More On The New Patriotism

I'm really loving the "new patriotism" thing. The publicity it's getting. We really need to hear that. Whether Wes lasts or not, the message that people should speak out, and that leaders should be accountable, needs to be heard.

There is no effective defense against it from the Bush Administration. They are totally unaccountable, share no information, and are downright antagonistic to the exercise of free speech.

With Dean angrily, and Clark matter-of-factly, pushing the meme that we need a change of leadership because our current one is antagonistic to American values, the veil of fear can be lifted.

People want to complain, they want to speak out. Things are going badly. The economy sucks. They're out of work. They're sick of Iraq, and sick of lies and BS. They know we need to somehow succeed in Iraq, but how we define that, and with who leading the way, is totally open, and negotiable.

Americans want to breathe again. Between Dean and Clark, and with Kerry, Kucinich, Graham, and the other Democratic hopefuls, that breathing space is being opened, whether you're angry, or whether you're just chagrined.

Hopefully the Democrats don't blow it. They're poised to seize one of the most dramatic, defining, and decisive victories in the history of American politics. Against the current monopoly of politics and discourse, with its vision of a new century of fear and unilateralist domination triggered by a single terrorist attack, and for an American-led, global democratic renaissance, and retrenchment, after 9/11, defined by a coming together, in unison, of the free and decent peoples of the world, united in opposition to those who hate, commit violence, and seek to undermine free democratic society and civilization.