This couple of minutes from Michael Moore’s flawed but important documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” has always broken my heart.
Soul-crushing, is it not?
Not only did the Democratic Party refuse to fight for the voting rights of thousands of African-Americans illegally removed from the voter rolls by Florida’s “Bush for President” co-chair, Katherine Harris (Jeb’s Secretary of State), the Democratic leadership would eventually join Bush/Cheney’s worst war crimes and their unprecedented assault on our own society and the rule of law.
Few today will recall the “Gang of Four” that, excluding the rest of the Congress, collaborated with the Bush White House on torture, unwarranted mass-surveillance, and other atrocities.
Two of “the Gang” were Democrats.
One of those Democrats is poised to resume her position as Speaker of the House this January, Representative Nancy “impeachment is off the table” Pelosi. (After all, you can’t impeach a president for crimes in which you, yourself, are complicit. That would be a sign of… integrity.)
After decades of Democratic silence with regard to the GOP’s Southern Strategy — after a Democratic president exploded mass-incarceration and slashed welfare (70% of which went to children) — I shouldn’t have been the least bit surprised. Because any careful examination of the historical record shows that post-JFK Democrats have far outstripped Republicans when it comes to accomplishing the far-right’s unfathomably cruel and colossally stupid agenda.
Nearly two decades ago, I had much to learn about “controlled opposition.” Feigned differences. Rhetorical “values.”
And even though over 300,000 registered Florida Democrats voted for George Bush in 2000, the Democratic establishment and our corporate media have managed to place the blame for Bush’s “victory” squarely on the shoulders of Ralph Nader and the Green Party.
Astonishing.
In a testament to the efficacy of corporate propaganda, many otherwise intelligent Americans believe that unconscionable horseplop to this very day. They blame moral and intellectual paragon Nader and continue — even after the catastrophic, neo-fascism entrenching tenure of Barack Obama — supporting the other right-wing party of corporatized white supremacy, the neocon-infested, neo-McCarthyite, Wall Street Democrats.
What a nightmare.