It’s not really a game, but almost seems like one. In reality, it’s a winner-take-all contest, in which half the nation is willfully pulling to the right, and the other half is just as willfully pulling to the left. It is, in essence, a rivalry with the highest stakes of any similar competition in history. For on Election Day, 2004, American voters will engage one another in the ultimate and most consequential tug of war, ever.
In conventional competitions, only one side wins. Losers attend to their wounded egos, live to fight another day and life goes on. But this is an unconventional time with so much more to lose. This time, we are not risking the loss of an election. This time we are risking the loss of a nation. This time, good people from every walk of life will lose, unless they pull together to save this country. We must wrench this nation back from the brink of disaster to which it has been taken. If we don’t, the game will be over, for good.
THE STAKES
What makes this tug of war so strange is the fact that we’ve lost so much already. Some of what has happened in the past three and a half years is irreparable. Much of the damage to our nation and the world will take decades, if not generations, to undo. Winning will not insure the resurgence of our nation as we knew it before the theft of the presidency in 2000. Tragically, a victory that pulls the ropes of power back to the American people may only stanch the bleeding that is already out of control.
But losing is unthinkable. That’s why there is so little discussion about the day after the national elections. We have to focus on victory, and we dare not think about the possibility of defeat. Losing can only bring us more of what we already have, and that is too painful for so many Americans to even consider. We cannot possibly allow four more years of the disastrous policies at home and abroad of the Bush administration. We simply cannot allow them to continue with business as usual.
FOR IF WE LOSE:
Lying to the people will become a standard method of implementing domestic and foreign policies. The government will never again be held accountable for its repeated deceptions and lies.
The media will be even more controlled and intimidated than today and nothing will be investigated or known about the increasingly secret policies of the administration.
People around the world who hate and fear our leaders will hate and fear us all, for they will see that Americans approve of the warmongers in their government
The credibility of the United States will never be restored anywhere in the world.
The United States will never again be viewed with respect anywhere in the world, and its leadership will never again be recognized.
The United States will continue to be feared and hated around the globe for its policy of might makes right, and for its responsibility in making the world a far more dangerous place than ever before.
The United States will be seen as indifferent to the lives of nearly twenty thousand civilians in Iraq during its illegal and immoral invasion and occupation.
Other nations will emulate the Bush Doctrine that legitimizes preventive and pre-emptive wars to invade and conquer weaker nations.
Any accusations against other nations, no matter how true, will be viewed with trepidation and skepticism.
Nations around the world will refuse to risk the lives of their young people to come in and clean up the mess that this administration created in Iraq.
Former allies will continue to refuse to cooperate on any level with an administration that dismissed their relevance and boasted of its ability to go it alone.
American men and women will continue to die in wars of choice.
The Middle East will continue to destabilize into greater and greater chaos
The American military will be depleted and exhausted as it continues to be deployed to nations with no purpose or benefit to the United States.
The national debt will continue to increase as more and more money is needed to support wars unrelated to any real terror threats.
Domestic policy will be set by the religious right, and individual rights of women, gays, and minorities will be determined by Biblical interpretation.
Stem cell research will not be funded as science continues to be superseded by ideology.
Right wing, activist justices will be appointed to fill Supreme Court vacancies
Environmental policies will continue to be abandoned in favor of deregulation of industries that pollute our air and waters.
Who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to Robert Novak
Who manipulated the cost estimates of the Medicare Bill
Who manipulated the numbers to show that there were half the terror strikes in the world since Saddam’s fall than actually took place
Who manipulated the numbers to show that more jobs were created in the past two months than really were
Who approved the abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan
So much, much more…
THE ARENA
The showdown is only months away. Half the nation is pulling with the present administration. That’s a formidable challenge in a tug of war this important. It will take only a few more hands pulling us back from oblivion to win this one. It’s all about strength in numbers this time. It’s all about getting the people on the sidelines to grab the rope and pull. It’s all about getting the onlookers to grab the rope and pull. It’s all about getting people who never played the game to grab the rope and pull.
Print this out. Give it out to those who are undecided or unclued. Post it on Internet bulletin boards, discuss it in forums. The game is scheduled for November 2nd and the stakes are sky high. If we lose, and if we are forced to let go of the rope, our team will slide into the abyss and the nation will be lost. But if we win, we can begin to restore what was and show the world what real Americans stand for.
We cannot, - we simply cannot afford to lose. United, we really and truly stand. Divided is not an option.
