Gadhafi

I would like to be celebrating the spirit of liberation evident in Libya (and in the Wisconsin demonstrations, for that matter), but I fear for the lives of ordinary people. Dictator Moammar Gadhafi is doing his best to murder the citizens of his country. As I write this the outcome is unclear; Gadhafi may be losing control of the eastern part of his nation. Meanwhile he has imported well-paid mercenaries to machinegun protesters armed with metal pipes.

Closer to home, the Tea Party governor of Wisconsin continues the Republican attempt to destroy the financial base of the Democratic Party. The plan is to make it illegal to negotiate with unions. Bust the unions, and there will be no large entities left to oppose the Corporate State (keep in mind that the Republican Supreme Court recently freed corporations to spend as much as they want in election campaigns).

This is a national push, state by state, to defund the Democrats and turn our country into a one-party nation totally dominated by the greed of multi-national corporations.

I am old enough to remember FDR (barely). These times strike me as astounding in some ways. We've fallen so far. But if you push people hard enough, push them to desperation, they will take to the streets with metal pipes in their hands. Fear of that kind of response helped usher in the New Deal.