Strategy Break

A ramble on next steps.

Yesterday in the Daily Kos diary about Holder dropping the conviction against Ted Stevens, I was assured by many good folks that Holder is secretly developing a case against The Bush Torture Program.

Despite the fact that there has been no evidence to that effect that anyone could point to. It is after all a SECRET investigation…so that Cheney doesn’t know they are hunting him!

I was also told that since torture wasn’t a “personal issue” to the average guy, it was a low priority.

The helpless dependence on the benevolence of Holder, and the general apathy to the idea of torture prosecutions as the very embodiment of justice itself, combined with the hailing of letting a Republican Criminal walk free as the embodiment of the Return of The Rule of Law was eye opening. I have been naive, lol. I thought people cared about the concept of justice itself.  But nooo, Bush has destroyed that. At least til we get through this Bardo of Bush, the social and political hangover, nothing matters but politics.

A couple of years ago that would have pissed me off to no end, as the opponents of impeachment when it was continuously and loudly insisted that justice HAS to be dependent on political considerations.

Now I view it as valuable input.

Because they are right. Sorta.

Our country has degenerated to the point where only politics counts. Counts so much in fact that it has caused Sen. Leahy to drop his proposal for a Truth Commission, because he cannot get Republican support for it.

The inescapable conclusion is that justice is no longer an independent concept. That justice can only be attempted if it IS politically motivated. The concept of justice for justice’s sake alone is an obsolete idea.

Which amounts to saying, in the extreme logical conclusion, that there is no longer independent concepts of “Right” and/or “Wrong.”

There is only politics.

And the fact that the Republicans have destroyed themselves and proven that they are corrupt and morally bankrupt and been rejected by the voters doesn’t matter. They still hold some kind of sway or mysterious power to set the agenda and defeat any effort that falls outside of that agenda. They still have the power to hold Climate Change hostage, financial reform hostage….and hold justice hostage.

The age of Human Rights as a stand alone “Good” is apparently, over, at least for now. The age of justice for justices sake (unless you are a Republican Senator?) is over.

Unless it is made into a political issue, nothing will be done about….anything.

Until at least the mysteriously effective Republican death grip on America has been loosened. And no matter how ridiculous they make themselves, the media…and astoundingly….the Congressional Democrats, refuse to stop GIVING them power. As Leahy just did by abandoning the Truth Commission because of….them.

So how do we, until that fabled day when Congress catches up with the American People in rejecting Republican obstruction and tomfoolery and starts doing the Right Thing despite that gang of crooks and criminals, make justice a political issue?

After all it is not just torture and the illegal invasion….and by the way, the corruption and politicization of the justice department itself (!!!) that is either not being addressed or is being addressed in the Super Secret Investigation and Case Building that is going on….there are also no high profile investigations into the financial collapse. All because of politics. Iow, despite the past eight years….we are stuck at business as usual, even though business as usual has become surreally bizarre.

There is only one person, evidently, in our government who gets it. Only one person who is even attempting to cut through the business as usual political morass and Stockholm syndrome of Republicans holding our country and the world hostage.

Obama himself. So to me the very general next step is clear. A petition directly to President Obama.

The approach to take, what to include as the issues of the petition (wide or focused?) how to frame it, how to get it as noticed and as signed as widely as possible….and most importantly, how to make it into a political issue that cannot be ignored….are the questions we face.

That is the next step, I think. I think we can safely, hahaha give up on Congress now, and keep Leahy and Conyers willingness to cooperate in our back pocket as we go over the heads of the pols and right to Obama, and by extension, as he is teaching us, directly to the people. Who WILL care, if they are, lol, instructed to/given permission to…. by him.

So let’s put our thinking caps on again, boys and girls, and think about, and start planning, the next step.