( – promoted by buhdydharma )
According to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, “Assessments of the current state of the nation are grim as Americans have begun to choose who will vie to be the country’s next president. 75% of Americans think the country is off on the wrong track, matching the highest number ever recorded in the CBS News/New York Times Poll.” These results are echoed in the latest ABC/Washington Post poll, which reports that 77% of Americans believe America is on the wrong track, the most scathing indictment of America’s “leaders” ever recorded by ABC/Washington Post pollsters.
Well, it looks like Morning in America isn’t as popular as it used to be. In 1980, Americans were so impressed with the former host of Death Valley Days and his happy grin that they elected him President of the United States. They empowered a clueless cowboy to lead them to a brighter future, but he led them into Death Valley instead.
Go figure.
As millions of low income and middle class Americans trudged back and forth across Death Valley for 28 years, looking for some way out, Reagan/Bush globalization expanded corporate control over national governments, the global economy, and the media to such a pervasive and destructive extent that permanent residency in Death Valley is going to be the fate of most of humanity if we don’t get up off our knees, empower ourselves, and give our oppressors a taste of Death Valley to see how they like it . . .
Fascism. That’s how it is, that’s what we got, whether Bush and his thugs admit it or not. You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall, hear it on the wind if you’re listening at all . . .
FASCISM. New and improved for the 21st Century, upgraded for modern consumption, malevolent as ever and staring us all in the face. Sanctified nationalism. Demonizing dissent as treason. Disdain for human rights. Controlled mass media. Pervasive propaganda. Supremacy of the military. Obsession with national security. Corporate power protected. Labor power suppressed. Fraudulent elections. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Contempt for intellectuals and the arts. Relentless expansion of the power of the state.
As this lethal ideology took the lives of 50 million people only three generations ago, amidst the horror of Axis fascism, global war and genocide, a young girl faithfully confided her hopes for the future and expressed her idealism in a diary. Anne Frank didn’t know her words would be read by millions of people, but they have been and will be for as long as human civilization exists. The most brutal and inhuman regime ever to darken the pages of history killed her in Bergen-Belsen, but it could not silence her.
Anne Frank is still speaking to us:
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
“I don’t want to live in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met.”
“I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.”
“It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”
“I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come out right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”
“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be. How much you can love. What you can accomplish. And what your potential is.”
Idealism is not dead and never will be. It cannot be exterminated in a death camp. It can never be silenced. Don’t ever think your diaries don’t matter. Speak from your heart, express your idealism, ennoble humanity as Anne Frank did by never giving up, no matter how long the darkness lasts. If a young girl huddled in an Amsterdam attic lit only by the light of flickering candles can inspire the whole world with her words, so can you.
Like Anne Frank, our ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes have risen within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. Our world is turning into a wilderness, we hear the ever approaching thunder, we feel the suffering of millions. Fascism is back, draped in a blood-stained American flag and wielding the cross like a weapon. Bush and Cheney, Huckabee and Romney, Giuliani and McCain are as demented as Hitler and his thugs ever were and just as dangerous. These Republican fascists have a propaganda machine far more powerful and pervasive than Goebbels ever possessed, their obsession with an imaginary Islamofascist “threat” is just as deranged as the Nazi obsession with an imaginary Jewish “threat” was, and the massive arsenal of nuclear and conventional weaponry available to them will claim far more victims than the Nazi war machine ever did if they are not thrown out of power.
Fascism is back, but three out of every four Americans are rejecting it. Most of them don’t recognize this “wrong track” we’re on as fascism, but they’re ashamed of what America has become, they’re starting to listen to us, they know too many Americans can’t make it here anymore. They’re fed up with deceit, torture, spying, corporate greed and wars for oil. They’re voting in record numbers in the primaries, the thunder of their anger is rumbling across this country, it’s going to rattle the walls of Washington on Election Day and restore American democracy, so this nightmare road trip through Death Valley will finally be over.
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and great timing, to read something so hopeful on a not very good day. Thank you!
Liked this a lot!
Got me crying again. But boy are you right! And I’m sure not going to give up. I don’t write well, but I can do other things.
This is reaching the mainstream I refuse to watch.
I have co-workers contributing to the new and innovative ways to do Nazi salutes as we all recognize the direction the country is going. We have variations on Hitler’s Nazi salute in a mocking manner. The consolation is that the Thousand Year Reich did not last when compared to the history of man. We know that America’s decline into fascism can’t last that long either.
From Boing Boing
link
It was years ago, but it stuck in my head…. I guess it’s another way of saying there is, hopefully, a silver lining in every cloud, but only if there are people who brave the dark, know the sun always comes up again, and look UP.
Somehow it applies, especially here, and especially with the group of people that come here every day, I think.
I like the part about Reagan leading us into Death Valley.
I’m not ready, though, to say the U.S. is a fascistic country. A tryannical imperialist country, yes, but not yet a true fascism. Political scientists can argue the point, but we still lack a domestic crackdown that truly takes totalitarian control over most aspects of civil life and civil institutions.
As Dylan wrote (and I’m loathe to quote popular music composers, but what the hell): “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.”
Actually, it’s pretty dark. Let’s just say the midnight of fascism has not arrived yet. It’s maybe 11PM. (Of course, the U.S. supports fascistic governments, like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, numerous former Soviet statelets, etc.) And, of course, there are plenty of fascists in the U.S. government and Pentagon.
I object to your including Bill Clinton in the Reagan-Bush gang. He did admirably considering the congress and the media he had to deal with. Yes, he threw them some nasty bones, but got some sweet rewards. Parental leaves and portability of health insurance were big victories. His budget showdown and great economy were huge. His competent FEMA, FCC, SEC,IRS, etc stand in sharp contrast to the hacks from the Reagan/Bushies.
I doubt any candidate running on our side will accomplish as much even with a Dem congress. No, he’s not St Bill–but he was a heck of a lot better than St Ronnie.
Anne Frank’s words endured because, I think, of the goodness in her heart that “lived,” despite the hopelessness of her plight.
Funny, I grew up believing that people were really good at heart — the price was being kicked about pretty good, until one day I had to realize that some people are really rotten at heart. A hard lesson.
Still, we must keep hope in our hearts and actions, because we ARE the ones who will make the difference ultimately.
Beautiful diary!
*******
(Little down tonight, so not real spunky. The hope and let down of Kucinich (of last night), despite his fight — the debates with the Dems declaring unity amongst themselves also got to me — if true, why wouldn’t they have felt some solidarity and shown some toward Kucinich? Never in my dreams would I have ever conceived of a viable presidential candidate being “stripped” of his ability to be seen and heard. This was such a large statement as to what we have become. Sorry, on my chest!)
Sometimes I do wonder if doing things like writing and reading here and on blogs accomplishes more than keeping me going. But the image of Anne Frank writing away up in that attic blows all those doubts out of the water. Yeah, she never knew (at least not in this life) the impact those words have had on the world. I would never think of myself as an Anne Frank. But maybe if we keep writing from our hearts – eventually the world will hear!
you’re not looking hard enough.
Another great one Rusty.
we hold the line with each other and our stories and our ideals.
i don’t know about anyone else, but these days i need to be reminded of that constantly.
thanks, rusty, and everyone.
it isn’t to most people… not because they aren’t looking. it’s because it doesn’t occur to them TO look. what is happening now is based on a bad president and bad decisions… that’s what they think, imo. there is no army in the streets hauling people to prison. we had christmas and gifts. there’s winter b-ball.
i was at a game last night. i do not imagine any of them were worried about fascism… it’s America. i don’t blame them. i understand it really. we sound like the nuts.
IT COULD NEVER HAPPEN HERE… ridiculous.
how do we help them connect the dots through language? how do we say what we’re saying at a pitch they will hear??? and how to get them thinking…
so true… you can bring the horse to water, but it is the horse who decides to drink…
I can always count on this website and its diarists to restore my sense of sanity and faith in humanity after I’ve spent too much time at the Orange Place, where they’re all giddy about Obama being “the new Reagan”–as if they think that’s going to be something really great.