America's Cancer

I still read the news and the blogs, and follow the insanity that is the W administration and the havoc they are wreaking on America. But I haven't blogged about it because I'm suffering from outrage fatigue. It all seems too much some time.

And I'm not the only one. DK's recent post pretty closely captures my feelings at this point. But I'm not quite ready to believe in the total conspiracy theory yet. For some reason I'm thinking that something's infected our country, our government, and it's cancerous and eating away at the very soul of our country and the principles it was founded on. Oh, I'm sure there was a conspiracy to fire the US Attorney Generals. And I'm sure there are others. But I think that when those in power will use that power solely for their own good, and to acquire more power, regardless of law, rule, or historical precedent and with no one to stop them (aka a Republican Congress) then the cancer spreads. Was there some neat detailed plan to alter any government document referring to global warming? Probably not. But somehow the government was infected and as the cancer spread through the various departments it evolved and changed on it's own. Let's block the Plan B drug because we can and it would empower women. Let's build huge detainment centers in Texas for immigration purposes. Let's spy on Americans. Let's torture people. And it seems like the cancer has spread to the Supreme Court whose recent decisions seem pretty bad.

The American body is fighting back. There are some glimmers of hope. Some court rulings regarding the tribunals. The continuing investigations into the US Attorney General firings, the recent revelations about Dick Cheney, the Abramoff scandal, the wire tapping, the secret prisons, all help the country get better. It's like light kills this particular form of cancer. And the more the people, and the media, ask the questions, the more we can help America get better, to fight the cancer.

Andrew Sullivan uses the term "Christianist" to describe a certain group to conservative christians who want to force their beliefs and opinions on the United States. I want to create a term for the people who are actively subverting our government (i.e. bogus voter fraud investigations, illegal wire tapping, authorizing torture), using it for personal gain (Ney, Cunningham, Stevens), or to advance their political agenda (global warming, Plan B) against the better good of all Americans. Right now the only word I can think of is Traitor.