Tuesday, September 19, 2006

If Thomas Paine Were Here

A BuzzFlash guest contribution by Brent Budowsky. Today's 'must read'.

Thomas Paine and his fellow traitor to the Crown and champion of democracy George Washington must be standing at the Gates of heaven and pounding the table while they call down to us with outrage about what we do.

Never before in the history of the Republic have the politics of fear been used so ignobly to put our freedoms under basic attack.

Never before in the history of the Republic have those freedoms been surrendered so casually, so fearfully, so timidly and so meekly by a society that so easily forgets about the rivers of blood of American heroes who died to give us what we so casually, so fearfully, so timidly and so meekly surrender today.

But I will tell you this: I will be damned if I will surrender even one of my rights, even one of your rights, even one of America's first principles, for somebody else's politics, or somebody else's fear. And I do not believe you would either.

I do not refer to what might happen. I refer to the freedoms that have already been surrendered, largely without a fight, though I propose that those who cannot decide whether voting is worth the effort, consider what these people would do if there is another terrorist attack, a prospect that would make George Washington tremble with anger and make Tom Paine pound his fist with rage.

George Washington crossed the Delaware with troops risking death in a river frozen with ice on a Christmas Eve, rallying them to courage, on behalf of a banner of freedom that they hoped, and prayed, and fought to make timeless.

George Bush implores our people to be afraid, and wants people to think: we may not be comfortable with a President who claims the unilateral power to abrogate the Bill of Rights and violate Federal Law at will with a signing statement, but he makes us feel a little bit safer, so it's ok. And so it happened.

Ski's just gettin' warmed up. Go read.

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