The teaching of Civics as a requirement for passage of High School, should be a requirement for every student that wants a High School diploma. 
Yesterday, on election day, I encountered a citizen of the US who thought that voting only happened every four years and that his vote did not matter.
How in the hell did this 21 year old pass High School?
He definitely could not pass any civics test and should be given one to show the shame of which the educational system has deteriorated in this country.
All students in High School right now should be required to pass an exam, which counters the threat of the ideological, ill-conceived Republicanism of today. There is no civility in the Grand Orgy Party of today, they, the people in power, do not care for the citizens of the US, just as long as they get to keep the wealth they have accumulated.
The idea that any person, is above another, is anathema in the US. The shrub, is using these last days in office, to secure the contracts for those of his cronies, that are raking in billions of dollars from the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and soon to be Iran.
We the people cannot and should not stand for this kind of reckless behaviour, we are not pawns in the games of the neo-conservative world.
We are people, who have lived for eight years in a world in which we are considered trash, good for only one thing, keeping the neo-cons in power.
I rebel at the idea that I am not a person.
The neo-conservative ideal is such that any person who does not agree with them, is a non-person, worthy of nothing more than a passing thought. Should
the neo-cons ever get back into power, G-d help the world.

Frank,

FDR almost made the Presidency into his own monarchy.

G. Anderson,

Thanks for the great post.

“On some level that is what has happened here, tolerance to racism, and hate cannot be accepted, ever. Neither can the Neo Con point of view be tolerated, as just another political point of view. Because it is not. It is not another point of view at all. For at it’s root is a belief in facisim.”

~~~

You so hit it right on the head. It would appear that this Tolerance thing got a little to carried away…went too far left.

And yes, fascism can be just as fascist on the left as on the right, depending on how extreme one chooses to go.

We CANNOT ‘go there’ again. Those have indeed been among the darkest of days, and we’re still not out of the dark and into FULL light yet. It could take a while. The old apparatus will have to be entirely dismantled. Not an easy thing to do when they’ve been allowed to burrow in and ferment for so many years.

And Ernest,

Thanks for your great post and start reminder about the Court.

You’re wrong, Frank Cajon, when you say Dean is “arrogant” because he “wants to get on the Obama wagon.” 

I am reminded of the words provided by Senator Kennedy on the rejection of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

“This debate has been a timely lesson in this bicentennial year of the Constitution of our commitment to the rule of law, to the principle of equal justice for all Americans and to the fundamental role of the Supreme Court in protecting the basic rights of every citizen.  In choosing Robert Bork, President Reagan has selected a nominee unique in fulminating opposition to the fundamental constitutional principles as they are broadly understood in our society.” 

Unfortunately, Bork is not unique.  There are now four radicals in robes on the U.S. Supreme Court who hail from the Robert Bork-founded, Richard Mellon Scaife-funded Federalist Society committed to nothing less than a judicial counter revolution that would effectuate the permanent corporate security state.  Each ascribes to “Unitary Executive theory”—a doctrine which is not merely radical but subversive of the rule of law as it would destroy all checks and balances and extend to an American president unlimited powers that exceed those of the British monarch at the time of the American Revolution. 

A McCain presidency would translate to a permanent Federalist Society majority.  What you perceive as “arrogance” is in fact a knowledge base that you lack and which has driven John Dean to provide such a poignant warning for our nation.

This weekend Turner Classic movies showed a pre WW II movie in which a family in Germany is destroyed by the rise of the Nazi’s. It starred Jimmie Stewart and Robert Young, I don’t remember the Name of the Movie.

Throughout the movie, the liberal father, and wife kept insisting that all intellectual points of view should be tolerated. Ironically it was their intellectual Tolerance, and liberalism that allowed the Nazi’s to come to power, because instead of fighting it they expected it to go away once it’s political arguments were refuted. Ironically, the tolerance they practised, led to the murder of the father, and daughter at the hands of the S.S.. Jimmy Stewart escaped to Austria, though his wife to be got a bullet in the back.

On some level that is what has happened here, tolerance to racism, and hate cannot be accepted, ever. Neither can the Neo Con point of view be tolerated, as just another political point of view. Because it is not. It is not another point of view at all. For at it’s root is a belief in facisim.

I remember during the darkest days of the Bush administration, how close we came to becoming a facist state, where howling right wing political figures held the glint of unchecked political power in their eye. 

Don’t think for a second this is over yet, they haven’t given up, the criminally insane never do.

By John in Glen Allen Va
“Another says people who wont vote because Obama is black should stay home.  Oh my god does that mean that people who will vote for Obama ONLY BECAUSE HE IS BLACK should also stay home?  I would vote for Obama if he was a republican.  I didn’t vote for Clinton either term and I don’t intend to vote for Obama. It must be lonely for you considering all the poor ignorant hicks you have to endure daily.”

~~~
Oh My Gawd! They’re coming out of the woodwork. I’m soooo glad we’re so much closer to this decision, though I know it could linger, with all of the standard rethug tricks.

Meantime, we’ve got the likes of John in Glen Allen VA (the location/mentality doesn’t surprise me) inflicting the misery and depression that ignorance so cultivates, and they don’t even get it. So let me explain John, we are not LONELY having to endure the ignorant hicks daily. That is the LEAST of our problems in respect to ignorant hicks or other assorted crack pots. (it’s not just ignorant hicks.) Now, the MAJOR DILEMMA is that you all (or the 40% or so that you all make up…at least to the extent that you vote) put the rest of us IN FEAR FOR OUR LIVES!!! You see, it is EXACTLY this mentality that has enabled the destruction of the nation by the current thugs in the White House!!

Enough of you NON-Thinkers, or other ideologues who vote for the ‘party’ (no matter what) instead of voting for the most qualified candidate, put Dick Bush in charge of the destruction of the Constitution and our economy, and our means of survival. It’s true that despite the number of you who DID vote for the destruction of the US via Dick Bush, they still didn’t win, in either one of the elections, 2000, and 2004. STILL, ENOUGH IGNORNATS DID!! So, the rest of us aren’t ‘lonely’…we’re PISSED!!! We are about as close to an Authoritarian/Totalitarian State as we can be without just tossing out ALL hope of at least some of us making it out of this alive; thanks to the ignorants and the psychopaths in DC. (most of them repuglicans)

We know have this ONE LAST CHANCE, before the whole thing CRASHES – FATALLY, for at least the rest of us, to try and save our collective and individual asses. Literally EVERYTHING is at stake for nearly everyone, and you or others of like UN-minds, come along and voice something so incredibly stupid like, “I would vote for Obama if he was a Republican.” Jeeze. Just knowing I’m sharing the same overwhelmingly critical decisions with this distorted thinking is enough to cause severe terror-related trauma. This is exactly how (or at least one of the components of) Totalitarian/Authoritarian regimes take over entire societies; by perpetrating these types of mindsets. And yeah, that’s scary as hell. We need only look to the same in so many other places on the global history line.
As for the about people voting for Barack Obama ‘just because’ he’s black; that’s just more of the same ignorance. He’s the obviously superior candidate, and THAT’S the point. If some people vote for him ONLY because he’s black, SO WHAT?! There’s are lot’s of things that happen to folks ‘just because they’re black’.

For instance, black folks are known to be turned down for jobs and promotions – just because they’re black.

Black folks have also been known as targets for law enforcement, and so they are frequently/disproportionately detained by law enforcement authorities – JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE BLACK.

Another curiosity is that Black Americans and other people of color are under-represented in the various institutions that create our republic, regardless of how highly qualified they are for many of these positions – JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE BLACK.

So, with all of that and so much more,  why SHOULDN’T somebody vote for Barack Obama for President – JUST BECAUSE HE’S BLACK?

Sounds like a good enough reason to me, but there are obviously hundreds more.

John Dean implies that Americans elected GW Bush in 2000 and 2004. It is well documented that the authoritarian Republicans he discusses stole both those elections. I wish Americans (and others) would quit acting like the outcomes of US elections are fair representations of the votes cast. Since 2000, they haven’t been. And the election may be stolen again - there’s already abundant evidence of Republicans messing with votes and voters this election season. One of the best books about all this is Mark Crispin Miller’s “Loser Take All”.

Of course, Dean’s thesis does apply if we’re discussing why at least 40% of Americans still support authoritarian right-wingers, something that’s been clearly true since the 80s.  Such people clearly aren’t competent to vote, but also bad is Democrats’ refusal to challenge, correct, or even look at Republican crimes against the vote and voters that have been obvious since 2000.

“I would vote for Obama, if he were a republican.”

When do you suppose that the american south will be able to put the voting rights act of 1965 behind them? But then again, when will they be able to put inherant racism behind them?

I figure it might be the day that they actually read their bibles and follow some of the social advice given in it. Or maybe the day that they abandon all those rebel flags still hanging from gun racks in their pick-up trucks.(My sister used to tell guys at college who hung rebel flags in their vehicles or in their rooms that perhaps you had not heard, but the south lost)

The american electorate changed in 1965 when the largest and most loyal voting block the republican party has ever known was created by a backlash of people who thought it was still OK in 1965 to oppress peoples right to vote, especially the black ones. The dixiecrats were out, and the Jessie Helms’s of the south ruled the day. They railed against the policies of us northern elitist liberals who had the unmittigated gaul to tell the old south how to treat their black folks. That they should have the same opportunities to go to school, vote or buy a house as the white folks enjoyed.

Forward to 2008. We may be on the precipace of history, and parts of the “old” south, like Virginia and North Carolina may be on the forefront of leading the Confederacy out of the 19th century, and into, well, at least the 20th.

If the result of this election is to finally see the Emancipation Proclemation come to fruition, and the old south begin it’s spiral into oblivion, it would be a great day for america. Maybe the smart people can finally convince everyone that it is not elitest to be educated, it is enlightening.

@spiritgirl—-My sentiments exactly!

John Dean is an arrogant, pinstriped lawyer. He was Nixon’s chief of staff. He may have found religion, and all the stuff about Republican Authoritarianism, and the characterizations of Bush, Cheney, McCain, and Palin are accurate.
My beef: He jumps off this, and suddenly he wants to get on the Obama wagon in his article. Sorry, John. What does Obama offer? ‘Running a masterful campaign?’ He backed the bailout. He wants to stay in Afganistan, bomb Pakistan, arm Israel. He put a half hour add on TV saying he would do a line-item veto that he knows is unconstitutional. He sometimes sounds good, and he isn’t a Republican, which is the ONLY reason I voted for him, but to say that he must be voted for is a real stretch. And, to further say that Americans are suddenly idiots in the voting booth, after they have elected basically one good president since Lincoln (FDR)? Last I looked, the rogue’s gallery looked like this, since FDR:
Bush II: Paranoid Personality, Cocaine addict by history, invaded Iraq in violation of UN, shredded Constitution
Clinton: Satyriasis, sex addict, committed perjury, obstruction of justice, sperm stains still on Oval office floor
Bush I: Secret police chief, led US into recession. Owned bad baseball team, ‘Read my lips’
Reagan: Alzheimer’s Dementia, S&L;scam, Iran/Contra, wife ran country based on astrologer readings while banging Sinatra
Carter: Brother alcoholic, pulled out of Olympics, mishandled hostage crisis, named Bert Lance to cabinet
Ford: Never elected, bad golfer, two assassination attempts, made deal to pardon Nixon in exchange for office
Nixon: Alooholic, criminal, bugged White House, entire staff did Fed prison time, he should have
Johnson: Alcoholic, killed 37,000 troops in Vietnam, originator of term ‘Johnson’ for male sex organ
Kennedy: Methamphetamine addict, Addison’s disease, satyriasis, nearly blew up world in missile crisis, dim bulb of Kennedly family
Eisenhower: General, never a politician, ran around on wife, sick, played golf while cold warriors ran world
Truman: Nuked two cities killing 250,000 civilians to prevent USSR takeover of northern Japanese island. Missouri machine politician president by accident
FDR: Clever, socialist, paralyzed but never permitted photos, did fireside chats. Led country back from depression and through WWII. Last good president.

Our nation is in decline because we are no longer smart enough to be trusted to vote. Many americans wear their ignorance like a badge of honor. They wave flags and watch NASCAR while drinking beer and bitching about ‘librals who wanna take their guns, stop their kids from praying, and kill god.

The above statement is not hyperboly. About one third of our nation actually thinks that way! And it can be blamed primarily on a faulty education system that reaps all the rewards of higher education on the relative few in our nation, while leaving the poor to plod along on high school educations, or worse.

We are begining to see the ramifications of an undereducated society. Dumb people don’t realize when they are being fucked over! We are headed down the road to a north american version of Feudalism. I fear there is no stopping it now.

We are not even smart enough to invent a system where everyones vote is guaranteed to be counted. So what chance do we have to pull our nation out of this death spiral we have been in since Vietnam? 

The closer we get to election day, the less faith I have in our system. The next President may be our last best chance. Does anyone out there think either of these guys have four GREAT YEARS in them? I suppose Barry has a small chance, and proud Johnny has no chance!

shit.

“I must ask if Americans are sufficiently intelligent to competently govern themselves.”

I’ve been asking that question ever since they put that bad grade B actor into the “role” of the Presidency!  He was suffering from dementia then, but no one wanted to see or hear anything against their “hero”!  Well, 20 years later, and I’m still asking the same question, I understand that there are people out there that simply refuse to vote for an African-American - then you all need to stay home!  Your candidate is neither competent, nor do I believe that he is in the best of health - which would mean that this nation would be left in the hands of another anti-intellectual, warmongering, power grabbing cabal!  There need to be intelligence tests administered for both those that want political office, and those “Jerry Springer” types that vote for them!

Do you live in a settled red or blue state and feel that your vote “doesn’t matter”? Do you think the Electoral College is undermining the democratic process in the United States? Should the Constitution be amended to eliminate the Electoral College and have our Presidents elected by popular vote? What do you think? We invite you to vote in the poll, view the results and express your opinion:

http://windmountain.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/poll-abolish-electoral-college/

How can they be flag-waving lovers of freedom when all they want to do is take away other people’s freedoms?

You hate abortion? Don’t get one! You don’t want gays to marry or have family benefits. Don’t marry someone of your same-sex! You want to keep your guns? No one was planning to take them away! You want to worship your god? Go for it, just don’t make me worship with you!

I say more freedoms, not fewer!
—————————————
Obama 2008
“Mad McCain” videos: http://tv1.com/playlists/show/11

Bush defeated McCain twice - in the 2000 republican primaries and in this year’s election.

“If Obama is rejected on November 4th for another authoritarian conservative like McCain, I must ask if Americans are sufficiently intelligent to competently govern themselves.”
Well, duh!
It takes John Dean to inform the electorate of this impending disaster?  Hells bells; we’ve been living with it for 8 years, hello?
Frankly, I think it’s the uneducated, gullible, ignorant, sheep that will ultimately kill this dying republic.  God almighty, Sarah Palin?  John Victim McCain?  What could you possibly be thinking? 
Please, please, on Tuesday vote for the only way out of this morass…you know the way…follow your heart.

“I must ask if Americans are sufficiently intelligent to competently govern themselves.”

I have been asking this for years.  We require American history tests for people to become citizens, yet many born in this country couldn’t pass the tests themselves. Let’s face it, our most important elections, which profoundly shape the world we live in, are ultimately decide by millions of uniformed idiots who are easily steered by media soundbytes and cheap campaign tricks.  Is that really democracy?

If Americans continue to re-elect men like Bush and follow it up by voting for candidates like McCain, I think more people will be willing to revisit the issue of whether the right to vote in federal elections should be earned rather than an automatic entitlement.

I would at least consider certain requirements if this trend continues: requiring a high school diploma or GED, and perhaps even a passing score on a voter qualification test on US Government (name three branches, separation of powers, etc),  the Bill of Rights and other key parts of US Constitution (which should be required for HS graduation in my opinion), very basic economics, and perhaps basic geography.  Or, we could simply require them to answer a pool of questions from the INS citizenship test.

Though some might be initially disqualified, these requirements would force them to educate themselves on things every citizen should know anyway. In the short term we have have a more intelligent electorate, and in the long term a better educated population. It isn’t disenfranchisement if people can make themselves qualified without unreasonable effort.

Just something to think about.

Great article! I especially like the list of traits of these scum and their followers.

Republicans should scare the hell out of all of us. We have seen Bush bring us down to near “Depression era” in 8 years time. And yet to have 22% approval rating blows my mind. Who possibly could be happy with the republicans?

McCain is so out of touch with reality as well as the American people, that he has no clue what our lives are like.

When I hear anyone say Palin is great and intellegent, I shake my head that anyone can choose her over all the intellegent women in political office.
This woman pits American against American with hate and dividing our people.

That anyone would choose looks,the folksy jiberish coming out of Palin’s mouth is very scary.

From McCain we hear name dropping, a line of bull that is so nonsensical that McCain should be in a cartoon.

So what is wrong with some Americans? I do believe some haven’t any common sense, do not read much of anything, and should re-think voting, until they take the time to really understand the job of President and vice, and what it means to us as citizens of the United States.

God help us all if McCain/Palin win, as we will wish for the old days when Bush was in office. Now isn’t that scary?

JOHN DEAN: REPUBLICAN RULE IS DANGEROUS

Posted on Nov 2, 2008
Nixon’s former counsel has written a scathing review of conservative Republican politics and says the McCain-Palin ticket, which “scares the hell out of me,” fits the mold. How’s this for an endorsement?: “If Obama is rejected on November 4th for another authoritarian conservative like McCain, I must ask if Americans are sufficiently intelligent to competently govern themselves.”

And that’s from John Dean!

What more can I say?

Other than this gives me such a feeling of déjà vu. I was like John Dean 8 years ago, when the Bush-Cheney ticket was scaring the hell out of me. It’s the same feeling now about McPalin, only a few jillion times scarier. (if that’s possible).

Because by now, everything that scared the hell out of me then, has manifested to be even worse than I could have imagined.

So, I’ve been asking this same question for a really long time now…”Are Americans sufficiently intelligent to competently govern themselves?”

Common sense and observation of the past decade (or more) tells us *not*. BUT…maybe it’s taken that straddling the abyss with our asses hanging out, to wake people the hell up!! If we blow it this time, I don’t know what to think.

Neoconservatives have been famous for their inability to see beyond short-term greed, hope for nurturing future, concern for our planet, or real concern for our fellow men and women.

They are too angry, too selfish, too insular, too egocentric, too doltish to understand anything lasting and noble.

They would destroy the human race before admitting fault.

Dean says it well. We do not deserve to govern ourselves if we again choose the bankruptcy of McCain and Palin. After 8 years of a plague called Bush, who in their right mind would choose an extension of a plague?

Mr.Dean is right, there is a powerful and often over-whelming authoritarian streak in the modern Conservative.Republican movement.

What a sad fall, from the progressive populist GOP of 70+ years ago.

Daniel Elsberg made a probably accurate and scary observation, that if America becamse a full dictator, maybe the majority of Americans won’t mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZAynSh4GuM

It is imperative for people to understand, and stop this silly “well, good people could disagree with each other” nonesense. There is no ethical or intellectual equivalency between progressivism and authoritarianism.