Civil libertarians left and right gnash their teeth as our establishment political class sells out the American people and overwhelmingly passes FISA reauthorization. Warrantless surveillance; retroactive immunity for lawbreaker telecoms-- what's to like? Well our consistent view at BreakTheMatrix is all about optimism and hope, so here are some things we like, and like a lot.
First, and not coincidentally, we saw yesterday a decline in Congressional approval ratings to 9% in nationwide polling. That's right-- it's not a misprint-- 9%; an all time record low for Congress. The American people see what's happening to them, and more and more are correctly identifying the sources of our nation's problems every day. It's not Congress alone, of course; the Bush administration, the banksters, the war profiteers, the mainstream media-- all of these corrupt institutions and groups are playing their roles. But the bottom line is this-- police state measures emerge only when an establishment class is losing its legitimacy and their fear mongering propaganda no longer carries the intended impact. It's happening now; right before our eyes. So poor Barack Obama; we feel for him. Obama clinched a grand prize barely two weeks ago, and already its been thrown away. He's one of them, not one of us, and all that loose talk about "change' has lost its meaning more quickly than any starry eyed follower might have dreamed possible. We perceive that the first lesson of FISA is this-- our political class is visibly floundering, and the American people are coming to know it.
Second, and again no coincidence, strong new voices and actors are emerging from the sold out leftist base. All of a sudden, the freedom movement that coalesced around Ron Paul during the Republican primary season has a bunch of new friends. Freedom lovers from right and left don't agree on everything, of course. Many of our leftist colleagues still hold to their belief in big government, and they're yet to be convinced that they might let go of the tired old stereotypes about cold and heartless libertarians. There's still a distance between left and right, so we need to move with prudence and good manners. No one should expect that longstanding ideas will reverse in an instant, but the relevant point is this: we share core values with our friends from the left about civil liberties, about the war, about our insane overseas empire, and in the broadest sense about a bipartisan Republocrat political class that has hopelessly lost its way. Here's our good news lesson number two from the optimists at BreakTheMatrix: the FISA "compromise" has triggered political blowback-- and it's already serving as a vehicle for new and unexpected friendships at the grassroots leadership level.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, FISA reauthorization has galvanized freedom lovers to ACT-- not merely to talk. We all know that whining and complaining accomplish nothing; it's only strong and committed action that counts. Our Strangebedfellows coalition and the August 8th moneybomb going on at www.AccountabilityNowPAC.com are two early manifestations of the kinds of activity that we think will be valuable, but these events don't stand in isolation. A broader movement is growing, and a transpartisan group similar to Strangebedfellows has emerged in Britain. From the left, we see the ACLU preparing litigation to challenge the FISA bill, and commenters at DailyPaul and elsewhere are speaking up with approval (albeit somewhat grudgingly; old ideas about the ACLU also die hard). Looking at yesterday's action by our political leaders, what we see as the deeper meaning of FISA is that a small group of Washington DC mandarins has concluded that they and their privileged corporate friends are above the law. It's no more complicated than that. Our nation's laws are in place for the little people to follow-- they think. How very wrong they are. And how arrogant. But hubris always comes before the fall.
- Rick Williams's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 216 reads
A congress with a 9% approval rating is really quite mind boggling. One out of ten people approve of these morons? We need to work a little harder. There are 9% of the people out there who need to be educated.
it just drives more people to the freedom movement in time for the Ron Paul convention