I’ve been so busy (and having so much fun with) work lately, that I’ve been neglecting politics to some extent, especially here. In fact, I now see that my latest entry filed under politics was 19 months ago!

Well, time to catch up. Here’s an interview with Naomi Wolf, discussing topics from her latest book, The End of America. In this interview, she describes having discerned 10 steps that tyrants of the 20th century used to subvert democratic systems in their own countries, converting them to dictatorships. It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that the piratical crew at the helm of the U.S. government have already implemented a number of these items, with more on the way.

Near the end she mentions the American Freedom Campaign, a bi-partisan movement determined to take away the powers that Bush has grabbed for himself, and restore the checks and balances described by the constitution. This seems like a good thing to me.

Really, it’s hard for me to understand head-in-the-sand republicans who willfully ignore the power imbalance that the current administration has created, giving so much power to the executive branch. It works out well for republicans as long as there’s a republican president, but what if (gasp) a democrat actually wins the presidency the next time? Do they want a democratic president having the same kinds of powers that Bush now has, but applying them towards the progressive goals they so despise? Or is there a unspoken understanding amongst this crowd that things have been sufficiently “fixed” that there simply cannot be anything but republicans in the presidency, come hell or high water?

(via Giles)