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"It's All Been Said Before"
Posted October 25, 2004 thepeoplesvoice.org

By: Kerry Tomasi

One of the more difficult tasks I face when composing a letter like this is coming up with something new, something original, a unique 'hook' of some kind that might shed a little light on some issue for one or two of you out there. But try as I might, I've recently found my creativity short-circuited by the intuitive suspicion that 'it's all been said before'. (Then again, my batteries could be low, or it might just be laziness.)

But I got to thinking. Why not? Why not just say it again; kind of a best of (or worst of, depending upon your viewpoint) compilation of some of my writing efforts the past 4 years?

So here's a few tidbits for your enjoyment, or to get you all worked up into a good old fashioned 'righteous right wing rage', whatever the case may be.

I simply have to start with this "all been said before" case in point from the 2000 debates:

10/00 ---Here was a guy (Bush) that appeared to be close to an overdose of beta blockers; who could not answer a single question without rambling among a half dozen muddled abstractions; who was nervous, uncomfortable, and clearly ill-prepared, and - “He really held his own. I think it’s a tie!”. What?! 

2/01 ---43% of the tax cut - $688 billion - will go to the richest 1%, and this will somehow stimulate the economy?! Seriously, if you truly wanted to stimulate the economy (and maintain fiscal responsibility), wouldn't you limit tax cuts to those who will actually spend the money in the economy; people to whom a villa in the south of France just isn't an option right now?

3/01 ---Look, I'm only trying to do my part to help some of you avoid the embarrassment that will inevitably come when you realize you've been duped. When the budget surplus has mysteriously vanished, the gap between rich and poor has reached dangerous levels, and the environment is in another post-Republican era freefall, you'll at least be able to say - I saw it coming a mile away.

11/01 ---I have nothing but disdain for those who wear their nationalistic zeal on their sleeve and loudly proclaim that those who do not embrace their particular ideology or religion are therefore unpatriotic. Those who proffer such a blind allegiance represent the most dangerous threat to our liberties and freedoms, and are, in my opinion, the antithesis of true patriotism. Adlai Stevenson Jr. said it best - “Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

12/01 ---Mindlessness. Dumbing down. That’s what they want, you know. And why? Because the 'Boy King' and the Republican Corporation know that a thinking, well informed citizenry is simply bad for business. Once again, I beseech you - don't be sucked in by this mind numbing propaganda machine. It's not at all a stretch, considering the way this Republican juggernaut is rolling right now, to be seriously concerned that we're headed in an irreversible totalitarian direction. Give these people just a little more power; let yourself become just a tad more indifferent, and you might just wake up one day soon to an Americanized version of fascism. And you won’t even know what happened.

4/02 ---Like zombies we listen to the multi-billion dollar corporate media, and multi-millionaire individuals within the Republican Party tell us that a tax cut for billion dollar corporations and millionaire individuals is just what this country needs right now. And like brainless idiots we buy it. We stand there with our little flags in our hands, clutching our Bibles, and swallow any foul thing they care to feed us. All they have to do is serve it up with a patriotic condiment and a side order of God. 

5/02 ---There are serious things going on in this country right now; things the Bush administration - and the people who own it - don't want you to know about. They are quite literally banking on it. If they can keep your attention diverted long enough; if they can keep us fearfully focused on their new replacement for the communist boogeyman - 'The Terrorist' - they may very well leave behind a wake of environmental and economic destruction that will take decades to recover from. Destruction that our kids and grandkids will have to pay for. 

11/02 ---Ever since the 911 plot was thrust upon us, many Americans appear to be emotionally hell-bent on destructive revenge, regardless of who it is that gets destroyed, including ourselves. This irrational exuberance to go kill somebody - anybody - seems utterly bizarre to me. But then, I personally strive to not let fearful emotion and it's subsequent anger overwhelm my common sense, especially when it comes to life or death decisions that impact thousands or millions of innocent people.

4/03 ---This could be our best opportunity to preserve our constitutional form of government and the ideals it represents. Let's not let it slip away without a fight. Do it for yourselves. Do it for future generations. Do it to 'support the troops'. Do it because, as a committed citizen of this country, it's your responsibility to do so.

5/03 ---A rather large percentage of the American public…want it uncomplicated and easy. And the more superficial the better. But the world, and reality in general, is much more complex than that. Something far too many in this country either fail to see, or simply refuse to acknowledge. Is it any wonder we appear to be reverting, collectively as a society, to a condition more suited to childhood?

11/03 ---What else would justify the silence and/or acquiescence of certain 'in-the-know' members of our society to the flagrant economic, environmental, and societal devastation going on today? Why are the Democrats, the media (those not controlled by the 'revolutionary power'), the intelligence community, and even traditional conservatives, so cowed by this movement? There has to be something more sinister in play here. Something most of us thought could never happen in this country. Not on this scale anyway. 

5/04 ---One thing that did not change was the Bush Administration's plans - drawn up long before 911 - to invade Iraq, as revealed by several recent 'insider' books, and in the 1998 PNAC document. Ironically, it's within that PNAC document that we find articulated what they believed would be a prerequisite to their invasion plans; the one thing that would be needed in order to bring the American citizenry on board - both emotionally and monetarily. That need, that missing link was, and I quote: "some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor." So as it turns out, 911 was not the reason for invading Iraq, it was key to the excuse! 

7/04 ---This was and is the method to their madness, at least on the domestic front. Ignite the fundamentalist Muslim world against us (adding tens of thousands to the terrorist ranks), fueling a never-ending 'war on terror'. Then use that war - and the fear generated - as a tool to dismantle, one by one, the structural components of our unique but fragile system of self rule by "we the people", and replace it with a theocratic form of military/industrial corporatism. One in which the nation's wealth will be owned/controlled by an elite few, and the words 'freedom' and 'liberty' will mean something altogether different than they do now. It's not too late to pull this country back from that brink, but we are edging awfully close, and we're running out of time. So round up some help, get a good grip, and give it a tug.

Once again, what more can I say?

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© Copyright 10/25/04 by Kerry Tomasi. Permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media if this credit is attached and the title remains unchanged. ktomasi@earthlink.net