It's getting kind of crazy out there isn't it? The gloves are off, and the Republican Party has dropped all pretense of actually caring about democracy. They are now all guns blazing in crusader mode to consolidate complete power into the hands of the few. The Republican Party no longer affirms the role of government as an organizing center for political, social and economic decisions. Today, the market has become the sacred god. Today, all of life must become commodified -- that is, carry a price and be set in service to be exploited by those who are able. The world grows colder, darker. Our nation has fallen and is doomed to a future of increasing violence and disorder. Buckle up folks, crazy is calm compared to what's coming our way.
Across the nation the Republican Party is revealing itself as a fascist front for corporate interests. In Wisconsin, 37 facilities producing energy at low cost are set to be sold off to private interests with no-bid contracts. In Michigan, privatized firms and dictatorial appointees can rule entire towns and municipalities. In Maine, history is rewritten silencing the voice of labor. Ohio, Tennessee, Arizona and other states are set to strip workers of rights, reduce salaries and benefits, and hollow out government service to the point where all systems of social support break down. In our own state we groan under the weight of increasing austerity cuts but our politicians refuse to enforce the tax code against the corporations that own them. No matter where we look, fascism is raising its ugly head. And no one dare call out that what is happening is treason.
In our Declaration of Independence -- independence by the way from corporate rule and the consolidation of power without representation of we the people -- it reads: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all are created equal, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
And yet despite the turn toward fascism, the president's silence, the Democratic Party's complicity, the unconstitutional wars, tortures, detainments and the growing abuses of our civil rights, it is unfortunately still too early to call for revolution. We have not yet suffered enough. We have not yet been squeezed enough. We have not yet been humiliated enough. The craziness is still too normal. Buckle up folks, Kansas isn't Kansas anymore.