February 19, 2011 at 09:23:04By Rob Kall (about the author) opednews.com
Watching the right wing, funded by the Koch brothers, unleash a multipronged, massive assault on Liberal, Democratic Bastions of power-- unions, Planned Parenthood (and really, women) I am feeling anger rage I have not felt since the Supreme Court declared Bush president and then the lead-up of lies and betrayals that led up to the beginning of the Iraq war.
I am seeing the vision of the US that I have in my head, heart and soul under greater threat than perhaps any time before. This is not a time for empty name calling, though there are many names that keep coming to mind. No, We are in times that are too dire to lapse into the luxury of cathartic name calling.
We are seeing the vile eruption of a virulent right wing, long fulminating pustule of hate, misogyny, and corporate, fascist extremism-- a profound threat to the America our parents and grandparents fought and worked and died for.
We have been subjected to an ethically corrupted Supreme Court decision-- Citizens United-- decided by two corrupt justices who accepted special treatment from interested parties. That decision led to a shifting of the rules and the balance of powers that could permanently shift the path of America towards what dailykos.com founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga described as an American Taliban, in his book by the same name, and which Linda Milazzo, one of OpEdNews.com's managing editors, suggests is working toward a Christian Sharia-type state, without the community and family support that exists in the parts of the world where Sharia exists.
Our lives as we've known them are threatened and endangered. Our nation is at risk of being destroyed by corporate forces and moneys from within and multinational corporate influences from without.
We cannot sit still and accept, as good sports, that we lost in fair elections. The elections were run based on an obscenely corrupted Supreme Court. We cannot allow women to lose access to birth control and the counsel of Planned Parenthood. We cannot allow a governor who is a shill for big corporations to declare full out war on unions and workers.
We must take a stand. We may have to take many stands. That will mean sacrifices.
We must face the reality that the Democratic party was a part of the problem and they cannot be relied upon to be part of the solution.
We have to do it. Maybe we have to find leaders. Maybe we don't. The Egyptians and Tunisians did it without clear leaders. They DID have bottom up "leaders" people who took initiative and helped wake people up, get the word out and set the framing and language. Perhaps we can learn from the Egyptians. American Democracy is dusty and antiquated-- over 200 years old-- and may not work as well as it did, when fully cranked up.
There are groups and media people and sole bloggers and tweeters who are taking action, coming up with ideas. Stick your head out of the digital window and look around you. You will find others shouting, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more."
Photo: Flickr By philippe leroyer
Try shouting it yourself. Then, take that anger, that intense passion and energy and do something with other people. Go to Wisconsin. Find out about a local protest. They will happen. They will emerge out of the mass of voices and tweets and Facebook shares and pages and blog entries and comments and phone conversations and insults to our perceptions of what America is and who we are.
We can't waste our time venting or calling right wingers names. We must focus and channel our anger and use it to energize our actions. We must not call names, we must think hard and smart to identify new ways to frame what the right wingers are doing to Women, to workers, to America.
Please share your thoughts-- on framing the right without calling them nasty names,. This is a new, unprecedentedly toxic, extreme right wing that Citizens United enable. Naomi Klein, observing that what we're seeing are examples of the shock doctrine and that the way to stop them is to be AWARE of them while they are happening. We have to identify the name, or the names of the beast. Klein says that to resist the Shock Doctrine, you have to have your own story to replace the shock attack with. We need to have that conversation" NOW" not just talk about the right wing as usual.
And share what actions you will be engaging in, what social networking on -line you are engaging in. It is time to go digital and time to wear out shoe-leather.
Should we all go to Wisconsin? Should we be engaging in mass acts of civil disobedience? Should we be calling for unions across the US to walk out. It is an extraordinary thing that even police and firefighter unions, which were to be exempted from the Wisconsin assault on unions, have acted in solidarity. Maybe police and firefighter and teacher and bridge toll workers and sanitation worker unions across the US should stand in solidarity and show the right wingers they won because the American people were pissed at the Democrats, not because they have a mandate to tear down the America the majority of Americans still want and love.
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
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