Home > What Happened? or...Why I Voted Blue
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We noticed!
It is now three days after the Nov. 7 election. I have read one Republican analysis of the party’s failure after another, most of which seem at a loss as to where the blame might squarely be laid. Like President Bush, no one could see how the Republicans had done anything wrong, or how they might have done anything significantly different.
Well, I am just one of the small, average shmoes out in middle America who, like most of the small average shmoes with whom I associate, has no trouble at all giving a prompt, accurate and much-needed diagnosis of why we voted Blue. I am registered as a Democrat currently, not because I have any great love, or even infatuation, for the leaders of that party, or even because I have great admiration for the Democratic agenda. I voted Democrat because of all the things I noticed about the Republican party.
When the World Trade Center went down and the White House wanted to go after Sadaam (and Bin Laden, not-so-much), I noticed. I noticed that Arabs were responsible for the hijackings, not Iraqis, yet all the focus was unrelentingly put on Iraq. I noticed that congress did nothing to stop this madness, cowed as they were by "public opinion" carefully crafted by the administration’s propaganda machine.
When the government told me that the laws of physics had been temporarily suspended so that the three WTC buildings could collapse into their own footprint all on the same day, I noticed. When the spin doctors went into overdrive to explain how such a thing was possible, conveniently leaving out all the information that clearly showed it was not, I noticed. When all the steel from the crime scene was removed so it could not be inspected, I noticed. When dedicated scientists and truth seekers dared to veer from the "official version" of events on 9/11, only to be ridiculed by the administration and those who carry its water, I noticed. And when the report from the 9/11 commission was released and immediately proved itself laughably deficient, I noticed.
There were a lot of other things about that tragedy worth noting, and I did, because my first-born daughter and her new husband lived across the street from the World Trade Center when it went down. They now suffer health problems young people their age should not have to bear, due to exposure to toxic, chemically-laden dust that no one in power had the guts to warn them about, as they swept up the three-foot-deep layer that covered their small apartment. I noticed far too many things about 9/11 to relate here that, taken as a whole, have made me extremely angry at the outright lies, finger-pointing and ass-covering engaged in by my government, whom I once trusted, moderately. And you can bet that I will notice any shrinking from investigation, on the part of my newly-elected representatives, of criminal behavior perpetrated or supported by the Bush administration with regard to 9/11.
Some other things that didn’t escape notice: There were no weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, despite a constant barrage of insistence by the Bush administration that there were. The administration continuously changed it rationale for the invasion, while death and destruction was visited on over a half million Iraqi fathers, mothers and children. There were no images of their suffering on American television or in US newspapers. I noticed that the only place to get a complete picture of the consequences of the "war" was in the unfettered realm of the internet. I also took notice of the owners of the media corporations in the United States and of their parallel ownership of the very companies who profit most from war. I noticed that there were hundreds of billions of dollars spent on promoting this death and destruction, and virtually nothing spent on diplomacy and peace.
I noticed that the servicemen brave enough to speak out often described their role in Iraq as merely running interference for highly-paid minions of Halliburton et al. When soldiers complained about their lack of proper gear, and when two years after these complaints were lodged nothing had yet been done to fix the problem, you bet I noticed. When the Bush administration made huge cuts in veteran care for these same soldiers, after sending them into harms way on a lie, I noticed. When literally billions of dollars went missing through lack of accountability, outright theft and rampant corruption, I noticed. And when no one in the Bush administration was brought to task for failure after outrageous failure in oversight and accountability, I noticed. I noticed, too, that Iraq was used as a convenient excuse for gasoline prices that rose and rose and rose, and that no voice in the Republican congress would question or contain that runaway greed.
Don’t you think I and my fellow shmoes noticed that nearly every time someone in the administration opened their mouth, it was to spin or lie or confuse or obfuscate? We noticed, all right. And when the principles of habeus corpus and posse comitatus were suspended so that the government could have its way with whomever it pleased, raping our civil liberties and the rights of our fellow human beings, do you think we noticed? When contracts were given to corporations to build large-scale detention centers on American soil, for the express purpose of detaining American citizens who might insist on exercising their constitutional rights to disagree with the "policies" of the Bush cabal, I wonder who might notice that? We did. When torture was introduced into the everyday discourse of American life in order to lessen its repulsiveness to the population, we damn well noticed.
When Christian preachers failed to stand up for the sanctity of all humanity, because of fear that donations from conservative church members would dry up, we took note. When so-called evangelicals let themselves be content with phrases like "surgical strike" and "collateral damage" as a way to disengage from the horrible fact that innocent babies in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine were being blown to bits in their name, we felt disgusted and sick. We noticed that these same people detest and protest abortion and wondered how they could deny the stark similarities. Don’t they think God noticed? Or just us shmoes, who don’t count for much, anyway?
This election went Blue because we determined that there wasn’t a Republican in office we could support, because they had all so rabidly supported the ignoble intentions of an administration ruled by corporate greed, and not by what is right and good and proper for human beings. And we noticed that now was the time to make some kind of start in the opposite direction, before it was too late, with a new group of politicians who will hopefully support the constitution of the United States, and not the agenda of insatiable corporate greed. And we will notice when these politicians become corrupt as well, because they will. But here is what all in power should notice:
We are sick of being lied to. We are sick of being kept in the dark as though we should have no say in our destiny as a nation. We are sick of being patted on the head by the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Reillys, and Coulters of the rabid right, whose obvious function it has been, these last six years, to deflect debate away from what is right for humanity in favor of what lines the pockets of the powers-that-be. We are SICK of it.
This missive could go on for page after page, because I, and my fellow shmoes, notice a lot. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the surface of the damage the current administration has done to America, there are so many layers of ugliness there. If you’re a little shmoe like we are, you don’t have to ponder long to notice what’s wrong. And the more we little shmoes notice, the angrier we become at the direction our beloved country is heading.
So maybe now you can figure out that the "spin" had a very limited life, because liars are always found out; and you realize now why a variety of formerly well-placed Republican politicians are sitting on the curbs in DC. They are waiting for a lift out of town, and guarding their little boxes of mementos and cancelled checks received from the lobbyists who formerly courted them so successfully. We want them gone, and we don’t need that kind of "service" anymore. Shame on them all for fostering such misery in this world.
The average citizen can be arrested these days for participating in a peaceful demonstration, or for contributing money to a charity that the government suddenly decides it doesn’t like. Why should these citizens put up with the trampling of their rights by those whom were trusted to serve, and who instead helped themselves? Why should citizens put up with having the police force and armed forces they pay for with their blood, sweat, tears and taxes, used against them for the ideology of ANY political party? The penalty for betraying the public trust, as witnessed over and over in the last six years, should be the next best thing to life imprisonment. There has never been an administration more deserving of such an ignominious end.
I am a nobody, as are most of my friends. But we won’t sit idly by anymore, and this election proves that even conservatives and Christians will stomach only so much BS in the name of ideology. Take notice. Let him who has ears to hear, hear.
by David Zent