What about us?

Now that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Irv Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has been convicted of four felony charges for his role in the treasonous exposure of an intelligence agent, the question we face is where the country goes from here. I wrote a comment that I submitted to Salon and Smirking Chimp, and a revised version appears below. Before reading it I suggest you read Glenn Greenwald's reponse to defeatist comments on what he wrote about the verdict.
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Changing the dialogue

My greatest hope is that this verdict will disabuse the country of the notion that the Bush regime is anything other than a criminal organization. A mafia. A syndicate. A gang. A conspiracy. The ideology is just window dressing, intellectual cover, a front to keep pundits employed, especially on Fox and CNN, but also on the "legitimate" networks - CBS, ABC, and NBC. The intention of the propaganda front is to keep the "American" people confused, fooled, compliant, and supportive.

From Bush to his lowest appointee, this administration is criminal. Bush himself stole two elections. He should never have been president in the first place. His active negligence (or worse) enabled the attacks of September 11, 2001. His lying enabled the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the occupation has been fraught with corruption, kidnapping, torture, and murder of Iraqis.

His active negligence enabled the disaster and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His failure to address the effects of climate change guarantees that we will pay a dear price for it in death and destruction for decades to come. He is a completely worthless human being, and should be impeached, tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the rest of his misspent life. His accomplices should suffer the same fate.

The real question at this point is what about us, The "American" people? Do we have the wherewithal, the nerve, the courage to bring this regime to justice? If we are a nation of Patrick Fitzgeralds, then yes, we do. But there is an entire political party that supports the criminality of the Bush crime family. The "Republicans" will do anything they can to prevent the gang from being held accountable, because the long arm of the law just might reach them too. So we can expect the expected: obfuscation, propaganda, obstruction, fake indignation, fake arguments, diversion, character assassination, scapegoating, threats, lies, etc., etc., etc.

What honorable, intelligent people can begin doing is change the dialogue about the drive for empire. It was never for us, but for themselves. "Leftists" call them "fascists," but it is fascism to benefit themselves, not us. They would not like fascism so much if someone else were in power. The "Patriot Act" is for their own benefit, not ours. The domestic spying is to benefit themselves, not us. Packing the Supreme Court is for themselves, not us. The "War on terror" is for their benefit, not ours.

So maybe now we can start to talk differently about this regime. Once we have changed the context, we can see clearly what needs to be done.