Monday, October 4, 2010

Time to Kick the Donkey

FBI Raids and the Criminalization of Dissent By Amy Goodman via ZNet.

Early in the morning on Friday, Sept. 24, FBI agents in Chicago and Minnesota’s Twin Cities kicked in the doors of anti-war activists, brandishing guns, spending hours rifling through their homes. The FBI took away computers, photos, notebooks and other personal property. Residents were issued subpoenas to appear before a grand jury in Chicago. It was just the latest in the ongoing crackdown on dissent in the U.S., targeting peace organizers as supporters of “foreign terrorist organizations.”

Everyone refers to this as just the "FBI".  What's missing is that this is Obama's FBI.

At least now we know why Obama's FBI wasn't arresting the Bush era criminals who tortured and illegally spied on Americans.  And, at least now we know why Obama's FBI wasn't arresting the Wall Street crooks who cost Americans trillions of dollars of wealth by first creating a speculative bubble in the housing market that was American's primary avenue of investment, which of course was followed by the inevitable crash of that speculative bubble.  Nope, Obama has his FBI infiltrating and investigating peaceful antiwar activists.  Obviously spying on peaceful activists is more important to Obama and the Democrats than going after Bush-era torturers or Wall Street crooks.

The open question is, when will the majority of Americans, who oppose these wars and who think our children and our money should come home, when will they stop supporting Obama and the Democrats?  Not only has voting Democrat led to a never-ending war in Iraq and bigger and bigger wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but now Obama is sending his FBI to kick in the doors of people who dare to disagree.  Obama is sending his FBI to kick in the doors of people who dare to suggest that we shouldn't be getting our children killed and maimed.  Obama is sending his FBI to kick in the doors of people who dare to suggest that we shouldn't be spending hundreds of billions of dollars on these useless wars in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. 

Obama's stance is clear.  Obama has declared open war on the antiwar movement by sending his FBI to kick in these doors.  The question is, are the anti-war voters of American foolish enough to still continue to vote Democrat?

The secret no Democrat wants to mention is that the Democrats win their elections on anti-war votes.  No matter what your estimate of the strength of anti-war public opinion in this country, if the anti-war votes do not support the Democrats, the Democrats lose to any Republican with a pulse.  It doesn't matter if you picture the anti-war movement as the 60% of Americans who consistently tell pollsters that they want these wars to end, or if you picture it as 20% of committed antiwar voters on the left of the Democratic party.  Even that smaller number is far larger than the Democratic margin of victory in almost any race.

What you can destroy, you can control.  The anti-war voters of America have the power to destroy any Democratic campaign by their opposition to it.  The Democrats simply do not have the number of votes to win without the anti-war votes.  Which leads to a very simple response to these raids.

DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT in NOV.  Not even for dog-catcher.  DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT.

That may not lead to an immediate utopia of a peaceful world the second week in November, but it will send a powerful message that the Democrats will hear and which will change the future.  And I don't mean the fake change in the wrong direction that the Democrats offer, but I mean a powerful change in the direction of ending these wars.  Because, every Democratic strategist looking at 2012 will have one fact in front of them in complete clarity. The Democrats can not win without anti-war votes.  If you want to end the wars, put the professional Democratic politicians into a position where the only way they can win elections is by opposing these wars.  That leaves them only two choices.  Ending the wars, or finding a new career path in bad economic times.

Even that probably won't end the wars in 2012, as most likely we'll have to go through another loop where the Democrats lie to pretend to oppose the wars, get elected, instead expand the wars again, and again we have to kick them out.  But, as long as we stand firm in saying that we will not elect Democrats who do not oppose these wars, well, even the stubbornest donkey will sooner or later get the message if you keep kicking it.

Now is the time to kick the donkey. The donkey ain't moving.  When the donkey does want to move, it seems to want to go the wrong direction.  But, any country boy knows how to deal with that donkey and get it to head in the direction you want it to go.  A few good kicks will get it moving in the right direction.  In fact, once you teach the donkey that you will kick it, you don't have to any more.  Just raise your voice in that special manner that tells the donkey another kick is coming, and it will start to move on its own.

Now is the time to kick the donkey.  It won't immediately end the wars.  But, to end the wars we need a Democratic party that's been trained to know that it can only win with anti-war votes.  Now is the time to kick the donkey to lead to a future where someday we won't have to.

Surely, if any anti-war voters hadn't noticed that the wars got bigger and bigger after they voted for the supposedly anti-war Democrats, they can't help but notice Obama's FBI kicking in the doors of peaceful antiwar activists.  If nothing else, the obvious message to any anti-war voter is that if they vote Democrat they are voting to have their own homes raided by the FBI if they dare to tell others that they oppose these wars. 

Even beyond any political grand strategy, the most obvious statement for anyone who opposes these wars is that a vote for the Democrats is a vote to have your own front door kicked in by Obama's FBI.  Surely at some point an anti-war voter has to get the message that voting Democrat does not lead to good outcomes for themselves.

I watched in amazement in 2008 as the antiwar voters of America combined to all vote for a candidate only that pretended to be antiwar while at the same time promising bigger defense budgets, a bigger military, keeping troops in Iraq and expanding the 'right war' in Afghanistan.  But surely, now, after two years of this pro-war reality, and now with Obama's FBI kicking in the doors of anti-war activists, the response of the anti-war voters of America has to be clear.

DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT.

We've got a month.  Lets all combine to deliver a response to this that the Democrats will hear loud and clear and which will send them reeling.  Spread the word as loudly and as far as you can before people start to vote in the next few weeks. 

If you oppose these wars, DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT.

And don't do it quietly. Now is not the time to sneak around and try to secretly deliver a kick to the seat of the Democrats without them noticing. Now is the time to stand right in front of the Democrats and make sure they know that you are tired of being lied to, and that you are tired of being raided, and that this swift hard kick that is coming is our response to the lies and especially to these raids.  When its time to kick the donkey, it doesn't do any good if the donkey doesn't know who's kicking it.  The anti-war movement needs to be loud and vocal for the next month in its response to these raids by refusing to support the Democrats in this election.

Donkeys aren't real good at reading their email.   But, this is a response that any donkey can understand.

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