The Progressive Giant Awakes
(And it's about time)

by Roland X, 8/28/03

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I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve. --Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Even today, Admiral Yamamoto -- a leader of the Japanese from a generation of Japanese widely despised in America for the attack that inspired his prescient comment -- is generally respected by Americans who know of him. Aside from being against Pearl Harbor, the 20th Century's most infamous pre-emptive strike, he was a man of honor and insight. That didn't stop him from fighting America's forces with every tool at his disposal, of course.

His comment was widely repeated in the days after September 11th, when America was again the victim of a surprise attack. That time, however, the victims were far more civilian than military (only the Pentagon could be remotely considered a legitimate target), and the only purpose was to cause pain and fear. It is virtually unfathomable that bin Laden's fanatic following somehow included a Yamamoto warning him of the storm to come.

In the wake of that terrible day, America united as it had not done in at least a generation. True, small pockets on the far ends of both the left and the right snarled that we deserved what had been done to us. The rest of America knew better. The forces of terror had sown the wind, and they reaped the whirlwind they so richly reserved. For one brief moment, it seemed that Bush might genuinely become the uniter he had so fatuously claimed to be during his campaign. For the most part, the left put aside its anger at the Florida outrage, and the right put aside its hunger for power.

Or so it seemed.

At first, the concerns merely trickled out. The Patriot Act, advertised as a toolkit for fighting terrorism, began to prove itself of dubious Constitutionality. The Rove Administration moved to push its right-wing through a legislature making a genuine effort to work in a nonpartisan manner. Guantanamo Bay became a repository for "enemies of America."

And yet, Afghanistan was a noble cause. The Taliban were an abomination that harbored a foul and dangerous terrorist organization. True, in many ways it was a folly of our own making -- we had given the Taliban money to fight the drug trade, and bin Laden was a product of the CIA's (successful) effort to create a Soviet Vietnam there. This time, though, the American government wouldn't, couldn't abandon Afghanistan to its fate. Not again, not after the terrible lesson we learned.

Of course it could.

The trickle became a stream. The stream became a flood. Slowly, the left began to realize that we'd been stabbed in the back. Where we'd upheld our end of the unspoken agreement, the NuCons had been busy undermining liberty and democracy. Bush worked to get as many radical fundamentalists into federal judge's robes as possible, Rove and Cheney worked to prevent California from recouping the losses inflicted on it by Enron, Ashcroft worked to have the "right" to imprison anyone, any time, anywhere, and DARPA worked to get information on every American at all times, while the Department of Homeland Security only worked to keep Americans on a yo-yo that ran from yellow to orange.

Meanwhile, America left Afghanistan to Karzai, leaving him to deal with the bandit kings and warlords that had carved up the shattered land before. We couldn't send our troops there; they'd be needed elsewhere soon enough, as we were to learn. In July of 2002, a brave Republican named Scott Ritter warned America about the coming storm:

"You got 20,000 Marines forward deployed in October," said Ritter, "you better expect war in October."

The only major power that bought into his fantasy was Great Britain; Spain's leaders sided with America, but over 90% of the population was against the war. In a matter of months, a world community that had never been so solidly behind us was alienated to the point of considering the United States a greater threat to world peace than al-Qaeda. In response to other countries exercising their own democracies, Republican Congressmen voted to change the congressional cafeteria menu so that all foods with "French" in the name read "Freedom" instead, e.g. "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Dressing," and threatened to break off a fifty-year alliance with Turkey because their Parliament voted against allowing American troops to use Turkish land for the invasion.

Progressives began to realize the gravity of the situation. Over three million Americans were part of a global demonstration of over fifteen million people across the globe. Bush dismissed them as a "focus group." The war went on, against the will of the world, supported in America only because of a massive string of lies, and in the face of all sense and reason.

As this was happening, the Republican leadership (having won a razor-thin majority in the Senate, the last bastion of Democratic resistance) decided to end their cold war on Democrats and democracy, shifting instead to a "shock and awe" campaign. We now face a recall in California (Governor Davis dared to defy the Enronization of power -- how dare he), the most outrageous gerrymandering of districting in modern memory in Texas, and possible Texas-like movements in Colorado and Ohio. Ohio, incidentally, had a Republican majority in 2000 when the districts were last redrawn (in the traditional, legitimate manner).

And now, both domestic and foreign policies are unqualified disasters. Iraq is a horrid mess, and Rove's solution is to order countries that we insulted earlier to send troops while refusing to give them any say in how the situation is handled. The Taliban are reforming, and possibly retaking territory, in Afghanistan. Most of the world is horrified at what passes for American diplomacy and the NuCons' almost naked pursuit of empire. The economy is in the toilet, with the official jobless rate at a disturbing height while the real number of people without jobs (the official numbers don't count people who've just given up) skyrockets. Ashcroft has re-packaged Patriot II as -- get this -- the VICTORY Act, an "acronym" for the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act (where does the "whY" come from, other than Ashcroft's delusions, I wonder), which creates a category called "narcoterrorist." No doubt this will be used to protect America by imprisoning dangerous criminals, like those who smoke marijuana to ease the pain of terminal cancer, without access to lawyers. Finally, lest we forget, NuCons and fundies have spent all this time demonizing the left -- indeed, they barely paused after 9/11, and swiftly followed in Newt Gingrich's bile-slinging footsteps. Even those liberals who supported the war are attacked, for not being lockstep Republicans if nothing else.

At long last, we have had enough.

Liberals, progressives, and activists of all sorts are banding together in a "perfect storm" of determination to ensure that Bush never actually wins a nationwide election. The man who claimed to be a uniter has driven a sword through the heart of this country, splitting us neatly in two. Republicans, perhaps realizing that their control over the country is both fragile and in serious danger come 2004, are using every weapon at their disposal to hold on to it. They have good reason to be afraid.

Writers like Al Franken, Joe Conason, Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, and the invaluable Robert Scheer are fighting to counter the spin and rhetoric of the screeching right (as represented by such "luminaries" as Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and Rush "dittomaster" Limbaugh). George Soros is bringing financial oomph to "Americans Coming Together," an alliance of environmentalists, feminists, and labor that intends to counter the full-time NuCon forces like the American Enterprise Institute and the Project for a New American Century. True, it's a mediocre name at best, but its far more meaningful acronym -- ACT -- is at the heart of what we need to do.

Perhaps the most heartening evidence of the new insurgency, however, is in the campaign of Howard Dean, who has gone from being an obscure candidate to the clear front-runner. The power of his candidacy is based on two things -- his 'net savvy and his courage in taking on the Rove Administration. I went to a Dean Meet-Up out of curiosity, originally. The first meeting, in May, was less than a dozen people. The second was split due to scheduling issues, but almost thirty people showed up from two counties, while each individual county had its own meeting. The month after that, our one county had over fifty people, most declaring enthusiasm for Dean's take-no-prisoners style and all showing determination to oust Bush.

The reaction has been astonishing. The party base is excited and energized. Democrats are being taken seriously in 2004. Even those candidates who have criticized Dean for his "dangerous" position on Iraq have found their voices, attacking the Bush Regime's fiscal insanity and inexcusable bungling in Iraq.

And driving all of this is an enormous dose of political caffeine: the "weak" and "ineffectual" progressive movement is fighting mad about Bush's War on Sanity. They're speaking out and refusing to be intimidated -- and more importantly, people are finally listening. If we spread our message courageously enough and strongly enough, we can match the so-called "Mighty Wurlitzer" and turn it into spare parts.

We are awake now, standing colossus-like astride the rubble left in President Uniter's wake, and our resolve is unshakeable. In a sense, progressives should be grateful -- we've been somnambulant for too long. The NuCons will soon wish they'd left us sleeping.

—Roland X

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