"The Silent Majority..."

Back in the days of Nixon, when everyone seemed predisposed against the government, Nixon intoned the Silent Majority. It was conjured up to represent the vast middle class that stood firm for middle of the road values and those silent Americans who believed in apple pie, motherhood and the American dream. It was the mysterious support that supported the unsupportable actions of a man who had lied and acted as a traitor in order to win power. And it was all invisible.

Today, we'd probably call these invisible figures right wing Republicans.

Much can be said about invisible things. In fact, today, democrats have donned the garb of the invisible presence but instead of using this "silent majority" as their crutch, the Republicans have chosen to ignore them. Today's silent majority are democrats!....Democrats who seem to be bathed in the comforting notion that if they don't do anything or say anything, that nothing will happen and that nobody can accuse you of anything and that life will go on.

However, that notion is dead wrong.

Surely, if any people will accelerate our downfall, it is they...

Those who make up this group must be educated to realize that by making no decision, they are actually making a decision and that decision has determined every action that the Republicans have taken over the last six years. They have won by default.

Whose default: Ours!

Why do I say this?

In the beginning, it was clear that Bush's government believed that if you have the ball, you run with it. If there is no direct opposition, seize the high ground. They did that by assuming a mandate which they did not have. In fact, they were voted in by the slenderest of margins and one that was held in dispute by any clear thinking voter.

How did they then manage to gather up all of the power so quickly? They believed that If nobody jumped out of their chairs at the boldness or deliberateness of their actions, then they had clear sailing. It's a concept that derives from sales courses where you always act like you already have the sale.

But nobody did jump out of their chairs to take them to task.

And the Republicans took that as a sign that they could do whatever they could get away with. That was the equivalent of leaving the cell doors open and the keys on the desk.

In effect, by being silent, we had implicitly sent a message to the Republicans that whatever they did, they didn't have to worry about repercussions. Democrats don't cry; they don't speak up; they don't complain. In fact, they don't do much of anything so they can be ignored.

This was the overwhelming message to a kind of sea slug mentality that charges ahead until it runs into an obstacle. We have been paying the price ever since. Perhaps, the new democratic party to emerge from the ruins will realize that for every action there is a reaction, one of the first rules of molecular physics.

Rule two: Modified for politics: If there is no contravening force, it is possible to do anything without running into interference.

That is what we have seen through five desperate years of office where not one democratic strategy has shown any teeth, any serious resolve.

We are older now, and hopefully wiser; however, there is still no one standing up; no one willing to say, "All of this is bullshit. All of it is wrong. And you by your very actions, no longer deserve the podium or a place in the Sun..."

At that precise point in time, we need to take out the tar and feathers!

I guarantee they will back off....


Les Aaron