The US government has been spying on the public for decades. None of this is new. What is new is that the Bushies have gone so far over the top that they’ve blunderingly exposed this ugly ‘national security apparatus’ to a now horrified and increasingly enraged populace.
Previous administrations were more circumspect about this. They hid their spying better. Not Dubya though. Our testosterone-addled president who thinks Jesus whispers instructions in his ear hasn’t a clue how to be circumspect.
Good. Now the whole country is becoming aware of what those on the hard left (and the hard right) have known for years. The government often is not your friend. It is out of control and needs to be put back in its cage.
As Americablog has pointed out, the hard right wants their guns primarily because they don’t trust the government. And a government that sees gay kiss-ins as a ‘credible threat’ of terrorism is completely Looney Tunes and no longer beholden to the people.
As Blase Bonpane pointed out in his speech (podcast available) at the antiwar vigil on Saturay, militarism is the problem. It’s not only that the US just been invading other countries for decades, that same militarism is now infecting things at home. Schools and workplaces are increasingly militarized. You are the enemy. Piss into this bottle, punk, then take the lie detector test.
It can’t last. It won’t last. At some point the people will rise up and take the country back from the thugs. But we need to do it now, not later. These are not normal times. Get involved. Fight back. Do it now.
PS People who are involved feel more optimistic about the outcome.
If the folks on the hard left and hard right know all about the spying apparatus, what does that say about the folks in the middle? Are they clueless. If they’ve been clueless this long, that does doesn’t give us much hope the problem will be fixed…cause who else is left fix it, that would really want to?
I meant it more that the hard left and right tend to be more political than the mainstream, and often see developing trends before the mainstream does.