"It Can't Happen Here"

Some years back, my father gave me a book to read: "It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis.

It was topical enough. The crimes of 9-11 were fresh in everyone's mind and mob mentality was sweeping the nation. Peopl wanted blood for the crimes committed by a small group of homicidal lunatics and they didn't care what price had to be paid.

The book was a pretty scary read. It was published in 1935 and satirized Hitler's rise to power by writing how a similar fascist movement rises to power in a mythical America.

Not quite seventy years later, the myth seemed to be getting closer to reality.

It's now 2011. We've had "Change" thanks to a compelling political campaign put on by Barak Obama back in 2004. I have to admit, I didn't think we - as a country - could do worse than Bush and Cheney. I still think Obama is better than those two douchebags, but the Dumbocrats are proving that the difference between them and the Repugnicans is barely-measurable.

If you haven't heard of the Indefinite Detention bill, you haven't been paying attention. Can't really blame you, given the Holidaze madness and all that.

No wait, I really can. We should all be paying attention to the actions of those in power, especially in this era of Occupy politics.

Anyway, the bill reinforcing the government's power to toss the 14th Amendment (that whole bit about due process) and indefinitely-detain anyone labelled a "terrorist" without hearing or trial just passed the House and is going to get signed into law by the President.

To say this is utter and complete bullshit doesn't quite cover it.

This country has stumbled in our history when it comes to civil rights. The internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II was - simply put - an abomination. The "red-baiting" powers grabbed by Congress under Truman in the 1950's were disgusting.

This sort of legislation is as un-American as one can get. It's more than a mere mockery of our Constitution. It's a systematic torture and murder of the civil rights granted in our nation and a rape of the foundations of our culture.

We need to toss both the Repugnicans and Dumbocrats out of office and power altogether. They've proven time and time again that they're just tools for making this country into the sort of fascist powers our parents' and grandparents' generations fought against in the 20th century.

This shit is just sick.

It may be Quixotic, but I'm going to focus my personal efforts into contributing more to the causes I know will put up a fight against this utter and complete nonsense:

* The ACLU
* Amnesty International
* The Electronic Frontier Foundation

We can do better than the status-quo of greed and fear-driven leadership. We have to.

Argh. I hate being serious.