Toe-to-Toe with Evil

I just read a great essay called "Hung Over in the End Times", and while it was uplifting in its irreverance, it reminded me how much we are going to have to resist the Christian Reich on every front. We have to steel ourselves against the agitprop about how "moral values" decided the election by remembering the immorality of the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis (which would be overkill, even if they had had anything to do with 9/11, and they didn't); the immorality of diminished citizenship or indefinite detainment for any dweller in "the land of the free;" the unfettered and well-documented criminality of the Bush administration. We have to be worked into a fit of moral outrage equal to that of our fevered fundamentalists. We have to quit wasting time trying to change their minds because their minds function at a reptilian level that we who dwell in the forebrain can only access in the face of actual, direct threats to our survival. We liberal, progressive "elites" (codeword for "educated") have to understand that our survival is threatened by these nutjobs. And we have to refuse to cooperate in our destruction.

One of the ways to do this, as I have said before, is to allow ourselves to grieve for a bit, then get up off the Bed of Pain and get in touch with our righteous anger. It is a matter of principle that no country has the right to steal the resources of other nations or topple their governments because it feels like it. It is a matter of international law that people cannot tortured, a conclusion of common sense that people who are willing to die for their cause will not respond to torture in a helpful way. It's a matter of time (and not much of it) before it is plain for all to see that global warming is real and could have been prevented. We cannot expect a group of people who see the end of the world as a good thing to solve these problems or address them honestly. We have to remember that we are the majority (if you can see the world beyond our blue borders) and we are on the right side of history, evolution, progress, geography, and demographics. We have to face Shadow America in all its paranoid, fearful, zealous, death-worshipping, neoNazi manifestations and unplug our energy from it. See it, name it for what it is, call it out. Until we do, it's going to be like the Middle Ages around here.

Forget about the vote recounts. There probably was plenty of monkey business in the Diebolds, but even if it is unequivocally proven, who will force accountability? Bush's boot-licking bitches in the press? The wheeler-dealers in the Senate? The Moonie-crowning House of Representatives? I don't think so. Assume the results were jiggered in the Chimperor's favor and pour your rage into demanding your local election board provide verifiable means of voting. Be an ass about it. Insist.

Forget about being nice and getting along. Go postal. Slam the door on the plastered-on smiles of the Bible zombies who come calling to bring you the Good News about your impending doom. Counter every Republican lie, smear, gloat, and "misunderestimation" you hear. Draw loud, informed parallels between George W. Bush and other failed presidents. Remind your Republican friends that a margin of victory of three million in a country this size is hardly a mandate. Use the old What Would Jesus Do? slogan to challenge gay-bashing and punishment of the poor. Turn off the "news," and let the bloviators know why you're doing it. Salve your wounds with an exposé of the cracks that already exist in the supposed bedrock of Christian conservatism. But more importantly, reinforce the better impulses at work around you. Take care of your body and spirit. Breathe. Praise moderation and reason. Donate time and money to the causes that tweak your heart. Arm yourself with information and like-minded friends. If you go to church, sing louder than ever. Don't ever, ever apologize for being a human being who values compassion or equality under the law.

If the radicals were right, they wouldn't have to lie, steal, or manipulate to take their power from you. Remember that, but don't count on anyone else to fix it.