From: trentjillian@sympatico.ca   
      
   A 12-Step Program for Regime Change   
      
   By Don Hazen, AlterNet   
   January 15, 2004   
      
   Each day, millions of frustrated Americans engage in discussions about how   
   our country has gone off course and how ultraconservatives have taken over   
   our government. As we put our hearts and souls into figuring out how to   
   achieve regime change at home in November 2004, these conversations are   
   growing in volume.   
      
      
   How we engage this election will speak volumes about the future of our   
   country. Our passion in this political moment feels unprecedented. Yet,   
   because we feel a lot of anxiety about all that's happened to our country   
   since 9/11, we don't yet know our strength. We forget, for example, that the   
   things we believe in - equality, fairness, justice, dignity, and ultimately   
   kindness and love - inspired the greatest moral and political achievements   
   of the 20th century: civil rights, women's equality, the right to organize,   
   and the growth of the environmental movement. These values make our society   
   strong and appealing to the rest of the world. We must protect and promote   
   them in the 21st century as well.   
      
      
   Some of us have been discouraged by the increasingly conservative corporate   
   media, which try to marginalize us. We become alarmed as our government   
   ratchets up the fear quotient and we watch the irrational effect the scare   
   tactics have. At these moments, we can forget to turn to each other for   
   support.   
      
      
   But we must claim our power and overcome our doubts and fears - as well as   
   our bad habits. We need to feel proud and joyful, not just angry and   
   defensive. We must work together, as one huge family, knowing that if we   
   don't, we cannot win.   
      
      
   We must be united to fight for regime change at home, not just to prevent   
   more bloodshed, empire building and cruel policies, but to protect virtually   
   all the progress we've made over the past 40 years. Environmentalists alone   
   cannot ensure clean air and water; union members alone cannot protect the   
   right to organize; civil libertarians alone cannot defend the Constitution   
   and the Bill of Rights; seniors on their own cannot protect Social Security;   
   feminists alone cannot defend Roe v. Wade; and African-Americans and Latinos   
   alone are not going to ensure fairness and equality and stop a wide range of   
   cruel budget cuts.   
      
      
   But, by focusing on what we have in common - the clear-cut goal of defeating   
   Bush in 2004 - we can all succeed. How important is this? It feels more   
   important than anything we will do for a very long time.   
      
      
   To help us chart our course, what follows is a 12-step program to achieve   
   regime change. As in all such efforts for change, we need to take an   
   inventory of our strengths and our weaknesses, confront our bad habits and   
   addictions, reach out to others, and recover our power.   
      
      
   Step #1: Recognize Our Strengths   
      
      
   Let's start with traditions that serve as our foundation. Social critic   
   Colin Greer reminds us that Martin Luther King Jr.'s work evolved from his   
   initial civil rights struggles into protecting poor people of all colors and   
   then to insisting on peace in Vietnam. An overriding framework of concern   
   linked all of these causes into one "Beloved Community." Greer notes how the   
   values of progressive America inspire millions of people every day: health   
   care advocates; members of environmental, civil rights and civil liberties   
   groups; volunteers at food banks and women's shelters; people working for   
   their children's education, and many more. As he says, "We have to   
   communicate our history and our strength."   
      
      
   Progressives are potentially stronger now than at any time in the past 30   
   years. Breakthrough efforts like the fast-growing True Majority, and Move   
   On, with its 1.3 million members, have significant capacity to reach and   
   motivate new people. The MoveOn.org PAC can also raise large amounts of   
   money. Millions of unaffiliated middle-class progressives are ripe for   
   organizing. The Win Without War coalition, made up of 40 national membership   
   groups, has committed itself to regime change with a major investment in   
   media. Many increasingly sophisticated national organizations are already   
   gathering and dedicating themselves to the work ahead, focusing on voter   
   registration and education and Get Out the Vote (GOTV) strategies in key   
   states.   
      
      
   In the battle ahead, we are unified. From progressive to moderate, virtually   
   all of us agree that regime change is our common goal. Support for third   
   party politics is invisible, even among those who voted for Nader in 2000.   
      
      
   We were part of a tremendous effort to halt the invasion of Iraq, supported   
   by many tens of millions of people across the globe. Most of the world is   
   with us, and for much more than a peace movement; for a movement for sanity,   
   human values and the future.   
      
      
   We also need to tap into our deepest, most magnanimous courage to help us   
   give up old habits and narrow agendas, and sacrifice more for the whole. One   
   woman with a lot of courage is Doris "Granny D" Haddock, who at age 95 is   
   still raising hell; just a few years ago she walked across the country to   
   promote campaign finance reform. She recently reminded us of something   
   profound. During the recent peace marches, despite the angry speeches and   
   the losses to be suffered by so many, she said: "The people in the marches   
   were joyful. Did you notice that? Did you feel it yourself? The best smiles   
   I've seen in years." She went on to state that this time can also be "about   
   something far deeper than the Bush attack du jour... Did you not hope, as a   
   child, that one day it would be in your hands to save the world? Is it not   
   indeed joyful to embark on a life of great meaning? Aren't we joyful for   
   this moment, when all is at stake? We are, we are. And do not stand in the   
   way of our joy."   
      
      
   Step #2: Acknowledge What We Are Powerless to Change   
      
      
   We can't change the fact that September 11 happened and fundamentally   
   transformed the nature of American politics. We need to face the reality of   
   our defeat in trying to stop the attack on Iraq. We never stood a chance.   
   The rules have changed. We were playing by the old rules, advocating for   
   inspections and multilateralism, thinking that politics is about negotiation   
   and listening to constituencies. Now it's about raw power, and we need to   
   exercise our own power in the campaign to defeat Bush. The conservatives   
   effectively established new rules of engagement: Anything goes; be as   
   radical and as unreasonable as you can get away with; play the fear card;   
   and count on the corporate media to carry the message. Conservatives got   
   away with invading Iraq, and the only way to stop them is to defeat them in   
   the election of 2004.   
      
      
   The conservatives have invested enough money particularly by wealthy   
   right-wingers in think tanks and communications over the past 40 years to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)