An October 5th Coup?

Here’s a lefty website that seems to be calling for a coup on October 5th. Here are some of the details (emphasis mine):

“The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come.

We must act now; the future is in the balance.

Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this. There is not going to be some magical “pendulum swing.” People who steal elections and believe they’re on a “mission from God” will not go without a fight. There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into “leaders” who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.

But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn – or be forced – to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it. And there is a way. We are talking about something on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and in the world. We need more than fighting Bush’s outrages one at a time, constantly losing ground to the whole onslaught. We must, and can, aim to create a political situation where the Bush regime’s program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the whole direction he has been taking society is reversed. We, in our millions, must and can take responsibility to change the course of history. Acting in this way, we join with and give support and heart to people all over the globe who so urgently need and want this regime to be stopped.

This will not be easy. If we speak the truth, they will try to silence us. If we act, they will try to stop us. But we speak for the majority, here and around the world, and as we get this going we are going to reach out to the people who have been so badly fooled by Bush and we are NOT going to stop. The point is this: history is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious. And it is also full of examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they ever imagined.”

Given that Bush isn’t going to have a third term, what else can they mean by saying things like the Bush Administration, “will not go without a fight.” Bush must be “driven from office.” “If we speak the truth, they will try to silence us. If we act, they will try to stop us.”

Here’s more from the FAQ:

…Protest doesn’t make a d*mn bit of difference if it’s “protest as usual”. Protest that trims its sails to the political terms set by electing Democrats, or that tries to be respectable, or that doesn’t convey that THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND MUST BE BROUGHT TO A HALT. No, protest like that doesn’t really amount to much. Never has and never will.

We’re talking about tens of thousands going into the streets with a clear standard — BRING THIS TO A HALT — and a spirited call to others to join this. Our recent statement envisions “a great wave of people unleashed from the huge reservoir of people who are deeply distressed over the direction in which the Bush regime is dragging the country and the world, moving together on the same occasion, making, through their firm stand and their massive numbers, a powerful political statement that could not be ignored: refusing that day to work, or walking out from work, taking off from school or walking out of school — joining together, rallying and marching, drawing forward many more with them, and in many and varied forms of creative and meaningful political protest throughout the day, letting it be known that they are determined to bring this whole disastrous course to a halt by driving out the Bush Regime through the mobilization of massive political opposition.”

…Face it. The political will of the people is not going to find expression through the elections. Look at the state of official politics and how unacceptable the whole process and logic is. There is no other way this fall for people to make manifestly clear that they want the war ended, that they want the right of abortion protected, that they think torture is completely immoral and unacceptable, that they regard a government that abandons and then uproots the Black population of New Orleans as unconscionable.

Although they don’t have the guts to come right out and say it, it seems pretty clear that they don’t want to beat Bush at the ballot box, they want to violently overthrow the government. After all, it doesn’t matter how many people go to a protest rally, Bush isn’t going to simply resign because of it.

Of course, nobody but a few fringe kooks could support this sort of thing, right? Well, according to their home page, if you believe them, the people who have endorsed this coup attempt include:

Edward Asner, Ed Begley Jr., Harry Belafonte, Margaret Cho, Ward Churchill, US Rep. John Conyers Jr., Steve Earle, Jane Fonda, Jesse L. Jackson, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rickie Lee Jones, Casey Kasem, Jessica Lange, Lewis Lapham, Rabbi Michael Lerner, US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Mark Crispin Miller, Viggo Mortensen, US Rep. Major Owens, Sean Penn, Harold Pinter, Boots Riley, US Rep. Bobby Rush, Susan Sarandon, Rev. Al Sharpton, Cindy Sheehan, Martin Sheen, Gloria Steinem, Lynne Stewart, Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, US Rep. Maxine Waters, Cornel West, & Howard Zinn.

Have these people really endorsed trying to overthrow the government on October 5th? If they have endorsed this group, do they know what kind of language is contained on the website? That’s unknown.

But, if liberals don’t support this sort of tacit endorsement of a violent coup attempt, they should step up and say so.

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