Resistance.

A Republican Political Collapse Will Not Make Things Right.

The collapse of an evil regime does not make things right, but it DOES make great improvement much more possible.

The sad testimony of history is that the collapse of an evil regime has often been only the beginning of times of real terror and chaos.

So if a major Republican (neocon / dominionist) collapse is imminent – which may or may not be the case – it does not guarantee smooth sailing thereafter. It does guarantee that a whole lot more effort will be required from those who love democracy or care about the better parts of the American dream.

But first, you have to wonder why this particular scandal (the Congressman Foley sex scandal) is so potent.

The impact of this “mere sex scandal” as against prior sex problems of this Administration (“Gannon-gate” etc) – and as against other scandals of greater illegality and more far-reaching consequence – means the wheels of democracy have made quite a few turns over the last couple of years. We are in a different place.

Many more Americans have “disowned the regime” (a line from Gandhi via Jonathan Schell’s The Unconquerable World, linked below).

If the chattering class is right, this House sex scandal is going to do a lot of damage to our current regime. If so, that means the ongoing mis-behavior of this Congress and Administration has grown so prominent that great numbers of the American people are powerfully offended by it.

This scandal is not like a new realization. It may be more like a clearly-perceived insult added to prior obvious injuries. And that produces outrage.

Gandhi had said that once people disown the state under which they live they have “nearly” established their own government…

[The quote is from Jonathan Schell’s The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence and the Will of the People, p199.]

We sorely need a new government. It appears we are at least in the process of “disowning” our current one.

Fortunately we have a wealth of qualified, experienced replacement personnel in the wings – many ready Americans who have a great deal more good sense and moral perspicuity than those currently in power.

Schell continues:

Once the unraveling of the single, indivisible fabric of totalitarianism [“corrupt one-party rule” is our current substitute] began, the rapidity of the disintegration could be startling. In Havel’s prophetic words, “Everything suddenly appears in another light, and the whole crust seems then to be made of a tissue on the point of tearing and disintegrating uncontrollably.”

… in August of 1980 … the [Polish] regime would not collapse for another nine years, but its death throes had already begun.

I trust many of us will hope, believe, and work like we’re a lot closer than nine years. Good things are clearly happening. And it takes lots of us.

What If We DO See A Major Change in Power in the USA Soon?

Are we at the point of the regime’s unravelling? I don’t know. We should have been there a number of times already. But if we are finally there, are we mentally and emotionally ready to handle that?

Even if it really unravels, which it well may, there will remain

  • a great deal of danger,
  • a great deal of vigor needed,
  • a great deal of mutual decency to be practiced,
  • and a GREAT deal of clean-up and reconstruction work to do.

See the poem by Wislawa Szymborska, “The End and the Beginning” on cleaning up after a war –

“After every war someone has to clean up.
Things won’t straighten themselves up, after all.”

Our rulers have not brought military warfare to these shores – not yet – but they have ignored, permitted, and directly caused much damage in and to this country and to the whole world.

Thus we’re going to have a LOT of work to do in the months and years to come no matter how the next six weeks go.

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