Article: Vote Democratic and Always Carry a Toothbrush

Now I know the idea of voting for Democrats--especially Democrats who have voted wrong on the war, wrong on torture, wrong on giving the president dictatorial powers--is both sickening and seemingly contradictory, but with this last law we've crossed a Rubicon. We are in a police state when there is no longer habeas corpus and when even the Congress is saying that the president and the "Justice" Department can start locking people up in military prisons without the right to bring the case to a court. Heck, at this rate, after November, we may not even have another election. That makes voting for Third Party candidates kind of pointless, doesn't it? Basically, I'd say we've got a shot this November at stopping the coup, and we need to grab it. It might not work, but I'm betting most of those Democrats who shamelessly voted yes on the terrorism bill did it because they thought they needed to vote that way to win this election. They may be wrong (and I may be wrong), but the simple equation is--vote your conscience in those districts, and the Republicans keep in control in Congress and the police state grows in strength; ignore your conscience, vote for lame Democrats, and the Republicans lose Congress and we have at least a chance of stopping this march to totalitarianism. It's really that simple.

Certainly a Democratic Congressional victory on Election Day will not herald a return to some 1960s liberal America, or even a Clintonian pseudo-liberal era, much less to a new New Deal, and nobody should be under such an illusion. But it would be a major defeat for the Bush dictatorship, as a Democratic Congress could be expected to begin seriously investigating Bush administration crimes, could start to undo the creeping coup that has been eroding American democracy and long-held democratic freedoms, and could protect us from being saddled with yet another pro-authoritarian Supreme Court justice. (For that to happen, given the lame nature of the Democratic Party, will require a powerful mass movement through the course of the next two years, after Election Day.)

Meanwhile, just in case, I'm carrying that toothbrush. I care too much about the health of my gums and about keeping my teeth to want to lose them to a period of military detention.

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