Sanctifying The Profaned
One of the reasons the people of Earth hold religious beliefs is to help them deal with monstrous evil, providing hope that something much bigger and more powerful than ourselves will assess judgement on those who have wronged us. There has been a fair amount of religious petitioning this week, and not all of it Christian.
Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist, wonders if Mayan priests can purify their sacred land after a visit by George W. Bush, can we do so to our own nation?
George W. Bush — famed warmonger, despoiler of lands, despiser of gays and women and science and earthly resource, hapless fascist-wannabe — it seems George just visited Guatemala, where he happily trod upon a holy Mayan site or two… [T]he first thing Guatemala’s holy guardians of the sacred did as soon as Air Force One’s wheels lifted off the ground was, of course, to purify the hallowed ground our president’s shockingly low, nefarious energy had infected.
[I]t is becoming increasingly evident that a great national purifying ritual is just about exactly what we need. Yes, we need a grand American ritual. We are, after all, far more deeply infected than that Mayan site. Does it not seem entirely appropriate? Does it not make perfect sense? Of course it does.
We shall purify and rinse and cleanse the nation of this horrific and banal poison, once and for all, and it shall be Good. And those Mayan priests? Why, they’ll simply look over and nod, smile knowingly. They understand completely.
Unlike the Mayan priests, however, we will be using much different methods of cleansing our land.
One largely under the dominion of the Wannabee World Dictator, Christians are awakening from the mental slumber which has held them in thrall for too many years, gathering in Washington to protest against George’s War and adding their voices to the opposition of the use of torture by their government.
But the site that clearly needs spiritual cleansing the most is the US Congress, where - despite a loud and vociferous electorate which clearly cast its vote for peace and the resumption of traditional American values - they are still studying whether they can discover the means by which to someday study war no more:
The essential objection to the legislation Pelosi, Obey and Murtha are pushing so aggressively is that it does not end the war. In fact, it funds the war for a year or more – perhaps even providing sufficient resources for the president to pursue his objectives until the end of his tenure in 2009. Unfortunately for Obey and Pelosi, the “idiot liberals” have a point when they say that the Democratic leadership plan offers no assurance that U.S. troops will be extracted from Iraq in 2008.
The question now is whether other ardent foes of the war will choose to give their votes to Pelosi, who - knowing that she will lose some conservative Democrats - needs the overwhelming majority of anti-war Democrats on her side if her proposal is to prevail.
She’s having a tough time holding on to the others to produce this stand-alone, no-amendment vote, which has prompted mcjoan of DailyKos to protest:
That the Blue Dogs would even oppose this provision’s inclusion in the supplemental is mind-boggling. Are they really so anxious to see this debacle extend into even more dangerous territory? And on their watch?
Jason Miller of civillibertarian asked writer and political agitator Joel Hirschhorn “How About a Little Democracy for a Change?” Hirschhorn replied:
My message is that massive numbers of Americans have deluded themselves about the nature of American representative democracy. If they think that our system is equitable, effective and trustworthy – or the best that it can be – they are truly delusional. It comes to this: wealthy Americans (directly and through corporate venues) have taken over the political system and this has removed the necessary watchdog and regulator role of government in ensuring that our economic system is fair to working- and middle-class Americans.
There are … a host of electoral reforms that we need to make voting easier and more widespread, such as making Election Day a national holiday. I also advocate making ballot initiatives and measures more widespread – among the states and at the federal level. This is a crucial element of direct democracy and because our representative democracy has failed the public interest, we desperately need some forms of direct democracy.
Such are the Forces of Good, badly tied up in their slings while the Republican Goliath sits across the river and watches the show, secure in the notion that they are too strong for the Democratic Davids to defeat them. But it isn’t yet a done deal, despite more defections to date from the Democrats than from the Republicans:
[A] feeling of uneasiness and doubt is percolating among moderate Republicans who are facing increasing pressure to respond to an unmistakable public sentiment against the war. [I]t remains an open question whether Republican leaders and the White House can maintain party discipline [as] signs of Republican fissures emerged in closed-door meetings and during anguished Senate floor speeches.
Words mean little when it is by their actions that you will know who seeks to end this foul war for oil and plunder. Senator John W. Warner from Virginia “was busy working on a fresh attempt to find support for bipartisan Iraq legislation.” Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania “reminded his fellow senators that there were other options to influence the administration’s Iraq policy.”
“But that does not mean we are without power in the future
to use the appropriations power, the power of the purse,
to put Congress’s imprimatur and decision on what is going on.”
But if such an event doesn’t come about, and George W. Bush continues to rule as an absolute monarch with the silent complicity of the Legislative Branch, then maybe its time for We, the People of the United States to think seriously about purifying our nation by holding an Article V Convention and repairing the American political system before our nation is stained further by the sins of our leaders.
If we can rid ourselves of the curse placed upon us to keep us “delusional” about them, that is. If we can’t, then they will take us all to Hell with them - and we will deserve our fate.