Seven Days In May

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, OR TWO DAYS IN JUNE?

In 1962 Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas starred in a bone chilling “It can’t happen here,” political thriller where a right wing American general tried to take advantage of what he thought was a weak-willed liberal president by attempting a coup.
Seven Days In May Trailer

From all points on the right wing political compass disparate arrows start pointing in the same direction.

Sarah Palin gives a speech where she asserts that “I don’t want some law professor as President of the United States, I want a Commander in Chief!”

Pat Buchanan, an old Nixon man, comes right out and admits that “I don’t believe there’s a great salvation in (our) political process at all. I believe in far different things. I mean, I put Democracy far down the line. I think a devoutly Christian, Conservative, Traditionalist country, even if it’s a Monarchy, is fine with me.” Pat Buchanan on Hardball with Chris Mathews 6-18-09

Far right-wingers from Rush Limbaugh to Dick Cheney argue that the rule of law should no longer apply to everyone, (All Animals Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others) and that a right wing conservative elite should be able to wave Habeas Corpus, Miranda, Geneva conventions, and all of the barriers the founders and their successors built into our system to protect us from tyranny. You know as well as I do that a real trial of the 9-11 suspects would last about as long as the trial of the murderer of Dr. George Tiller. There is no good reason not to have these crimes tried in a court of law, and anyone who suggests there is has a hidden agenda. My question is a simple one. If these people advocate lawlessness, how then does society hold together? The answer is a simple one, dictatorship. Because today’s terrorist “suspect” is tomorrow’s opposition leader, and we all know how that goes.

So watch the movie “Seven Days In May,” released in 1962, and consider the events of just one year later, and think about how we got to where we are.
–      JJP