would ever need to take back the White House.
And what did we get as a choice? His minion vs. another addict supposedly reformed. But as any AA member will tell you, a dry drunk is still a drunk at heart. It’s obvious from Bush's behavior that he may have stopped the drinking but he hasn’t stopped the “stinking thinking”. I knew how an addict behaved. I remembered it in my father.
All this brings me to the fall of 2000, and the rebirth of my interest in national politics. I cheered for Ralph Nader as he decried the 2 party system, called for instant runoff elections and demanded access to media and the debates. I watched as Nader called for a National Healthcare system, raising the minimum wage, higher CAFÉ standards for auto manufacturers, paid college tuition. Man, finally someone speaking my language! I actually registered to vote for the first time in 20 years. I watched the Nader-less debates and was shocked to hear commentators declare victory for Bush. I watched as Al Gore surrendered to his handlers, stuffed his progressive views down his “lockbox” and pandered to the “center”. I watched as the media skewered him relentlessly for little things that had no bearing on anyone’s lives should he be elected. (He’s too stiff; he said he invented the internet ad infinitum). I watched with disbelief that a president’s son could become president. This was America goddamn it, not a monarchy. I was practicing with my band the night of the election, and before I went to bed I tuned in to see some network call Florida for Gore.
I was literally glued to cable TV during the weeks that followed, simply in awe of the manipulation of the process, utterly taken aback by how wrong my childhood ideal of Democracy (majority of votes wins) was. I knew about the Electoral College from some civics class of the past, but could a guy really get elected if he got half a million LESS votes than the other guy? I watched in horror as conservative power addicts bullied, manipulated and lawyered their way in front of a Supreme Court already partial to their ends. Then just like that, with a Supreme Court party line vote, it was over. Wait a minute; FIVE fucking people just decided who rules the country?
Democracy as I thought I knew it was over, and not just in some grade school classroom election, but right here in real life.
So I had a lot of learning to do. I learned about the Electoral College (again). I started watching more cable news and getting on the internet. I learned more about Bush and his family history. I learned about some of the people Bush began to appoint to his administration. I read about the first Iraq war, how the U.S. had helped build Saddam’s regime, giving him aid and weapons during the Iran/Iraq war. How Reagan and Bush after him had funded Osama Bin Laden and the Afghan Mujahadeen in the 80’s against the Soviet Union. How these very same guys that were in power now were in power then. Some of them were even convicted during Iran Contra and then pardoned by GWB the first. How these guys wrote letters to Clinton urging him to attack Iraq during the mid 90’s. That this guy Osama Bin Laden was responsible for an attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.
Then 9/11 happened. I was in Cleveland at the time, my wife was in Washington DC, mere blocks from the White House. As it became clear who carried out the attacks, it hit me like a cold hard slap in the face. This was life and death. The choice of a leader for our country wasn’t about whether one candidate spoke poorly in public or whether one candidate snorted cocaine in his 20’s.
It was about “electing” an entire power structure that supports the kinds of policies that have led us to the point where our very survival is at stake. I began to worry about flying, about traveling anywhere. I began thinking like a victim.
But I continued reading. I watched as Republicans have used this screen of fear over the country to great advantage to pass a whole lot of legislation that supports power instead of people. I watched as they used this screen of fear to erect their own screen of secrecy around hundreds of government actions. I watched as a slow erosion of civil liberties is creeping over the country like a black cloud. I watched as redistricting battles are won by Republicans across the nation, reducing the number of available Democratic seats in the House of Representatives. I watched as Republican candidates for Senate advocate abolishing the public vote for Senators.
Make no mistake; the Republican party is using the climate of fear to mask an unprecedented power grab in this country. I cheered for Ralph Nader in 2000 as he spoke out against the 2 party system, but if Bush gets elected this fall, it’s a ONE party system we will be left with. If you think the fix was in for 2000, you haven’t seen anything yet. Four more years for Bush will mean no more years for Democrats, ever.
More media deregulation, more restrictions on the entertainment industry, more right wing judges, more elimination of Democratic representation through redistricting, more tax relief for non-work related income, the loss of social security, the dismantling of the social safety net (i.e. Medicare, Medicaid), more wars, more terror attacks, more discrimination, more prohibitions on personal freedoms, more of THEIR ONE TRUE religion on TV, in the schools and in your life. Is this really what we want?
So over the next 2 months...
Remember (how did we get where we are today?)
Read (what’s being done in YOUR name with YOUR tax money here and around the world)
Register (get registered to vote if you are not already)
Report (get on the blogs and do what the mass media refuses to do)
The 4 R’s can beat 3 F’s (Flags, FOX and Fear) any day.
