Who will march against Bush?

Geov Parrish

Country should unite in pro-America impeachment rallies

Man, did I hit a nerve.

E-mail is still pouring in from my column Monday in which I observed that the legal argument being employed by the Bush White House -- for, among other things, the NSA spying scandal, the torture and Patriot Act reauthorization signing statements, and now LeakGate -- is that George Bush is above the law. And that that is a legal argument for a dictatorship. And that if Bush is not held accountable for this direct challenge to the Constitution of the United States of America, even if he doesn't decide to use those dictatorial powers himself, he's still established them as a precedent, and some future American leader will use them instead.

Well, I heard from a couple of cranky conservatives, but so far the e-mail is about 50-to-1 in favor.

By far the most common comment (beyond people venting about George Bush) is along the lines of: "If the illegal immigrants can flood the streets, why can't we?"

It's very simple. Many of those immigrants (legal or not) feel they're marching for their lives. Bush critics don't have that sense of urgency. Most of us read about the latest abuses and depredations of the Bush cabal and then swear or sigh and go on about our lives. That's the difference. Sad, but true. Beyond that, remarkably enough, critics of Bush, even though we are now a majority of the country, do not have the media infrastructure that immigrants have. The driving force behind the turnout for many of these rallies has been promotion by Spanish language radio. L.A. has at least a dozen such stations, and almost all of them banded together to help turn out up to a million people. Same thing happened in Chicago, in Phoenix, in Miami, in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New York, D.C., and on across the country. The liberal blogosphere or Air America can't do that.

They can't do it, and mainstream media won't. The critics of Bush who have been marching: primarily anti-war groups, who have another major national protest scheduled for Saturday, April 29 in New York City, have been ineffective. To date, the sponsoring organizations and rallying cries of such marches have been solidly leftist -- sometimes extremely so -- and turnout has been below expectations. Political leaders (saving a few isolated Democrats, far from their party's leadership) haven't taken these events seriously, and so mainstream media hasn't, either. And so most of the people upset about the direction of our country not only don't know about the protests, but don't share the organizers' political sensibilities anyway.

The problem we face isn't just the Iraq war -- it's the man who launched it, and who now wants to launch another, potentially far more disastrous war in Iran. The problem is the Bush administration itself, and a feeble Congress in which both parties are allowing Bush and his cronies to run roughshod over them.

What has been so inspiring for anyone who has actually attended one of these immigrant marches is that these are people who love this country. Flags are everywhere. The marchers want to be here. They chose to come here -- sometimes at great risk, sometimes giving up everything in the process. They want nothing more than to be given a chance to be part of this country. They believe in the promise of America, even as it is in danger of being destroyed.

That -- not the constant foreign policy criticisms that are the hallmark of antiwar marches -- needs to be the primary focus of any anti-Bush mobilization, too. That is what will resonate. It needs to be positive, hopeful, insistent. We're seeing our country being stolen from us. We want it back. We demand it back. We love our country, and we're not about to stand by and watch while a bunch of Machiavellian failed oilpatch executives take it from us and wreck it. We believe in the promise of America, even as it is in danger of being destroyed. That's the message.

The presidency of the United States is a stewardship. For four years, perhaps eight, we elect an individual of whom we ask only that he make decisions that will leave our country in better shape for the next guy.

George Bush has abused that stewardship. Badly. And something needs to be done about it. Now. The Conyers Report leaves no doubt that some of Bush's abuses are not only staggeringly incompetent, but criminal. And Conyers' laundry list was written five months ago; far more has come out since then. And given the White House's arrogant, aggressive responses to scandals thus far, it's virtually incontestable at this point that more abuses are being committed each day this crew remains in power.

Don't count on the Democratic Party to act for us. Even if they win a house of Congress in November, by the time any investigations have confirmed enough evidence, or enough egregious evidence, it will be too close to 2008 and impeachment, even if it were to be seriously considered by their chickenshit leadership, would be ruled out as "too politically risky."

No, the only route is if Republicans come to understand that without impeachment or a resignation, unless Bush is stopped, public disgust and anger is so widespread that Bush will soon destroy their party. Far more so than Nixon, the entire Republican Party has signed on for Bush's failings, and it's in their interest to disavow him and hold him and his administration accountable. That process can start right now; it need not wait for an electoral earthquake in November. But it requires widespread popular demand, a message of love and concern for our country, a message that resonates with disgusted conservatives every bit as much as with independents, grass roots Democrats, and, yes, leftes.

If you believe the polls -- or the little unscientific sampling of my e-mail -- the numbers and passion are out there for a mass movement to demand that Bush be held accountable for betraying the sanctity of his office. Is the urgency there? Can it be organized?

I still need to be convinced. But we'll never know unless we try. See more in the Geov Parrish archives.

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Geov Parrish is a Seattle-based columnist and reporter for Seattle Weekly, In These Times and Eat the State! He writes the daily Straight Shot for WorkingForChange. He can be reached by email at geovlp@earthlink.net -- please indicate whether your comments may be used on WorkingForChange in an upcoming "letters" column.