Huh. I don't get very political here, and for good reasons - I don't like talking politics and I don't like the animosity involved.
However, I hit on this essay in hp_essays and read that list and it all began to sound extremely familiar and current. As in, I forgot I was reading a Harry Potter essay and thought I was reading about the current US president. I was shocked when it turned out to be about Voldemort.
Y'know. I remember Nixon. And Ford. And Carter. I went to college during the Reagan years, and got married during the first Bush administration, and voted for Clinton twice. I remember Watergate and the hostages. I watched the Iran-Contra hearings. I remember nightmares about nuclear winter.
I was never scared of a president before. I didn't want Reagan or Bush pere to be president, but I knew that the country would survive. That Republicans were as invested in keeping this country free as any other American - maybe more than some far-left liberals like me.
Yeah. The Patriot act scares the crap outta me. The idea that the US government can declare a US citizen an "enemy combatant" and hold them without charging them for an indefinite period of time - that is terrifying. This whole country was founded on the idea that civilized people don't DO that. Hell - wasn't that in the MAGNA CARTA back in the 1200s!?
It's very disconcerting and unexpected to see you guys (Americans, that is) so mistrustful of your government. I've never seen that happen before in the US.
David Neiwart is a journalist who's done some studies of right-wing hate groups, and he's written several essays on fascistic trends in America, particularly looking at rhetoric of right wing extremists. You can find them thru http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-06 12:55 pm (UTC)Be careful...
Date: 2004-08-06 01:09 pm (UTC)(BTW, I agree with you.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-06 01:15 pm (UTC)I was never scared of a president before. I didn't want Reagan or Bush pere to be president, but I knew that the country would survive. That Republicans were as invested in keeping this country free as any other American - maybe more than some far-left liberals like me.
I do NOT like this feeling.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-06 01:41 pm (UTC)Being afraid of what your own leaders might do is something completely different.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-06 02:47 pm (UTC)The Patriot act scares the crap outta me. The idea that the US government can declare a US citizen an "enemy combatant"
and hold them without charging them for an indefinite period of time - that is terrifying. This whole country was founded on the idea that civilized people don't DO that. Hell - wasn't that in the MAGNA CARTA back in the 1200s!?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-07 06:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-07 06:47 am (UTC)You can find them thru http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/