Dear Doug,
May I suggest we really began to "lose our way" when elected Ronald Regan.
Keep up the good work.

Congratulations and Thanks for a brilliant rant..it should be refered to by every source of media...BRAVO!!!

Democracy may never be an achievable goal, but it is an ideal to br strived for, and without that ideal, we have nothing. However, the last time I walked into an affair where they were saying The Pledge of Allegiance, I covered my ass instead of my heart.

Doug,
Exceptionally good rant. Unfortunately, truer words have never been written. I see the only way to combat this degeneration of our democracy is with the introduction of other viable political parties. The Democrats and republicans are absolutely corrupt - different sides of the same coin. There has been so much damage done to our country and Constitutuion that I am not sure recovery is possible anymore.

One thing I do know is that we need to get off our computers and come together as citizens again to DO something. This medium, while giving us an opportunity to relieve our frustrations and anger through venting in a semi-public way, also diffuses the same. We need to join with our fellow citizens and put our effort into reconnecting with each other and actually doing something to change the direction this country is moving. While we are online, we are united in ideas, but divided in action. Coming together as citizens in communities, we are united, can fine tune our ideas and move them into actions - and as a physical group we can be heard and effectively do something beside complaining. Sharing ideas on the internet is important and necessary, but coming together as ciitzens and communities to practice civil disobedience is how we start solving this horrible destruction of our country - if, as Doug has said, it is not already too late.

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain

The last time I suggested civil disobedience, I was told I would have to file a permit for it.

Well Said Doug. I'm not particularly religious but the following quote sums up the spirit of what I'm feeling:

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
-Thomas Jefferson

Bruce-The work in progress
www.quixotichierophant.blogspot.com

Great column but I believe we began our downward slide with Lincoln's Civil War. Next came the Federal Reserve and then came income taxes, direct election of senators and FDR.

We are not a democracy and were nver intended to so be.

We have become an imperialist bully.

Believe Tommy Franks: We are another 911 away from martial law.

Once again you capture my mood. I don't know when the decline started, but I certainly experienced it when I was serving in Viet Nam. The hubris, the arrogance, and the isolation from reality that we are currently experiencing can either be our downfall, or the impetus to reclaim what we once had.

I certainly don't think that either the Republicans, or the Democrats have any chance of reclaiming the possibility of greatness that this country once represented.I'm beginning to think that the cleansing of civil disobedience may be our only option, but I've got so much to loose.....

"Freedom is just anouther word for nothing left to lose." I have already been jailed, not for what I said, but for what someone said that I said. A false police report was filed against by by someone who said I threatened them. A swat team showed up at my place of employment, and five guys dressed in kelvar put in in a solid concrete cell with 18 violent people and left me there from 4PM to 10AM. Needless to say, I no longer support my local police. The charge was a terroristic threat.

I wonder if this is what Bush is pushing us to, and will use as an excuse for martial law. I don't know the answers, but I do know that unless we the people stand up and demand an end to this war, it will go on and on, dismanteling our Constitutions completely. This never ending war on terror stinks of 1984. I do not trust my government - or our elected representatives - anymore.

My husband told me I can't solve the problems of our country - or save it, and I answered, 'If not me, then who?'

If not each and every one of us, then who will? This is what we must embrace if we hope to salvage any of our freedoms. I don't go to Washington to participate in the protests because I work. But, I can practice civil disobedience in my town, along with Kent's 200,000,000 other "me's" who have also had enough.

While I hope that this will not lead to civil violence, like Kent, I am afraid that it will take that to get the attention of the populace. And, I wonder where the loyalities of the police and military will fall; with the citizens of this country, or with the government. What has our country come to..?

Most of the military has been brainwashed into thinking Bush is the good guy. For the most part they think they are doing the honerable thing in defending their country. The do not seem to have come to the realization that they are dying for Halliburton's and Blackwater's profits. I guess that makes us the bad guys.

There's a lot of talk here about civil disobedience and civil violence...just curious but what do you suppose the purpose of all those detention centers that were built by KBR/Haliburton might be? Just curious. There are those that have said that everything that has happened since 2000 - everything - has been by design. That the dissolution of the United Statesas we know it (or thought we knew it) is the genesis of the new version of North America. The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran - the decline of the dollar, the callous lack of concern by the government to those citizens who suffer and are needy (New Orleans/Katrina, SoCal (wait and see) - the utter contempt by our elected representatives to those who voted them in - the rise of nationalism and racism and hate in general. What makes you believe that anything we might do might have an influence on those who wish to control us? But of course, that is just this old curmudgeon's opinion.

A detention center has been built locally, supposedly to detain the illegal aliens they are about to round up. If we would stop all this speculation and just check into the local concentration camp for reprogramming like we are supposed to.

"I'm beginning to think that the cleansing of civil disobedience may be our only option, but I've got so much to loose....." Is that true? Maybe not.... Perhaps just the opposite is true.

Almost everyone in this nation is in debt beyond what they can ever repay. No one asks the price of anything anymore, only what the monthly payment would be. They know they will always be in debt. They take on a $6-700,000 debt when buying a $200,000 home and a $60,000 debt when buying a $30,000 car. And then, there are those credit cards. We have become a society wherein our insurance rates are determined in part by our credit rating.

If there were a non-violent civil uprising that refused to pay anything - no taxes, no mortgage, no credit, no nothing, what would happen? When the money stops, the nation stops. Who is then in power? Who then can dictate terms? What the hell are "they" going to do about it? Arrest everyone? And who would do that? Soldiers and mercs don't work without pay and no bank is going to turn loose any money for that with nothing coming in.

All debt could be renegotiated, or even abolished. Laws could be changed or abolished. We could actually go back to living according to the Constitution.

This is the power in this nation and we have it. When will we use it?

Doug Thompson; truly, spot-on, sparkling commentary concerning the state of our nation! There is no solution other than a possible rebirth born from an absolute, abject crisis, no different than the fires in southern California except on a nationwide scale.

When all Americans witness the value of their dollar implode to less than that of the Mexican Peso in buying power with foreclosures and bankruptcies reaching epic proportions will they begin to rise up and say enough is enough. Only then will they realize they've been conned by silver-tongued devils; ie., evil, self-aggrandizing, pols with a globalist agenda who could care less about America or it's citizens. They will also realize the terrible price they will have to pay for being profligate, card-swiping spenders both on a personal and national scale.

“having lost its value, money may no longer be the root of all evil; credit having taken its place.” ...Dalton Camp

Carl Nemo **==

We all failed as Americans to learn and teach the basic freedoms that our founders had designed for all Americans. Our schools did not touch on these freedoms and simply told us about speech freedoms that stopped at yelling "Fire" in a crowded room.

Every American citizen has the responsibility to know clearly what our Constitution gives us. How clever our government was to allow the academics to dissolve into a pile of crap involving teaching our children social restrictions instead of their absolute right to disobedience. We dumbed our students down for 3 generations to the point that nothing makes sense to any of them.

We got the government the people wanted. We lost our ability to correct our errors. We ended up just like all the other nations under a dictator and now we whine about it.

http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/

The problem of debt was touched upon by SEAL in a previous post. The banks are responsible for a large portion of our problems. They are the ones that are financing the corruption. MBNA contributed more to Bush's re-election than the oil companies did.

The problem of bad government will never go away anymore than crime, greed and corruption will go away, but that doesn't mean that you stop working to make it better. Just because you can't do away with fire doesn't mean you give up on and do away with fire departments. It will never be perfect, but you can always make it better.