It still remains to be seen if the U.S. can be salvaged from the claws of totalitarianism, but I remember the dark days of the botched 2000 election, when the Supreme Court stripped the people of their sovereignty and selected the guy who didn’t win the election, and I remember the cynical use of the destruction of the WTC as an excuse to foment war in Iraq.

I was against the war from the onset, and I despaired because it seemed that everyone supported the war, or didn’t care. As Karl Rove committed treason against Valerie Plame, as W and Darth Vader Cheney blatantly lied to the American public, I remember thinking that we were screwed as a nation, and that the fall of the Republic was at hand.

But then I remember when the tide began to shift.

The first thing that made realize that the neocons weren’t going to be able to just steamroll the U.S. into a fascist state was when I heard a radio station in Chicago play “Changes” by Tupac Shakur, interspersed with the bullshit that W and company were feeding us. Whoever made the decision to play it was brave, at a time when it seemed that just questioning the joker sitting in the Oval Office would land you in Gitmo.

The lines that sent shivers up and down my spine were these:

And still I see no changes.
Can’t a brother get a little peace?
It’s war on the streets and the war in the Middle East
Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs
so the police can bother me

The prophetic words about war in Iraq were eerie. The song was released in 1998, and Tupac had already been killed in 1996. I know it’s not that remarkable of a prediction, considering that the Middle East has been wracked with turmoil for a long time, but it still hit me.

Around that time, the protests against the war started. Progressive bloggers started to make their mark on the blogosphere, providing a welcome counterpoint to the right wing hacks and shills.

The war to take back our country is far from over, but at least it’s being fought.

To quote Andre the Giant, “I hope we win!”