Not one damn clue

On the day of President Bush's second inauguration, a cry rose up from angry Americans to spend "Not One Damn Dime" to protest the incompetence, consumerism, and ignorance of the Bush administration. By putting down their wallets and credit cards for one day, protesters nationwide said it was about damn time the government remembered it works for the American people and not the Enrons of this country.

At least that's what they thought they were saying.

Instead, what the protesters really said was that liberals and anti-Bushies still don't understand how to convey their message without looking like whiney sore losers to neocons, moderate conservatives, and even some Democrats like myself.

Not One Damn Dime Day, which asked protesters to refrain from buying anything even from the local convenience stores to protest inaugural excess and backroom politics, was one of those things that made me slap my hand to my forehead and wonder if Republicans are actually right about all us Michael Moore hippie blue-staters.

The thing is, this shouldn't be about Republicans, Democrats, or even Bush himself. Not One Damn Dime Day is a perfect example of too little, too late. And that's a lesson from which everyone can learn.

This entire country lacks a necessary degree of accountability. Sure, Bush has been holding secret meetings to discuss an attack on Iran, but would he have considered even holding such meetings if from the start, the public put their biggest elected official on the leash he should have been on?

I'm not saying we should completely restrict our leaders, but we need to hold them accountable, no matter what field they're in. Bullies only get as far as we let them. When a crowd circles around to watch a bully beat someone up in the schoolyard, the bully isn't going to stop unless the crowd reaches in and grabs him.

To Democrats, our bullies are our lackluster congressmen and congresswomen. We've let them bully us into accepting their votes in favor of the war in Iraq, to pass an under-funded No Child Left Behind Act, and to appoint Condoleezza Rice to become the Secretary of State. Michael Moore is another bully. So are Ken Lay and Joel Giambra.

The main problem with yesterday's demonstration is that protesters were aiming at the wrong target. That isn't to say there's only one "right" target to fire on, but if average Americans, whether they're blue or red, ever want to see change from their leadership, then they're going to need to get to the root of their problems.

There is a certain degree of irony when Bush said in his inauguration speech, "The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: to serve your people you must learn to trust them."

Bush, of course, was referring to oppressive regimes like Iran and North Korea, but if there's one country whose leadership abuses its authority, it's ours. That abuse is in how our leaders in journalism choose to deliver the news. It's in how the CEOs sell their products. And we've let them do it.

And throughout all this, the average citizen sits back, unknowledgeable and happily ignorant. It's only over a cup of coffee later on that people will gripe to each other in private and occasionally decide they are angry, so they're not going to spend one damn dime. And when that doesn't work, when it doesn't yield any tangible results, the protesters settle back into their regular routines, satisfied with the feeling of having made a minor stand in the way of a complex, well-oiled machine that has the masses on the leash when it should be the other way around.

I will bet that out of all the people who did participate in Not One Damn Dime Day, only a handful really knew the issues they were trying to tackle outside of keywords like consumerism, globalism, and George W. Bush. Everyone seems to be taking sides and closing their ears to what the other side is saying. No one is asking the hard questions. And as we scramble and have hissy fits amongst ourselves, our leaders continue to act in irresponsible self-interest.

As someone who's worked at stables before, I can say from experience, you can't get pissed off at the horse for running out of the barn if you left the door open.