The other day I was in New York and there was a man selling anti-Bush bumper stickers. He kept calling out: “Offensive bumper stickers” and I turned to Allison and said, “No. Patriotic.”
For years (specifically 8 years) I’ve been telling people that I am a radical. I am incredibly liberal in my politics. But I also consider myself a patriot. The idea that made America, the America that was created is the country I love. What we have now is a bastardization of that system. So in dissenting I felt I was doing my duty as an American. I feel that’s what this country was founded on. Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be? People argue over, and because of, the 1st amendment. The 4th amendment. Really, all of them. America was built by people who dissented with a government and wanted to make one for the people. That was the point. The government was to serve, not to be self sufficient. And in order to protect that ideal 3 parts of power were made, much like the rings in Middle Earth. And, like in Middle Earth, we’ve seen how the top of the power chain can corrupt all the way down and taint the entire system.
With Bush around we’ve been losing rights. He’s trying to write out the constitution in his own Good Ole’ Boy image and, since he is an imbecile, all he can manage is to cut and paste. Poorly. Bush runs around shouting “terrorists” this and “terrorists” that. What he doesn’t realize is by using the fear of terrorism to control people he is, by textbook definition, a terrorist himself. It’s all delightfully post-modern and circular in logic. In a world where people delight in systems calling attention to themselves and narratives letting you in on their own little jokes I find it astounding that no one has shouted this fact, that he is a terrorist, back to his face. But I guess that’s a part of the silence we’ve all fallen under.
Well, I’m done being silent. I’m finished making excuses. I’ve run out of fuel. If my anger was a train engine I’d be out of coal and running on pure heat. I am completely run dry from this fight to keep the country I live in the country it’s supposed to be. It’s like boxing with your landlord to get into your apartment every night instead of just having a key to the door. I’m drained and finished apologizing to the idea of America.
You see, it’s come to my attention that we haven’t just been fighting to keep rights we should have. We’ve been doing it in an arena where we’ve already lost a lot of them without even being told. Yes, America has cheated on you behind your back while you’ve been arguing about a completely different affair. And let’s look at the status of this relationship we call our country.
The executive branch is already a festering necrotic mass of corruption. Everyone from the citizens to members of the Republican party have sighed and given up on it. What do I mean? No one is even paying attention to Bush anymore. We’re all whistling and keeping our heads down, waiting for his expiration date to roll over. And that’s never supposed to be the way of it. We booted Nixon out for fuck’s sake! And Bush is still in? You’re all bastards for letting that happen.
The legislative branch is now full of Democrats! Yay! Really? I mean, honestly, what have they done? They’ve stormed in on a loud and radical platform of “We’re not Bush” and then settled into their chairs. What are they doing now? They’re sleeping and waiting for the presidential elections to come and try not to sweep up any anti-democrat sentiment before then. Sure, that’s nice if the legislative branch was the campaign manager for someone gunning for the executive branch. But they’re not. They’re actually sitting back and not doing nearly as much as they promised to. So while the executive branch is a horrible brain eating zombie the legislative branch (which promised us a hero worthy of Bruce Campbell) has fallen into the roll of someone so boring and callow that they weren’t even worth writing into this zombie movie that is America.
And oh judicial branch. What has become of that? I’ll tell you through metaphor. If the judicial branch used to be a person then that person has been given a lobotomy by the executive branch. The zombie has feasted on our courts. Between the patriot act (which is still in effect, people) and homeland security the judicial branch is simply rolling along on old momentum. Our lobotomized justice isn’t comatose. She’s something far more terrifying. She’s mostly brain dead, with just that little piece at the base of the skull that keeps the lungs pumping and the heart beating. But it’s only the autonomic functions. As for thinking? No, I’m sorry. She’s gone. Start harvesting her for organs. Because when a married couple can't take a new combined last name simply because of "homeland security" then there is no thought put into the system anymore.
And where does that leave us? Are we just a group of citizens split between the sister-loving hicks that elected Bush after witnessing his first 4 years of terror and southern charm and a group of Canada loving Francophiles who would let their own troops die rather than facing the world political climate of reality? No. The truth is it’s far more complicated and far more dire. We’re a group of citizens, all together, fucked in our collective asses. Right now. Close your eyes and try to expand your mind past your literal body. Can you feel that political dick in there? Deep up inside you? Yes, boys and girls, you are surely being fucked. We are all riding and, in turn, being ridden by a sick and decrepit machine. A giant, smoking, untrustworthy, shoot from the hip, education hating machine. It is no longer the Great Machine, as Benjamin Franklin called this nation. It is now the Awful Machine. The Terrible Machine. The Shit Machine.
And that doesn’t leave us, the people, with very much. You see, this government was created to serve the people. We, as people, were being used and oppressed for a larger empire. To fight back we created a system that took away a bit of security (that whole “revolutionary war” was indeed revolutionary, and a large political and safety risk) in order to gain freedoms and individuals. And now as a nation we’ve backtracked. About 2 steps forward, 57 steps back. We’re much farther back now then when we started. We have a “system for the people, of the people” that no longer represents the people or serves them. Instead, it’s taken our liberties and used them to pave a nice, smooth road for itself. Sure, it can get anywhere it wants now, all in the name of security and national safety. But us? It’s rolling across our spines, killing one of us every so often. But we are the price we pay.
There’s also the price the rest of the world pays. Take a look at our energy and pollution policy. Keep looking. Ok, stop. It was a trick question. We don’t have one. I mean, Bush has been pushing for more reliance on oil (hey, invest in his family business!) and he put someone who hates anything green and alive in charge of the EPA. The EPA is being sued into action, not out of it now. And I could understand the world’s acceptance of us as an immature presence if
- we weren’t so dangerous and
- if there was somewhere farther to go then the other side of the Earth
And that is why I miss America. I loved America. I truly did. She was independent and spunky and more than a little scary, but she was there when you really needed her and gave you whatever you needed, not desired. Now? Much like the judicial branch, America is no longer functioning. Maybe she’s not sitting there drooling like an invalid. Perhaps she’s like those stroke victims who, once kind and generous people, now are prone to moments of causeless rage and bouts of extreme violence. But she’s no longer the America I was in love with. It’s time for patriots, true and fake, to realize that those who knew here aren’t fighting for her anymore. We’re already mourning her.
No comments:
Post a Comment