Starting Thursday, I took a sabbatical from being politically obsessed. We had a honest_to_god expert dendrochronologist come look at our "trees" – a bunch of crooked trees in our forest we think are Cherokee Trail markers – but it’s never been proven. So we located a young professor who took us seriously and came to "core" these trees to determine their age and when they were "bent." Pretty exciting. Then off we went to Memphis to attend the wedding of a friend’s son. My deepest connection to anything over the weekend was a visit to "Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee."
But In the political void and the long drive to and from, I had some thoughts. As my friend Al would say, "It’s [my] nature." These people really are "up to no good." This stuff is all premeditated: the War with Iraq, the ignoring the Geneva Conventions, the N.S.A. spying, the F.B.I. spying, the disassembly of the Justice Department and Civil/Voting rights.
I was reminded of Cheney’s first job. He went to work for Donald Rumsfeld in the Office of Equal Opportunity in the late 1960’s. Their job was to shut it down during the Nixon Administration. I think they so hate "Liberals" who push Civil Rights for everyone, that they feel like they are doing a good thing getting what they see as "the scum" off the voting registry. They have held people like me in deep disdain so long that they now feel righteous in undermining everything we’ve gained in terms of Civil Rights and government "for all" the people.
They’re dead set on cleansing government of all that "Liberal Crap" and engineering a Republican takeover of America with a systematic and devious program – all under the table – to erase the existence of an F.D.R. and then the 60’s and any remnant of what happened in those times. They see America becoming just another country in the community of the world, and they’re trying to stop that from happening. They think that’s what Liberals want, for America to become a member of a world community. They’re correct, at least in my case. That is what I think is the next right thing. So in a sense, they’re not crazy. But rather than debate the point, they’re bolstering their position by grabbing and consolidating power, bringing off something of a bloodless coup – and it’s all premeditated.
Iraq is not the only Civil War our country is involved in. We’ve got one of our own…
I keep coming back to this post, and it’s like your tree. It’s pointing to something I think is key and historic. It’s called, “Balance of Power.” The Bushies don’t like it because now that it’s somewhat been restored it blocks their clear path to “victory.” And yes, it is a civil war of a sort. We are in the throes of defining whether or not our country will stick to the belief of democracy or give into tyranny, and despite what Bush might think there is blood being spilled daily in our war.