Theft in Progress

Whether they stole the 2004 election or not, the conservative Republican mob is in the process of stealing our country. With the media now under their thumb, nothing stands in the way of their plans to turn a democratic nation into a capitalist theocracy. Since 1980, the Religious Right has made ground with every election, and even during the Clinton era, gathered enough strength to nearly bring down the President for the horrific crime of being a naughty boy. Today they have control of all three branches of government, and they hold a fearful citizenry in the palm of their hand. There remain no serious roadblocks to creating the Christian nation for which they have long prayed.

Like an accident happening in slow motion, I watch the government careening out of control and wonder: Is it too late to stop our descent into a Christian-fascist state? How do we know when we have passed the point of no return? How bad must it get before We The People wrest the wheel of state away from the spiritually-impaired drivers in Washington? These are incendiary questions, I realize, but when the fate of one’s country is on the line, which I believe it is, this is not merely a rhetorical exercise. No one ever dreamed the United States would one day be hijacked by religious fanatics. You can feel the Bush terror-level rising daily as the terms “fascism” and “fascist state” turn up in more and more essays and commentaries.

What is so alarming to liberals and progressives is that the checks and balances this country depended on for over two centuries have been effectively negated, the system subverted, by people who believe they are doing God’s work on earth. The Supreme Court won’t save us. Our elected officials in Congress don’t have the courage to help. The press won’t do its job. Where do we turn?

The issue here is that we are not merely dealing with opposing viewpoints. It’s not as simple as liberal versus conservative. It is a battle between those who believe in the principals on which this country was founded, and those who do not. Religious conservatives in America neither understand nor believe in democracy. Like the Taliban or any other religious fundamentalist group on the planet, they believe in an authoritarian, vengeful, patriarchal, uncompromising God, and they are dead set on having those principals serve as the guiding force of our government.

Over the next four years, we will see concerted efforts to bring prayer into public schools, outlaw abortion, make gay marriage a crime, increase the government’s abilities to infiltrate our private lives, and much, much more. Bush, Cheney, Rove and gang will work night and day to continue blurring the line that separates church and state until it is erased completely. It will be a nightmare from which we cannot wake unless there is intervention. What form that will take, I don’t know.

Michael Moore asks in one of his books, “Dude, Where’s My Country?” It’s being hijacked by religious extremists. The question now is, “Dude, what the hell are we going to do about it?”