- January 1, 2001, I began to publicly wear a tombstone
button depicting the demise of democracy in America: Requiescat in pace,
Rest in Peace. It stated: Born July 4, 1776, Died December 12, 2000, Lynched
by: Rehnquist, O'Conner, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas. It named the five
Supreme Court Justices who stopped the vote count in Florida; thereby awarding
the 43rd presidency of the United States to George W. Bush.
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- This betrayal of America undermined the constitution.
As a country we will never be the same. Vincent Bugliosi wrote that "none
dare call it treason." But treason it was, and it was treason, unpunished
(Bugliosi, 2001).
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- The button attracted attention. Some asked where to buy
one and I handed them a button and silently moved on. There were others
though who were troubled by the message and sneeringly negated it. A third
group asked, "Who are Rehnquist, O'Conner, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas?"
That was when I fully realized that the tombstone button was a symbol for
an era that had ended. The America that I knew, like Tara, was Gone with
the Wind.
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- How could any American adult not know the names of the
five Supreme Court justices who stopped the vote count in Florida in a
close presidential race? How could Americans not understand the significance
of that decision?
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- We were bombarded by selective information through television,
talk radio, newspapers and news magazines about the Florida vote recount
and chads. For Americans not to know about this most relevant political
event by January 2001 should have alerted even those living in underground
bunkers that something was amiss.
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- Marc Ash reported: "America who had long preached
to the world of its vaunted free elections had rolled over without a fight.
A small group of ruthless industrialists had rigged the White House and
handed the nation a clumsy lie. American democracy was gone, and we were
the only ones who refused to see it. (Truthout, 7 July, 2002).
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- At the urging of the media, the majority of Americans
decided to "get over it and move on." Our system was broken,
and the corporate-owned, bought-and-paid-for media was only a symptom of
the problem. They selectively reported the news, but we allowed them to
get away with it. We did not stand up and demand a free and unfettered
press. By January 1, 2001 our system of government, founded as a constitutional,
democratic republic was well on its way to oblivion. The most recent election
on November 5, 2002 confirmed what has appeared on the Internet for the
past two years. Democracy is dead and we have now given it a silent burial.
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- About the time that George Washington gave his farewell
to the Republic, a British professor, Alexander Fraser Tyler, wrote: "A
democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist
only until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse (defined
as a liberal gift) out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the
majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from
the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over
a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dictatorship."
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- And what was the price paid for American democracy? A
$300 tax "rebate" that turned out to be a tax "advance".
Whether it is $300 or much larger sums awarded to the upper income 1.5%
of the population, it all translates into 30 pieces of silver. American
democracy was sold for a paltry sum, and once the crown jewels of our republic
were auctioned and dismantled, we can never retrieve them.
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- What is really sad is that the Constitutional Republic
of the United States fell with nary a whimper from the American media.
The theme for the day was "get over it," and without examining
the cost, Americans accepted it. Before the American public knew what happened
we had "First Amendment holding pens" and peaceful protest was
decried as divisiveness.
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- Presidential edicts rolled off Mr. Bush's tongue as fast
as the speech writers could invent them: Proposed regulations for arsenic
levels in our drinking water were rolled back, the Kyoto Agreement went
unsigned, and the National parks were opened to the timber and mining industries.
It happened so fast that no one could keep track, let alone mobilize protests.
The media took brief notice of these happenings and then moved on to note
the newest edict.
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- Voices of dissent were raised, but the media paid scant
attention. Then 9/11 occurred and the media went to war for the Bush administration.
Note that it did not go to war for America; it went to war to proclaim
the righteousness of Mr. Bush's holy crusade against "terrorism"
and the "axis of evil". The fact that one can not wage a war
against an abstract concept was ignored. Wars are waged against nation
states, police actions target murders and thieves. Wars against abstract
concepts (war on drugs, war on poverty, etc.) are doomed to failure. The
enemy must be identified and defined. The media missed this point in each
of the 'concept wars'. They marginalized those who dared speak out and
dissent became truly hazardous duty.
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- The voices of Americans were stilled by a propagandized
media. Those who did not comply, or who raised objections, were labeled
"unpatriotic, fringe, kooks, and conspiracy theorists." Noncompliant
writers, editors and TV hosts were fired. "Watch what you say"
became reality.
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- The death of dissent in George Bush's America has been
little noticed in the mainstream media. One of the few voices to be raised
was that of Walter Cronkite, who in an address that received no attention
from major news sources said:
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- "They (the Germans) applauded as Hitler closed down
the independent newspaper and (broadcasting) stations and only gave them
his propaganda. When they did not rise up and say, 'Give us a free press,'
they became just as guilty." (Ferrell, Common Dreams October 28, 2002).
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- We, too, stand guilty because we have accepted the voices
of CNN and Fox news without protest. We have allowed the FCC to remove
every regulation in place that guarded the independence of the media. Now
we have a consolidated corporate media that speak only for corporate self-interests.
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- On November 5, 2002, we, as a nation, faced the reality
of a pre-emptive war against Iraq that could lead to WWIII, and 120 million
Americans did not bother to vote. Blame for the outcome of that election
that gave one political party control over all three branches of our government,
with no oversight, rests with two groups: The media that have chosen to
use their 30 pieces of silver to sell out American democracy and 120 million
Americans who essentially felt disconnected from the system, and have chosen
not to become informed voters. The United States of America can not recover
from the legacy of these two groups. The transition has been made, from
democracy to totalitarianism in two short years. We, as a people, stand
guilty. We did not rise up and say to the Supreme Court Justices, "you
can not steal an election of the people;" we did not say to the media
"give us a free press." We accepted the edict of the Supreme
Court without protest; we accepted the media's "get over it"
bromide. We refused to acknowledge that a bloodless coup d'etat had taken
place. At that point, the battle for democracy was lost. For those, who
in 2001 said, "It can't happen here" and refused to acknowledge
that it, indeed, had happened here, let it be known that the funeral has
now taken place.
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- How will history view this period of America? The period
that will be known as the "Fall of the American Republic" as
surely as Rome's demise is recorded as the "Fall of Rome." The
dream is dead. Historians will record the evolution from the Supreme Court
decision that took the vote from the American people and gave the 43rd
presidency to George Walker Bush as a signal marker. Historians will also
note that the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon
was perverted into a political tactic as cynical as the one Hitler used
when the Reichstag burned in February, 1933. Hitler viewed the burning
of the Parliament building as "an act of God" and used that event
to set the political agenda for the next decade. Mr. Bush said "he
hit the trifecta" after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center
and Pentagon. He took the stance of Caesar and, in America's name, began
the conquest of the world.
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- Historians will note the ramifications of the secrecy
and the hiding of documents by key administrative figures in the Bush Administration.
They will puzzle over the lack of an independent investigation of the events
leading to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. One day,
historians will note the loss of civil liberties such as the right to dissent
and privacy. They will look at domestic spying by the Office of Total Information
Awareness and the return of political assassins to key positions in the
current administration as they ponder how and why a once great and free
nation marched into the abyss of totalitarianism. Will they also note that
this happened, not with a bang on 911, but through a slowly eroding process
that was little noted by the Fourth Estate? Freedom of the press, the Constitutional
Right, so gallantly fought for by John Peter Zenger in 1731 was surrendered
without a murmur.
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- What we witnessed on November 5, 2002 was democracy's
funeral. The fact that 60.4% of eligible voters didn't bother to show up
gives some idea of how dead democracy truly is in 2002.
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- A brave and noble experiment of government, by and for
the people, lies dead and buried. Neither the requiem nor the events leading
to its demise were even recorded as newsworthy by the mainstream media.
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- Let the obituary read: Democracy is dead-RIP-Born July
4, 1776-Died December 12, 2000-Funeral November 5, 2002. Mourners may pay
their respects by standing in First Amendment containment zones. They may
not carry banners nor signal their protest or presence in any way, lest
they offend members of the Bush administration.
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- Sara DeHart, a freelance writer and democracy activist,
lives in the Seattle, Washington area of the United States.
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- Sara DeHart encourages your comments: <mailto:dehart.ss@verizon.net>dehart.ss@verizon.net
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- Comment
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- From Sarah N. Julion
- Phoenix, Arizona
- 1-14-3
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- "Let me start by saying that I am no fan of George
W. Bush; he and Clinton/Gore are two sides of the same evil coin. This
comment is to educate Sara DeHart on some things she doesn't seem to understand.
Ms. DeHart has a definite definition problem. In her article she refers
to the United States in one paragraph as a "Democracy" and in
another as a "Constitutional Republic" - it's either one OR the
other - can't be both. Webster's Dictionary defines democracy as a "form
of government by and for the people" i.e. mob rule, which is in fact
what we have today in the United States. The same dictionary defines republic
as "a political unit or state where representatives are elected to
exercise the power" which is what the US was founded to be and how
it used to be run before Lincoln centralized it all and turned it into
a democracy.
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- Here are a few quotes from the people who actually started
this country AS a republic. Here's what they thought of "democracy"
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- "Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon
wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet
that did not commit suicide." John Adams, letter to John Taylor,
April 15, 1814. John Adams was a signer of the Declaration of Independence
and the 2nd President of the United States. Does it sound like he would
have helped found something that he thought would "murder itself"?
Here's another thought from John Adams - "Democracy will soon degenerate
into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in
his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will
be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system
of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all
the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures,
the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few."
If that doesn't describe America in 2003 I don't know what does! Why,
Sara DeHart, are you saying "democracy is dead"? It is very
much alive (hasn't killed itself quite yet) right here in the good 'ole
US of A thanks to people like you who don't understand (care) what the
United States is supposed to be. You should be joyous instead of mourning.
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- This quote is from James Madison, the 4th President of
the United States - "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence
and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security,
or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their
lives as they have been violent in their deaths." That's from the
Federalist No. 10, November 23, 1787; you should actually read the Federalist
Papers sometime, you might learn something of value. Again, the current
status of "democracy" in the US is alive and well, unfortunately.
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- Here are some thoughts on Republican Government by the
people who made it possible for you, Ms. DeHart, to say what you did in
that article you wrote without being arrested. "The republican is
the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war
with the rights of mankind." Thomas Jefferson, March 11, 1790. He
wrote the Declaration of Independence and was the 3rd President of the
United States. Now, take the two definitions and which do you think the
United States is now?? It is run, for the most part, as a democracy, NOT
a republic as it was founded to be. So you should be joyous instead of
mourning.
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- A democracy involves mass participation of the people
in passing laws and operating the decision-making processes of government.
In a republic, on the other hand, the people's representatives pass the
laws and operate the government. The Founders thoroughly understood the
fatal weaknesses of a pure democracy and warned against the masses attempting
to manage all public business. No where, not even once, is the word "democracy"
in the United States Constitution. Many times, however, is the word republic/republican
mentioned. How about we, all of us, actually go to the source and read
what THEY said about our country, instead of trusting blindly what we've
been taught in dumbed-down government schools all these years or what we
hear on the purely liberal network news. How about we actually read the
Constitution and Declaration of Independence OURSELVES and make up our
OWN minds (do we have those anymore?) about things. Let's read the source
material ourselves, the actual writings of the people who founded our country,
instead of being led around by nose rings by socialist college professors.
If people like you, Ms. DeHart, WANT to live in a "democracy"
then go ahead, the United States has several exits.
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