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The Gadfly Bytes --October
23, 2007
TO: The Free World – FROM: The American People –
RE:
HELP!
Ernest Partridge
The Crisis Papers.
October 23, 2007
In the two world wars of the past century, the United States came to the
rescue of free nations abroad (in addition to few nations that were not
free). It is time now for “The Free World” to return the favors.
For the simple and sad fact is that the government of the United States
no longer rules “with the consent of the governed,” as stipulated in its
founding document, the Declaration of Independence. The White House is
occupied by a usurper, installed by a seditious Supreme Court in 2000
and retained in office in 2004 through election fraud. The federal
judiciary, once the protector of citizen rights and the rule of law, has
become an instrument of oppression, as political opponents of the
administration are selectively indicted, while political allies avoid
indictment and conviction. Habeas Corpus has been suspended and most of
the protections of the Bill of Rights have been set aside by a President
who regards the Constitution of the United States as “just a goddam
piece of paper.”
After six years of Congressional subservience to the President that a
Soviet dictator would envy, in 2006 the American public voted to put the
“opposition party” in control of the Congress, with a public demand that
this party end the Iraq war, restore the rights of the citizens and the
rule of law, and hold the ruling junta accountable for its crimes. After
almost a year in power, the Congress has done none of these: the
“opposition party” has simply refused to oppose.
This country’s mass media, most of which is owned by six conglomerates,
serves the administration and the corporate elites -- elites that
finance both political parties and which benefit from the tax breaks,
deregulation, and war contracts obediently facilitated by the Congress.
This media serves up the public with an endless diet of trivia and
drivel. Opposition candidates and dissenters, if they are given any
attention at all, are slandered, while detrimental facts and commentary
about the President and his supporters are rarely reported. To be sure,
the embargo on criticism of the regime is not complete. A few occasional
critics are heard in the mainstream, and a few independent
small-circulation magazines publish sharp dissents without hindrance.
Nonetheless, the delinquency of the mainstream media is proven by the
significant stories that never see print or air time: among them, the
Downing Street Memos which prove that the President lied when he told
the nation that he did not seek war in Iraq; irrefutable proof that the
President walked away from his military obligation; compelling evidence
that the past presidential elections were stolen; dissent by serving
military officers and enlisted personnel; photographs and TV footage of
dead and gravely injured soldiers in Iraq. The list is long.
To their great credit, most of the American people have at last seen
through and dismissed the establishment propaganda in the mainstream
media. While a majority of the public believed at first the
administration lies that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction
and was involved in the attacks of 9/11, today only a minority still
believe this. Immediately after 9/11, more than 90% of the public
approved of the President’s performance in office.
Now that approval
is at an unprecedented low of 24%, and a mere eleven percent approve of
the Congress. Small wonder: while nearly three-quarters of the
population wishes to see an end to the Iraq war and occupation, the
Congress, contrary to the wishes of the public, continues to fund it.
Failing to find reliable information in the mainstream media, more and
more Americans are turning to the Internet, the remaining source of
unfiltered information and unconstrained political commentary.
Discerning “surfers” are well aware that the vast majority of internet
sites are worthless: pornography, hucksters, undisciplined and
uninformed rants, etc. However, a small minority of websites are
invaluable – the last refuge of dissent. While they last.
(The foregoing is merely a sketch of the crisis facing the American
people, and thus is grossly oversimplified.
I have written
several essays, detailing these abuses by the Bush Administration
and the current political crisis in the United States. My purpose is
simply to reiterate this crisis rather than to make the case anew. The
primary task of this essay, an appeal for help from the international
community, follows).
And so today there are, in effect, two Americas: first, the “official”
United States comprising the Bush/Cheney administration, the mainstream
media, both political parties, and the corporate elites that both
support and benefit from this political establishment. Add to these the
quarter of the population that persists in the belief that this
political/corporate establishment is legitimate and serves the public
interest.
The second America, consisting of as much as two-thirds of the
population includes the dissenting “subjects” of the political
establishment. This public is acted upon, but is powerless to act. It
demands an end to the Iraq disaster. It demands health care reform. This
public demands fiscal responsibility and a fair tax burden. All to no
avail. The public also demands fair and verifiable elections. Majorities
go to the polls and vote to “throw the rascals out.” Nonetheless, “
black-box” paperless voting machines reverse the public will and keep
the rascals in.
In short, as I said at the outset, the government of the United States
no longer rules “with the consent of the governed.” For all practical
purposes, the Constitution of the United States, which every federal
official and every member of Congress takes an oath “to protect and
defend,” is no longer the supreme law of the land. “The unitary
executive” rules supreme. Acts of Congress that the President doesn’t
like are nullified with “signing statements.” Subpoenas from Congress
demanding accountability of administration officials are ignored as the
Congress meekly submits to this unlawful abuse of executive power.
The illegal Iraq occupation continues. Congress’s ultimate retaliation,
impeachment, remains permanently “off the table.” And Congress is deaf
to the protests of the public.
If we the people of the United States are to take back our government,
we will need all the help that we can get. And this might include help
from abroad.
Most emphatically, I don’t mean military help. God forbid! If a foreign
army approaches our shores, like the Iraqi “insurgents” I will ally
myself with our hated regime to throw off the invaders. Military
intervention invites slaughter, and must be avoided at all costs.
The message that there are “two Americas” -- the “official” usurping
oligarchy and the majority public “yearning to breath free” – must be
repeated, loud and clear, before the entire world. Four years ago,
millions filled the streets throughout the world to protest the pending
Iraq war. And time and again we hear from abroad, “we don’t hate
Americans, we hate your government.” This international sentiment must
be directed toward governments abroad so that they might, in turn, act
in defiance of the American government and in support of the
disenfranchised American public. That’s how we treated the so-called
“captive peoples” behind the “iron curtain” during the Cold War. It
worked then, and it can work again.
Here are a few suggestions:
Provide political asylum. The Congress has authorized the
administration to proclaim martial law, virtually at the President’s own
say-so. So if some undefined “national emergency” takes place, any and
all conspicuous dissenters are in immediate peril. The internment camps
are reported to be in place and empty, awaiting their unfortunate
residents. Dissenters will be emboldened if they know that, in the worst
case, they will not be trapped in their own country, and that there will
be refuge beyond the borders. Are you listening, Canada? Mexico? Costa
Rica?
Radio Free America. (Or, “The Voice TO America”). The Cold War
supplies a precedent. If the corporate mass media will not provide the
American public with accurate and unbiased national and world news, then
perhaps the foreign media might serve this purpose. The Guardian of the
United Kingdom is doing so splendidly with its American edition. The BBC
news, which is available on TV cable and satellite, and the CBC, which
can be accessed close to the Canadian border, understandably broadcast
news about their own respective countries. Expanded coverage of news of
special interest to American audiences would be much appreciated. The US
government might protest. But official Soviet protests did not silence
Radio Free Europe or The Voice of America. It remains to be seen how
well the Brits and Canadians would serve the American “liberation
movement.”
The Free Internet. Clearly the internet –
“the American
Samizdat” – is the primary holdout against the Bushevik
“Ministry of Truth.” Indeed, given its significance as a source of
dissent, it is a mystery why the free internet has not yet been shut
down or at least severely curtailed by the establishment. And in fact,
there are increasing indications that this curtailment is imminent. If
the media corporations that provide the internet servers are afforded
the “right” to select internet content, then that will surely cripple
the dissenting internet. But it
need not kill it. As the Chinese and Soviet governments
discovered in the eighties, the international communication networks
have become too vast and indispensable for even totalitarian governments
to control. The Tiananmen protests, the Polish Solidarity movement were
coordinated by FAX and international telecommunications. In the
Russian counter-revolution of 1991, the internet emerged as a
significant instrument of dissent. Today, the international
communications network is too indispensable to both the US and the the
global economies to be set aside simply to accommodate the political
needs of the ruling American elites. The domestic American internet,
crushed to earth will rise again.
Economic Levers. The whole world knows what the Bushevik elites
refuse to acknowledge: those American corporate elites, in their
unconstrained greed, have sold-off the American industrial economy,
which is now “owned” by our creditors and by the suppliers (primarily
Asian) of our manufactured goods. True, the United States expenditure on
its military is equal to that of all other nations combined. But the
result is that multi-billion dollar aircraft, carriers, submarines, and
missiles, are useless against “insurgents” with improvised weapons in
Iraq. And we have the absurdity of missiles aimed at China, with
guidance systems containing microprocessors made in China. Bottom line:
the US military budget contributes, not to our strength, but to our
weakness. For all this military hardware is totally irrelevant to
the fact that the American economy is at the mercy of our creditors and
the suppliers of our essential resources –
our foreign creditors and suppliers.
As Bush and Cheney continue their brutal repression of Iraq, as they
rattle their swords at Iran, and as they flagrantly violate
international laws against torture and aggressive war, they are
increasingly perceived as threats against global peace and security. The
“coalition of the willing” is fast becoming the “coalition of the
fed-up.”
And this “the coalition of the fed-up” is not helpless against the
threat of this emerging, self-proclaimed
“benevolent global hegemony,”
and its “new world order” – this “new
American Century.”
If, as is becoming increasingly likely, the United States is perceived
abroad at the primary threat to global peace and security, the
international community can, by threatening to devalue the dollar, call
in the US debts, and curtail imports of essential resources, exert
enormous pressure on the American government.
As William Greider wisely observes,
"any profligate debtor who
insults his banker is unwise, to put it mildly."
The “coalition of the fed-up” has, as its natural ally, the
disenfranchised “second America.” Both desire the dissolution of
the American corporatocracy, the end of the neo-con "Project for the New
American Century,” and the return of a restored American democracy to
the community of nations.
Surely this is an incomplete list of how the disenfranchised and
powerless American majority might, with the assistance of free peoples
abroad, bring about a restoration of a government, of, by, and for the
people, to the United States. What are your thoughts? Your suggestions?
The agenda is open.
Copyright 2007 by Ernest Partridge
Ernest Partridge's Internet Publications
Conscience of a Progressive:
A book
in progress.
Partridge's Scholarly Publications. (The Online Gadfly)
Dr. Ernest Partridge is a consultant, writer and lecturer in the field
of Environmental Ethics and Public Policy. He has taught Philosophy at
the University of California, and in Utah, Colorado and Wisconsin. He
publishes the website, "The Online
Gadfly" and co-edits the progressive website,
"The Crisis Papers".
His e-mail is: gadfly@igc.org .
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