For those who don't care about what actually happens as a result of their actions or inactions then, as one of Dostoyevski's characters memorably declared, "everything is permitted."
But if, like me, your concern is actually to save the country from the destructive forces now rampant, then it is imperative to acknowledge one inescapable truth:
The only way these fascist forces can possibly be defeated is by gathering a clear majority of the American public to oppose them.
The regime commands the American military. The regime is in bed with those who command the vast wealth of the corporate system. Is it realistic to imagine that they can be overcome by any non-democratic forms of power?
In a society such as ours, the opinion of the majority of citizens is supposed to be the ultimate arbiter of how power is wielded. But in the present instance, there is really no other possible source of power with which these proto-fascists can be defeated.
Any winning strategy therefore must be one that can sway a majority of the public against the regime.
It is possible that, as some argue, the regime has so corrupted our electoral system that even a majority of the public will be unable to unhorse the fascist power. But even if that is so, that does not create any alternative path to victory, but only eliminates the one possibility around which our hopes must rally.
And that suspicion regarding the possibility of an honest election is no reason for giving up on the one conceivable strategy for victory. The possibility of their defeat by normal electoral means cannot be ruled out.
Thus it is that any responsible opponent of the Bushite regime must continually attend to the question: How can the mainstream of American public opinion be roused to active opposition to these Bushite rulers?
For not every issue that is important to some opponents of the regime has any realistic --or even conceivable-- potential to inspire agreement and support from the American mainstream.
How this basic truth --that mainstream public support is indispensable-- affects the proper choice of issues and goals for the opposition to the Bushites will be discussed in the next installment.
