It’s another MYRLN Monday.

A Noisy Democracy
by guest poster, MYRLN

The system’s pretty near broken altogether. We
have an i.q.-challenged president who believes god has his ear when actually it’s Dick Cheney whispering through the heating vent. Cheney, of course, is the vile, corrupt, dictatorial leader of the shadow government actually running the country from an undisclosed location. (George W. is only akin to the old Charlie McCarthy puppet enlivened by Edgar Bergen, no offense to them.) We have a Congress wholly incapable of doing anything but jumping as high as its various corporate masters tell it. And a mass media with attention deficit disorder, all striving to become another Fox News or New York Post. And controlling it all is a multi-faceted corporate empire whose motto is, “How many consumers have you screwed today?”

Anything of the people, by the people, for the people is not only forbidden territory, it’s under daily attack. (And we don’t have Molly Ivins any longer to put it all in its proper perspective.)

None of this bodes well for the democracy created 231 years ago. It is seriously endangered on all fronts, all under the guise of protecting us from terrorism. And Americans of all ilks have permitted the erosion of the democracy. A lazy, compliant, silent electorate actually bought into the crap this vile — no, let’s arrange the letters in their true order — this EVIL government has been spouting. Like the characterization of wanting to stop any more of our young men and women from being killed in Iraq as “unpatriotic.” And “supporting the troops” is letting more of them die — and that’s supposed to somehow be a good thing. What too many fail to grasp is that this alleged “war on terror” is little more than a callous excuse for seizing more power and violating our democracy. Think disregard for habeas corpus, think torture, think spying. No, terrorism is ultimately defeated by working with all parties to eliminate the social and economic conditions that foster it (thus minimizing, if not eliminating altogether, support for the crazies, including those in our government, who think violence is an answer). Alleged military “solutions” are useless, they can’t stop terrorism. Ask Israel.

Unfortunately, these are not the 1960s. We could use the energy and fury of those years today. If it were still the ’60s, there’d be none of this pukey, half-assed political and moral maundering going on. The streets would be filled with protesters at every turn, beating on tin pails outside the White House, making an unholy din that drives its inhabitants up a wall and reminds them in no uncertain terms that their chicanery is no longer tolerable, and that tells them loud and clear whose democracy this is. And candidates for the next presidency wouldn’t be whispering mealy-mouthed platitudes for nothing more than personal political gain. They’d be out in the streets, too, shouting in defense of democracy. In every city in the land, young and old alike would be in the streets making a huge and powerful noise, crying, “ENOUGH!” Demanding and ultimately getting change — a return to democracy. OUR democracy.

Loud and incessant noise can be very effective.

Democracy likes it..