To Impeach or Not to Impeach?What Can Citizens Do About the State of Their American Government?
I have read this article by Grace Reid at Daily Kos, which is reminding us that we, the U.S., are not the only nation in the world, although we may be the most powerful. We have a media that buries stories that are critical of the U.S. President, but the world outside our borders hears the stories which our media chooses to ignore and/or self-censors.
The writer wonders why American readers aren't more interested in the story about the movement to impeach Tony Blair, since it's bound to have international repercussions which will affect the Bush administration and the large part they played in massaging the intellligence in the lead-up to a war they knew they were going to start - no matter what; UN be damned.
The article also suggests that members of U.S. Congress (both GOP and Dem) are livid after learning about the leaked Rycroft memo from Downing Street because Congresspeople were persuaded to relinquish war powers, which should be OUR power, to President Bush and they now know they were rope-a-doped. They're powerless to do anything at all, in reality. They were castrated when they gave an unworthy leader the reins of power which rightfully belonged to the People.
Do we, the people, have any real democratic power if our Representatives now have such limited power? Listen to what Grace has to say:When asking, "Where's the Media?" I think its important to remember that you, the reader ARE the media. Whether or not you "seize the day,".... YOU ARE THE MEDIA.... Your opinion matters, you MAKE the news. The media is nothing more than giving the people what they want. And that sells newspapers, and that gets ratings.... but you already know this, right? "Who controls the media, controls the fates." Well, that means YOU!! If you can find the news and report on it, if you can think things through for yourself and write a letter to the editor, if you can decide on these issues and write to your Representatives... YOU ARE THE MEDIA. And as Congressman Conyers has pointed out, your letters make more of a difference than you'll ever know.
Read and consider Grace's conclusion:During the Nixon years it was John Dean who said, "There is a cancer on the Presidency." But now it is our whole form of government that has reached a critical mass. If the United States is a democratic Constitutional republic, then there is no question that impeachment is the proper course of action. Anyone who says otherwise has chosen the serfs role.
In the mean time, we have to suffer headlines about John Bolton's nomination for UN ambassador - the same old same old - another puppet who will systematically ruin the United States' good standing in the international community in favor of raw power and rule by fear, conquest, and intimidation.
I'm afraid, sadly, that America will not wake up until the first nuclear weapon which some terrorists have purchased from a rogue nation has been detonated in an American city. I pray this doesn't happen, but what if it does? It would be too late - we'd be kissing our hard-won freedom goodbye. Only then might citizens realize that this foreign policy has been all wrong. We'll all wish we'd organized in a movement to impeach George W. Bush a long time ago. But it's too late now, my fellow citizens. You must look at the reality. There is no media on your side. There is no Congress on your side.
When you live in a nation where even the truth's been politicized, you know you have to act for change or see your free country and democractic government die.
I'll leave you with this thought:
An elderly person asked me the other day in the course of conversation: "Why haven't they taken that guy [President Bush] out of the Oval Office in a straight-jacket strapped to a board? He's a madman! Why is he allowed to remain in power after all he's done to our country? Why don't the people act? What's wrong with them?"
Okay, that sounds hyberbolic, I realize, but a hell of a lot of "regular Joes" are talking this way. So -what do we do?
My own conclusion is that I don't believe President Bush will ever be impeached. Let's be realistic. There is no way I could see this Congress beginning the task. To my way of thinking, we should concentrate our efforts to persuade Americans to elect a virtuous Congress that would impeach a leader who would so boldly breach our trust. At the same time, remember that we have a sick media here in the United States. There is too little investigative journalism, too much market-driven self-censoring, and there are too many buried stories. I'll repeat Grace's own words:"Who controls the media, controls the fates."
I think it's extremely important that we blog (speaking truth to power without faltering); write letters to the editor of news publications (or offer to blog for the newspapers); to hold media's feet to the fire, get involved in a grassroots coalition to promote grassroots candidates in your own community (and if there isn't one, then start one), and write your Representatives and call their offices with your concerns. Turn your anger and frustration toward a committed effort to organize and I think we'll all be the better for it.
