My Acid Test for the Democrats

Is the FISA law, now being argued and debated endlessly.

Let me be clear about this: If the Democrats cave into the fascists in the Bush Administration and grant the lawbreakers in the telecommunications companies immunity, then I am done with them. I officially will refuse to care which party has control of what branch of government.

Right now we have an elected fascist government, for the Bush Administration places itself above the law and seeks to enforce the law only against the people, but not against corporations. The Bush Administration arrogates to itself the power to exempt corporations from the law if it asks them to knowingly violate the law. I say "knowingly" here, for well before the attacks on Rudy Giuliani Day, the Bush Administration began illegally spying on everyone and all but one of the major telecom companies fell into line.

The Democrats have a choice: They can ratify the illegalities of the Bush Administration and they can close their eyes and quake in fear that the thugs in the Bush Administration would call them nasty names, or they can take a stand for the rule of law, for the principle that no man (or corporation) stands above the law.

Get a clue, people. Even the Kool-Aid drinkers are sobering up, for one reason: Think of all of the excesses in power the Republicans have connived to grant to this president-- those same powers will be available to the next president. Karl Rove's "permanent Republican majority" has lasted about half as long as the "thousand-year Reich" did.

If the Democrats cannot stand up, now, against a president who is arguably less popular than the Bubonic Plague, then there is no reason to trust them with the levers of power. If the Democrats cannot manage to forge an effective opposition to the dictatorial power grab of George Bush, then history may mark that this congressional session truly marked the beginning of the death throes of the American democratic system.

They can stand up for the principles of democracy and freedom and the rule of law. Or they can fold in the face of the fear-mongering fascists.

The choice is theirs.