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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: On the Verge of Democracy Collapse Disorder Home | Newswire | About Us | Donate | Sign-Up | Archives Monday, November 19, 2007 Discuss this story Print This Post E-Mail This Article Published on Sunday, November 18, 2007 by CommonDreams.org On the Verge of Democracy Collapse Disorder by Roberto Rodriguez Colony Collapse Disorder: this is the name given to the dying off of the world’s bees, which spells an impending global crisis. It’s not that I want to make light of this diagnosis. Quite the reverse; it’s that the name could just as easily be applied to the state of the nation. Though Democracy Collapse Disorder is what comes to mind. When historians look back to examine the origins of this latter disorder, it will be determined that it began in 2000, compliments of the U.S. Supreme Court when its intervention resulted in the ascension of George W. Bush to the presidency of the United States. Lacking the tradition of contesting government, the opposition meekly accepted the results. Yet, by governing from the middle, the highly contested presidential election might have simply resulted in an asterisk next to the president’s name. Instead, he began to govern as if he had received an overwhelming mandate from both, the electorate and God, helping to usher in the most greedy, corrupt, anti-science, secretive and unaccountable administration in the nation’s history. Under the guise of Christianity, POTUS or the President Of The United States single-handedly helped to usher back in The Dark Ages. Just as plans for the Iraq invasion were in place long before, 9-11, the designs for Democracy Collapse Disorder were also in place, long before the president’s installation. Yet, President Bush, a blue-blood son of a former president, was not an innocent bystander; to carry out the neoconservative agenda of world dominance simply required the notion of a unitary executive in which all power resides in POTUS. Given 9-11, the attack gave him an opportunity to accelerate that agenda, which included the de-Constitutionalization of the United States.. The seven primary components of Democracy Collapse Disorder include assertions by the president that he has the right to: 1) wage preemptive permanent war against any potential enemy, while coddling tyrannical blood-thirsty dictators who support the U.S. agenda of world domination. 2) declare that the United States is in fact in a permanent state of worldwide war against “Islamo-fascism.” 3) disregard the rights of anyone, including the right to secretly detain anyone indefinitely, without due process and without the right to legal representation, including the right to torture. 4) disregard any law, create any law, or interpret any law to his favor, to be able to operate outside of the U.S. Constitution, while also asserting the right to interpret his illegal actions as lawful. 5) operate outside of the Constitution during this time of permanent war, without being subject to any checks and balances. 6) operate outside of international law and in disregard of international treaties and conventions. 7) pardon, grant amnesty and grant retroactive immunity to anyone under his control who violates the Constitution or any international law. If these were but theoretical assertions of power, that would be dangerous enough. But this president has actually carried out his assertions and aside from engaging the United States in a disastrous illegal war and occupation, he has also been wrong about everything. Wrong in a moral sense. Wrong in a legal sense. And wrong in a strategic sense. Enter the Democratic Party and the 2006 elections: its leaders are given an overwhelming mandate to stop this runaway president who has been plundering the public treasury to wage his illegal war. Yet, their first order of business is to grant him and his war cabinet unconditional amnesty and retroactive immunity. That is the definition of Democracy Collapse Disorder. If Congress had an alternate and effective plan to actually terminate the illegal occupation of Iraq, that would be one thing, but worse than being impotent, the refusal to hold the president accountable has emboldened him to continue his criminal endeavors worldwide, including threatening to wage yet another unsanctioned war against Iran. To its credit, Congress has at least now taken a firm stand in support of “the rule of law.” Joining the likes of Lou Dobbs and Sen. Tom Tancredo, who represent the lunatic and fanatical wing of the political spectrum, Congress has taken a firm stand against amnesty, that is, no amnesty for Mexicans. No amnesty for brown Spanish-speaking dishwashers and maids. At least they are consistent. There will also be no amnesty for those in the U.S. government whose lies have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq. Similar to Scooter Libby, instead they will be granted immunity, pardons and commutations. That too is Democracy Collapse Disorder. It also sounds like the definition of insanity. Rodriguez can be reached at XColumn@gmail.com. His columns are archived here. (c) Column of the Americas 2007 These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Discuss this story Print This Post E-Mail This Article 31 Comments so far SHANTI November 18th, 2007 1:19 pm With very few exceptions our leaders are nothing more than CORPORATE SOLDIERS, WHO DO A GREAT CON JOB OF PRETENDING OTHERWISE and fooling a lot of people.Most of these so called leaders are educated, intellectual eunuch’s who have sold out America for 30 pieces of silver. misanthrope November 18th, 2007 1:24 pm At first I thought the metaphor with Colony Collapse Disorder was a little strained. But, considering that ‘Bee Movie’ is number one at the box office… John R. Hall November 18th, 2007 2:29 pm What’s the biggest difference between George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler? Hitler was actually elected. Bush, Cheney, the band of thugs who designed the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and those to come in Iran and Venezuela (The Project for the New American Century), those members of Congress who support and continue to fund the wars (you too Hillary), citizens who continue to support this insanity, and all those who own stock in the Militaristic Industrial Complex or make their livings making bombs are WAR CRIMINALS plain and simple. WAR CRIMES are punishible by death if I recall. Do ya think Saddam was the only guy who deserved hangin’? If there was any true justice in this country, I’d be buying stock in a rope company. Eisenhower would roll over in his grave and resign from the Republican Party if he could see his greatest fears come true. Why is Dennis Kucinich the only voice of reason coming out of Washington? Where’s Paul Wellstone when you need him? iammyself November 18th, 2007 2:43 pm “That too is Democracy Collapse Disorder. It also sounds like the definition of insanity.” Insanity? No, the folks who are masterminding this are not insane, they are smart and ruthless. Turning democracy into fascism shouldn’t get a bye with the insanity plea - they deserve the full measure of our wrath and should be prosecuted as the traitors they are. baruch November 18th, 2007 2:57 pm iammyself wrote: “Insanity? No, the folks who are masterminding this are not insane, they are smart and ruthless.” I think they are insane. It is insane to engineer the death of one’s world. They are smart and ruthless, for sure, but that does not make them sane. geoff29 November 18th, 2007 3:03 pm I think we all need to start planning for a future in which we have to go through the laborious process of trying to put it all back together. I hope we are ready to get our hands dirty, our feet wet, and get stung a bit. geoff29 November 18th, 2007 3:08 pm baruch, that’s why I want them to step forwards now in the last couple days of the execution of the self-destructive insane plan they got going for us and themselves here. Insane because I can’t really figure how they even remotely picture themselves surviving. Even if they lie buried under a few mountains somewhere in for example in the middle of west virgina or what not. How are they going to get out of the rubble. peachmcd November 18th, 2007 3:23 pm Democracy Collapse disorder began long before 2000. It began in the late 1800s when corporations were first deemed legal ‘persons’, and granted the same constitutional rights as human citizens. Our current ruling junta is the inevitable end of that basic, radical error. The difference between human citizens and corporations isn’t just legal, it’s spiritual and moral. The difference between a privately-owned business and a corporation is the ability to take moral concerns and human values into account. Corporations have no reason to exist other than the accumulation of power and capital, they have no natural limit to their lifespan, and no conscience. As soon as we called them ‘persons’ we changed our own conception of what a person is, and not for the better. So now, our government is run by people who believe that corporate amorality is actually a better way to conduct our affairs. The corporate media teaches our children that their reason for being is to accumulate things. It has duped us all into considering ourselves ‘consumers’ rather than citizens or workers. As if the corporations produced the wealth in this nation, rather than those whose ‘productivity’ is constantly rising even as wages stagnate and go into reverse. We have had no democracy since corporations were allowed to participate in funding elections and their money was legally deemed ’speech’. Our government is truly fascist, in the classic definition: the melding of corporation and state. Torture, jackboots, a surveillance state, and taser-happy police are not necessary to the definition, they merely follow corporate culture as the night does the day. We will recover our democracy when a constitutional amendment clarifies that only human citizens have constitutional rights, and corporations are excised altogether from the electoral process. Peach McD in Durham NC geoff29 November 18th, 2007 3:36 pm peachmcd, I would like to add to the information you bring to the table by also pointing out that in 1913 the Federal Reserve was established, and the whole business of “paper money” which has, I’ve been learning lately, never worked as a principle in the history of the world. It’s a “deep” issue, I don’t know if I can ever know all there is to know about it unless I start all over and live in another kind of way than I do. I think it’s a major part of the problem you’re pointing out. And is also leading us all over a cliff. commander_n_chimp November 18th, 2007 3:44 pm That’s okay. If we get Ralph Nader voted in (big, fat chance), he will kiss our booboos and make it all better. thoreaulvr November 18th, 2007 3:53 pm I believe Adolf Hitler was not elected, but appointed. whatfools November 18th, 2007 3:53 pm What ever happened to “spank them all soundly and send them to bed?” A lump of Peabody Coal for this POTUS! geoff29 November 18th, 2007 4:12 pm ok, on this article, you reverted, chimp. Once again, everyone here is probably a few years older than you are, historically, and when you stp out of line, find it under productive and basically, childish. I for one like the spirit of you posts from time to time I think it’s healthy. Even if I go against the grain of the other Illuminati encaged here. But when you start being petulant they are all laughing AT you, not with you. Try and get an image of that in your head. Of your peers in your school, or wherever, ridiculing you while you are trying to express yourself. It’s not pleasant. auspiciousbunny November 18th, 2007 5:10 pm I know this is off topic, but I really am just trying get some people’s weird childish ego identification with war mongering conservatives. It generally isn’t based on having read books or researched issues. Generally they may spout some nonsense about keeping government spending down, or small government, as if the Bush administration is “small government” even though we’re in historic debt and spending a landmark amount of tax dollars and borrowed money on war. It’s not even thought out at all. I think psychologically the “conservative” (—honestly I don’t know what they think they are conserving–) identity thing is about as deep as the way people like to repeat the lyrics to some song that is popular. They sing the song so for a moment they can feel like they themselves are the big powerful rock star. rtdrury November 18th, 2007 6:15 pm Lacking the tradition of contesting government, the opposition meekly accepted the results The Demoks accepted the Reinquist selection in 2000 because the will of the people does not matter to them. What matters is that the theater production remain in the control of the “elites”. Of course the remote control is always in the hands of the people. The people simply have to learn how to use it. MollyJ November 18th, 2007 6:46 pm I think the origins of our democracy’s failure probably predate 2000, but lets just say that in 2000 the patient took a turn for the worst, for sure (with the co-opting of the Supreme Court). In our local daily, both a columnist and the editorial exhorted people to vote for the best people but our democracy is sufficiently broken that voting for the right people is not possible. I would echo Peach McD in saying that according corporations the same rights as an individual was a cornerstone of our demise (an oxymoron, I’m aware) but I also think failure to take hold of the campaign finance issue was influential. Allowing the influence of a literally unlimited campaign period PLUS unlimited dollars has effectively meant that the person with the most money wins. And that means people without money do not get heard. The autopsy report on our democracy will also cite secondary diagnoses of primary failure of the press and failure to maintain seperation of church and state as significant contributing factors to our demise. ezeflyer November 18th, 2007 6:47 pm “We have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population…. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction…. We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.” George Kennan, State Department memo, 1948 Paul Bramscher November 18th, 2007 8:23 pm One can drive hundreds of miles across both the US and Canada along many routes — and see virtually no evidence of federal government beyond post offices. What is collapsing is the quality of representation relative to their ability to tax. So long as the IRS is capable of auditing and forcibly collecting taxes, while at the same time our ability to democratically change course of government is in a state of decline, we have not merely a crooked class — but one which uses laws selectively. It enforces them when they are in their best interests, and ignores them when not. In short, this administration has spoken: laws are for suckers. iammyself November 18th, 2007 8:25 pm “I think we all need to start planning for a future in which we have to go through the laborious process of trying to put it all back together. I hope we are ready to get our hands dirty, our feet wet, and get stung a bit.” Actually, I think that’s what we’re trying to do here, geoff. There is a lot of fumbling about and gnashing of teeth and pointing of fingers because we’re still in the early stages. IOW, we haven’t gone through the worst of it. Once we do, we will not have the option nor the energy to do all this. As with a prisoner on death row, our minds will be laser focused. geoff29 November 18th, 2007 9:17 pm yeah, you’re probably right, you are yourself. you know how not really keen I am right now about being worn out and soaking wet all the time. tired. I mean it’s tempting to have the vanity to belly ache, “but I already done that.” but, Ghandi and others say life is toil, so, I guess. If everyone else is out there pitching in, maybe it won’t seem quite so bad. And maybe I won’t make it that far, joyful thought. god knows I don’t hardly even know about tomorrow. that’s just me, mind you. I’m sure others just love that kind of thing! first rate! also, younger people have a lot of energy and supple joints. geoff29 November 18th, 2007 9:47 pm auspiciousbunny, I like what you are saying. I think you should hold onto that truthfulness for dear life. I read an article published here a day or two ago about life in a small town in Maine, and I couldn’t understand why I was so bothered by the whole thing. And I mean the article too specifically. It was mean. There’s a difference between sarcasm and irony which we learn about in early childhood that kind of helps define meanness and goodness. I don’t care what the point of the article was, or the overall point the author was making it was just plain uncalled for down right nasty. And then the author implored his readers not to visit his town. I’ll think it over before visiting his thoughts even, someone will have to tell me otherwise. sheesh, still ticks me off two days later. Paul Bramscher, I agree with you on your take some in good faith. I used to get more riled up about the idea that I was in a hopeless situation in terms of the way I felt I was maybe being forced to live. I’m a little better now, and I hope that I continue to improve. metamorph November 18th, 2007 10:02 pm We have to be less materialistic in many ways and more interested in helping others, just like the bees, we have to toil as a group … . geoff29 November 18th, 2007 10:35 pm toil as a group. this goes back to an idea I’m sure that’s kicking around here in the thought-o-sphere about a collaborative effort. Collaboration is a little more difficult than cooperation because it includes and accepts our differing perspectives as part of an amazing entity. Which means that you have to kind of overlook your own and others egocentricizing to a large degree, and understand that as an organism, how do we shift the emphasis to something positively creative away from creatively destructive. or something like that, I’m just catching a drift of it in the wind, I’m sure so are y’all. hellodarling November 18th, 2007 10:54 pm Look how far we have come!! It’s too late to correct any past mistakes. It would be a waste to even think about them. It’s easier and makes more sense to just continue the path set forth by the POTUS. Even if the detention facilities have to be opened up to relieve the stress on communities by “domestic terrorists” who will no doubt engage in counter democracy demonstrations. I mean, yeah, that sucks, but remember what Cheney said? he said something to the effect of doing some “dirty work” to affect a greater good. Don’t worry. G.W. Bush has us covered!!! Especially the paid-for democrats!!! Boy we sure have it good here in the U.S.A., the greatest country on EARTH!!! nspire November 18th, 2007 11:15 pm What is the context of our intention for something unprecedented to happen? All too often the appearance of scarcity, separation, and justification for immoral acts sits solidly upon the mistaken beliefs of many (i.e. contents), to wit: BE DO HAVE Mostly we believe that if we DO the right thing, we’ll HAVE security, or if we have enough oil we’ll BE happy - wrong! What happens when we no longer HAVE stuff, or DO what we once did? Does our existence (BE’ing) vanish? No. What is it that precedes action and accumulation? It is ALL about BE’ing, and spirituality, which is vastly less obvious than “religions” nominally instruct. All religions are about the ONE, within the all too often hidden sanctuaries of those protected from life’s viscitudes. Remember who we are, Human BEINGs? We do hear much of HUMAN DO’ings like war, and human HAVE’ings like possessions, but when do give ourselves time to simply BE? I revere ALL life, strive for balance between my actions and principles, connect with others as my mirror forging insight. We mis-believe in the power of LOVE & TRUTH when confronted with mere DO’ing and HAVE’ing. I believe that ‘turning the other cheek’ is about unconditional LOVE and REVERENCE for LIVE itself. Thank you Siouxrose: “CIRCLE has no sides” (from ‘Story of Religion’ post) Consider that the Hindu concept of the ‘wheel of life’ === that we are spiritual beings living in a physical existence === plastered centripetally along the wheel’s edge, while all the while the peace of eternity is equal distance from ALL of us ___ at the motionless center and axis of BEING ___. We live most of our lives, as pendulums swinging from one part of the wheel to another, moving the fastest as we pass the peaceful center (least likely to notice it). No wonder there is such frustration, striving, and suffering! Remember as well, that eternity is just w/o any time, not endlessness. We have each moment NOW, but are nearly always slaves to connecting with the wheel’s past or future. Let us BE O N E Although laudable in notions of symmetry and making appearances, without true transcendent BEING, our usual shallow lives are but re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic - we must go deeper! May the blessings of connection, empathy, contribution, and caring fill each of the many illuminated contributors to CD. Tuning into and turning toward our inner light brings us all to the same place, where we can persevere and be the generative force of greater understanding and drive the needed phase inversion (like the laser pulse’s avalanche) of Humanity. Remember than it just takes a few flakes to start moving together, and woush . . . I salute (w/o elitism, as kindred souls) the empowering contributions of GEOFF, SIOUXROSE, STAROFTHESEA, RT DRURY, and of Cindy - as drawing me forth from years of lurking, shame and fear. I especially loved the Tibetan passage (re-entrant) of deeply troubled souls stuck on the wash cycle for many births. Perhaps the shrub is just a recalcitrant and partially reformed reincarnation of Genghis Khan (cowboy)? What can ONE truly enlightened BEING accomplish? Or dozens of evolved CD enthusiasts, against the pathetic obdurate and unresolved “elitist” (control) vibrations of so many cranally anally inverted wonks (head up their a$$)? The map of possibilities says that “Here be Miracles”. GK Chesterton clues us in, that children don’t need stories to inform them of Dragons - as they already know of their existence - they need the stories demonstration of how dragons can be killed. Namaste juanstar November 18th, 2007 11:34 pm Shame! Sitting out this round of candidate charades By Adolph Reed Jr. Gives a nice view of our state of affairs. starofthesea November 19th, 2007 12:04 am nspire—-thank you for saying, with great elegance, the contents of my own heart. Not a word will be contradicted by this Lightworker. I have just begun posting on this site recently, and am much relieved to note increasing numbers of contributions that transcend polarity and separation. These are treasures for the taking. goeff29—-I love how you hang in there with your clear headed kindness, and your humility. We will indeed have to experience a certain level of discomfort, but I am confident that we will just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. As one of the Master’s said to me in a channeling 10 years ago, ” You KNOW that’s why you came here, AND we will BE with you every step of the way.” The Truth of that pronouncement by Merlin, burned itself into my heart and it has made me fearless. We all have the power within—no need to worry about those who try to wield their power “over”. They are missing the point. Lordy lordy—are they ever! geoff29 November 19th, 2007 12:12 am “years of lurking, shame and fear.” nspire, I’m feelin’ it. god, in general, and in addition to this one quote I plucked out here from your back pocket I could have quoted the whole damn thing, that was great! but then I thought better of myself that would be like repetition or plagerizin’ or somethin’. sing some more please??? I been shaking that off I tell you that! I’m more and more got none of it. I don’t got much money for the singing either. nope, don’t have too much. hope it’s of no concern to you? amateurs Studs Terkel said. Just for the love of it. geoff29 November 19th, 2007 12:15 am yep, starofthesea, I looked it over. Prophecy. Genuine Real. Like watching the ocean and the stars at night. ta ta. Coyotita November 19th, 2007 12:33 am Rodriguez wrote: “Enter the Democratic Party and the 2006 elections: its leaders are given an overwhelming mandate to stop this runaway president who has been plundering the public treasury to wage his illegal war. Yet, their first order of business is to grant him and his war cabinet unconditional amnesty and retroactive immunity.” I believe that the reason Pelosi made the announcement that impeachment was off the table was because the Democrats were manipulated by the Republicans into a grand show of “bipartisanship.” The Democratic Senators and Congresspeople are still dancing to whatever tune the Republicans play, with or without Karl Rove present. The Democrats still don’t understand that bipartisanship is not in the Republican playbook. The Democrats must come out fighting, and if they have failed so miserably before, there is still time before the bell has been rung on this administration. If they are waiting until Bush and Cheney are out of office, the voting public will remember by going to the independent candidates! If the Demos are waiting … they will have to pay, like the adulterous husband who is caught, but can’t bring himself to break it off and declare his undying love for the wife, in the sight of the harmed spouse, there will be a price to pay! nspire November 19th, 2007 2:20 am Hi PEACH McD, Your comment got me thinking, when you said that: “Corporations have no reason to exist other than the accumulation of power and capital, they have no natural limit to their lifespan, and no conscience. As soon as we called them ‘persons’ we changed our own conception of what a person is, and not for the better.” How about we turn that corporate screw to our advantage, and add to their existence portfolio? Of course, the bu’SIN’esses are incorporeal (w/o real bodies, or verdant form), but what if we could paint their brand (thanks Naomi Klein, “No Logo” & “Shock Doc”) image with a pseudo-conscience, like when Nike became associated with slave labor? They’ve already cleverly snipped the connection to real world products, and foist their pseudo-being good feelingness (NOT) illusions. If not a conscience, perhaps a nagging memory and association with egregious injuries and human suffering? Boy, they thought I used to be a corporate terrorist at work, but this brings an entirely new twist to ITT. Or how about filing a restraining order (state or national?) to prevent a corporation from existing within 500 yds of say an elementary school (in my town)? And then there’s the idea of corporate karma and re-birth, which still perturbs me how they can die - and be reformed - as they never were really here (alive)? Maybe this is more about nationalizing them? Nonetheless, a concentrated collaboration of focused enlightened energy might possibly deflect the errant corporate entity responsibly toward ‘citizenship’, ethics, and principles. One can always hope, I’ve heard that the RICO laws are broadly written. Perhaps not all, but some multinational corps are but gangs of street thugs wrenched together, for large but still common criminal conspiracies. I doubt that we’d have too many worried about the corporate death penalty affecting us perpetrators negatively, in fact, I feel that I would have lots of fun injecting orange colored lethal toxic waste into say Dow Chemical, Monsanto and/or Diamond Shamrock’s corpus. Or how about having Blackwater disappeared, back into the black swamp it came from, or down the drain? Namaste
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#1. To: Zoroaster (#0)
... Corporations have no reason to exist other than the accumulation of power and capital, they have no natural limit to their lifespan, and no conscience. As soon as we called them ‘persons’ we changed our own conception of what a person is, and not for the better. So now, our government is run by people who believe that corporate amorality is actually a better way to conduct our affairs. He gets it. He has a point about corporate personhood. Perhaps not all, but some multinational corps are but gangs of street thugs wrenched together, for large but still common criminal conspiracies.
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