“You say you want a revolution…”: some random thoughts on the upcoming election and how the American spirit is MIA
“If we don’t take action now
We settle for nothing later
Settle for nothing now
And we’ll settle for nothing later”-
Rage Against the Machine
“Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience. And when you do that, don’t ever, ever let a Democrat or a Republican tell you you’ve wasted your vote. The fact is if you don’t vote your heart and conscience, then you have wasted your vote.”- Gov. Jesse Ventura
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”- George Washington
“America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great.”- unknown, attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville
In order to sustain interest, I’ll simplify the history a bit, but what it boils down to is that in 1770, British troops in the colony of Massachusetts killed five civilians and, after a few more incidents the colonists got pissed off enough to revolt. In doing so they gained their independence and founded their own nation, a nation that included in its very fiber the lessons of the revolution, that you are supposed to fight for what is right and what you believe in. And when the government refused to do that, we took it into our own hands. See John Brown, Susan B. Anthony, Mother Jones, Joe Hill, and Sid Hatfield for a few of many examples.
Then, in 1932 America began to change into the tyranny it had fought against. That year, President Hoover ordered the U.S. army to attack a group of World War I veterans, killing two. The veterans were peacefully camped out in front of the Capitol hoping to draw attention to their cause. The cause itself shouldn’t matter in a democracy, but it happened to be their pensions and how, in the aftermath of the Depression, they desperately needed them. Hoover should have been immediately impeached and the Army investigated. We the people were silent.
In the late 1940s and into the ’50s, McCarthyism swept the nation. Those deemed Communists were made to testify before Congress. Numerous investigations were launched and hundreds, if not thousands, of people lost their jobs and their dignity in the process. Somebody should have stood up to it, marched on Washington demanding that McCarthy and Congress recognize the First Amendment. We the people were silent.
In 1968, as many as 504 unarmed civilians were killed in South Vietnam, many after being raped and abused by American troops. Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment, but only served three years of house arrest. Those above him who ordered the massacre went unpunished and we demanded no more than that.
In 1970, four students were killed at Kent State University in Ohio for protesting the Vietnam War. Gov. Rhodes, the National Guard, and possibly even President Nixon should have been investigated and indicted. Other than a Canadian who wrote a song about it, we were silent.
In 1973, two protesters were killed at the Pine Ride Indian Reservation by FBI agents. Again, no indictments and no uprising.
In 1993, federal agents killed 76 civilians, including over 20 children, in Waco, Texas. They were nutjobs, but this is America where, according to the Constitution you have every right to be a nutjob. Neither Janet Reno, nor a single FBI agent was investigated or indicted. Eight Branch Davidians were sentenced to up to 40 years. As usual, we let our government get by with it.
On August 6, 2001, the President received a briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” Nothing was done and a month later 3,000 American citizens were killed. What did we do? We reelected the bastard and in 2005, one of America’s great cities was almost completely destroyed due to his negligence.
My question is this: how long will we put up with it? Woody told us “this land is your land, this land is my land.” Well, I say we fucking prove it. Vote out the Fascists of the Republican and Democratic party. Take our country back at the voting booth by putting it in the control of the third parties, the people without corporate support and without money behind them. That is the only hope.
“Our only weapon’s total defiance.”- Shooter Jennings, 2010
“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.”- George Washington
“If there’s any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there’s any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara”- Phil Ochs
“Call out the instigators
Because there’s something in the air
We’ve got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution’s here, and you know it’s right
And you know that it’s right
We have got to get it together
We have got to get it together now”-
Thunderclap Newman