'Bush fatigue': "America is a victim of abuse (by BushCo)"

[ima_sinnic]

scathing editorial in today's Hartford Advocate:

Bush Fatigue
With Saddam's capture, so collapses the will to resist
by Alan Bisbort
Hartford Advocate, December 18, 2003

. . . How much more of this can we take as a nation? Never mind that there will always be heated partisan disagreements in America, but this assault is different. It's something we've never had to face: a usurpation of power and willful destruction of the very means by which we govern. A reader summed up his own, similar breaking point: "It's such a show going on void of any honor or honesty. It seems to wound me daily and I have to force myself to think of other things."

I would like to think that the president has the power and the will to change directions, to reverse some of the extreme elements of his agenda, to heal the rifts that exist here in the United States. But past behavior indicates that this is not likely to happen. If anything, flush with the head of Saddam Hussein -- a despot who deserves to rot in Hell -- Bush and his inner circle will wield their power even more flagrantly, I fear.

At the risk of redundancy, America is a victim of abuse. It started with the tainted election of 2000 that left deep scars that nobody seems to want to admit are still with us. Then there was 9/11, a brutal blow to our very sense of being. And from then on, it has been day in and day out abuse of powers in Washington, D.C., powers that were earned only by dint of a vote of a partisan Supreme Court.

Americans know their government, such as it is now, is unresponsive to their needs. They know that we are up against a terrorist network that has worldwide tentacles, and yet the arrogance of power in Washington has isolated us from those very countries in the world with whom we share the most longstanding bonds. They know that the wealthiest few are getting the biggest tax breaks, the religious right has captured the social agenda, the airwaves are ruled by the corporate apologists. And they know this isn't right. But, sheer exhaustion and helplessness have taken over. They go along to get along. . . .

http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:47224

worth reading in entirety--the writer admitting a sense of "victimhood" (my word) that enables an abuser (his word)--the same sort of giving-up feeling I feel when I see the morons so unquestioningly and unfailingly approving the lies and corruption of their hero and leader George W. Chickenhawk.

[liberalmuse]

1. Thanks for sharing that.

This article states what many of us are feeling. Unfortunately, on top of the Bush fatigue, I'm experiencing candidate bashing fatigue, because every time there is a thread where people rip up a candidate, Bush is that much closer to getting 4 more years. My mind can't accept the possibility of 4 more years of this daily 'abuse', as the author aptly calls it.

[havocmom]

2. great read

thank you for bringing it to DU. I shall pass along the link. This editorial gives voice to what many millions feel and that is empowering to them.

[bread_and_roses]

3. I can relate

but it really has been going on for longer than Bush...although his administration does sink to new depths, and new heights of assault. But for any of us who work in social justice endeavors, the assault on the poor, labor, and people of color, combined with the never-ending struggle to keep choice an option, to defend the civil rights of our GLBT brothers and sisters, to work for clean elections, to oppose the insane War on Drugs, to oppose Imperialist foreign policy, on and on...it is exhausting and fragmenting and for many of us has been going on since the Vietnam War, and for some longer than that. Things were not much better during the Clinton years for the poorest and most vulnerable among us, nor for people of color. Welfare Reform for example has meant that enormous energy has to be diverted just to keeping people fed and warm.

There are days when I want to say, "fine, bring back orphanages, poor houses, work farms, elders dying in their apartments and children dying of pnuemonia, beating kids in school, 12 hr work days...whatever, I can't fight it anymore." Maybe if things get bad enough people will remember why we did away with those things.

And some of you wonder why some of us have at least moments when we are not willing to elect another Corporate shill just because s/he calls him/herself a Democrat.

[cosmicdot]

5. amen to that

... anyone who has been a victim of mobbing and/or a system of mob mentality - the intentional infliction of pain and suffering, daily abuse, gestapo-esque harassment -- knows of what you speak ...

I went through it with Corporate America -- throwing that 'flag' when suspecing policy violation ... with the promise of no retaliation or retribution (aka compassionate conservatism???) .... lies ... all lies ... control ... total control over our lives ...

these corporate good ol'boys admitted they didn't care about those silly Founding Principles ... heard it with my own ears ...

... the similarity between what I experienced with corporate Bu$hmindsets, and what's unfolding for the first time in many American's lives is virtually seamless ...

the good ol'boys governance (and ruination) of American business is taking a larger hold on the footprint of the Nation ... manifest destiny of corporatism - our souls ... while they continue to pilfer whatever economy it is that we have ...

... welcome to the fold as mission creep into all neighborhoods ...

[Sugarbleus]

6. Kenzee...your post is right on the money... I agree totally...

[Atman]

4. Hartford Advocate is Bullshit

Sorry, this has been one of my peeves for a long time. The Advocate is published by The Tribune Media Company. Yes, our "alt" weeklies (The Hartford Advocate is one of a family of six such tabloids that cover from Litchfied County (the NY border area) all the way up into Vermont). The Tribune Media Company also owns the only two major dailies in the state, plus three of the major-market television stations in Connecticut (we are a small state).

So...why is this a headline story for the Tribune's "alt" publications, but not on the front pages of its mainstream dailies and the lead on its television stations?

Because the Tribune is a crock of shit. It is a republican broadsheet. Everyone should write them and ask WHY this is not covered in its mainstream papers instead of just in the freebie paper it gives away at the liquor stores.

Back before the selection, Tribune did a huge, seven page expose on Cheney, and how he planned on using stealth measures to nuke up the country. Which, of course, he eventually did. Again, not a word in the "real" newspaper.

Write the Tribune Media Company NOW. They are probably doing the same thing in your market.