Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Why Americans don't deserve democracy -- and don't have it

What has been astounding over the past five years of the Bush junta is the lack of any action to restore democracy in America. There is ample evidence that major elections were stolen by crooked pols in 2000, 2002, and 2004, yet either said evidence is dismissed because it's not reported by Faux News or in major newspapers (or reported on page A-28 if it is reported at all), or folks just whine. The proper response when a crooked politician steals an election apparently is to either stick your head in the sand or wring your hands and make tut-tutting noises. After all, democracy isn't worth fighting for, it's only worth making tut-tutting noises about.

Of course, the Ukrainians don't agree, when their election was stolen by crooked politicians they went out on the streets and demonstrated until they got democracy but what do they know, they're just some suspiciously dusky wogs. They're not fine upstanding freedom-loving fellers and gals like God's people, the Chosen people, Americans. God bless America!

- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Posted by: BadTux / 1/19/2006 01:04:00 PM

Comments:

They say you get the government you deserve. That's one of those thoughts that's kept me awake some nights in the last few years.
# posted by zenyenta : 20/1/06 3:44 AM

Does G-D exist outside of America? I thought G-D was American. That's why its G-D Bless America! ONLY America, Nobody else! If you want to be blessed, you have to come to America, legally. G-d will not bless illegals. This is America ".....Land That I Love.....". I think the Bush is running for "G-D" after his presidency ends, then he will be able to communicate with Pat Robertson.
# posted by niCk (Mem Beth) : 20/1/06 6:02 AM

Okay, that's it...

I'm just as frustrated as you are, BT, at the lack of outrage from the public over Bush & Co.'s crimes against humanity. But you know what? The public isn't the fucking problem here. The powers that be are the problem, and the intelligence or lack of intelligence on the part of the public has nothing to do with this. It's the powers that be who are plucking out the public's eyes -- and here you are ridiculing the public for their blindness. Give me a gaddamned break...
# posted by Mimus Pauly : 20/1/06 6:27 AM

Monsters cannot operate without at least the implied consent of the public. Even monsters like Saddam Hussein stayed in power because the majority of people in Iraq *did not care*. The majority *wanted* some big daddy strongman to rule with an iron hand. He kept the streets safe, so safe that women could walk alone on the streets at night without fear of rape, and as long as you didn't criticize Saddam or plot against his government you were safer and government interfered in your life less than if you lived in New York City.

That is why I opposed our Iraqi venture from the start. The Iraqis are, as we have found out, very well armed. Iraqi homes have AK-47's the way that cracker homes in the American South have shotguns. Iraqi homes have RPG's the way that cracker homes in the American South have deer rifles. If the vast majority of the Iraqi people had wanted Saddam out, had been willing to put their bodies on the line, Saddam would have been toast. They didn't. My reluctant conclusion, then, was that the Iraqis had the government they deserved, and it wasn't our place to change it for them.

You can't impose democracy upon a people who don't want democracy. You can't bring democracy to a people who don't care enough about democracy to do anything about it. That is my biggest worry here in America. Underneath the official propaganda that we are a democracy, and Orwellian Newspeak that redefines democracy as "rule of the people, by the elite, for the elite", the majority of people just plain don't care enough about democracy to do anything about it. Under those circumstances, I just don't see how democracy can be brought back to the USA.

- Badtux the Concerned Penguin
# posted by BadTux : 20/1/06 8:37 AM

Most Americans are apathetic towards government and just want a check so that they can buy stuff.
# posted by Ole Blue The Heretic : 20/1/06 8:44 AM

Some people want big daddy strongmen to patrol their grazing grounds. Others want a government whose members take their Constitutional duties seriously and aren't afraid of being held accountable for their actions. I just happen to be in the latter group.

As for consent from the public: Ever heard of the right-wing noise machine? That mass of entities such as conservative think tanks who distribute talking points to syndicated conservative columnists; infantile conservative billionaires who subsidize conservative projects with names like Arkansas and conservative hack journalists with names like Christopher Ruddy; conservatives like Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Coulter, O'Reilly, Carlson, Malkin, Ingraham, and so on ad nauseam who pollute the airwaves and drag the level of discourse into the gutter; and conservative editorial boards of daily newspapers who regurgitate all this same garbage in each day's A-section?

Seems to me that public consent is, to a large extent, being privately manufactured. If people don't care about democracy, then this might partially explain why.

Funny how you'd mention well-armed Iraqis, too. I guess they wanted a big daddy who was Iraqi, not American. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the show-me-the-father-substitute well-armed South wouldn't tolerate an Iraqi big daddy...
# posted by Mimus Pauly : 20/1/06 5:49 PM

Don't be fooled by the conservative machine. The Ukranians who demonstrated for new elections based on the exit polls, were funded and organized by the administration, against Putin's candidate.

I too was hopeful when I heard about them, only to later learn that it was just BushCo manipulating the rubes again, for political gain.

When the fairness doctrine is history, and good progressive candidates cannot even pay to get their message out; when the corrupt administration flunkies slime anyone who speaks up with their lying nastiness, when a non-violent protestor begins to day dream of red holes blossoming on the forheads of the worst most disasterously mercenary pols, then I say it's time to take the streets.

Yet, when we did, there are rumors of bacteria being sprayed onto the crowd, and doctor visits to cure mysterious diseases...

The question of how much would you lay down in defense of democracy becomes germaine.
# posted by SB Gypsy : 22/1/06 11:52 AM

Honor Roll

Technorati embed?

Liberated Iraqis

Children celebrate liberation of parents
More pics of children celebrating
Liberated baby
Liberated women and children
More liberation, yessiree
More to follow, after I finish cursing SOB chickenhawks and get my breath back...

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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