Two hundred and nineteen years ago (almost to the day), the founding fathers put together not just some shining prose for the ages, but they crafted the finest manifesto for living as a society that the world has ever been able to put together. (This is the document that some of us, at least, revere as the Constitution.)

When George W. Bush assumed office, this magnificent foundation of freedom and equality and liberty and justice, and the edifice constructed upon it, had stood for two hundred and thirteen years, and had come to represent our bedrock values, our national identity. Quite simply, it told us who we are. And who we thought we would forever be.

George Bush – may future generations never utter his name without saying a very bad word and then spitting* – took just six years to bring the whole edifice tumbling down.

So who are we today, now that we have legalized torture, now that we have legalized Soviet-style state tyranny? Does anybody know?

The President of the United States can now (or as soon as he stops jumping up and down and signs the document that comes to his desk) take anyone he wants – foreign citizen, legal resident, U.S. citizen – and just declare them to be an unlawful enemy combatant, and stick them into jail for the rest of their lives, without ever bringing charges. And they will have exactly as much recourse as the Soviet man-on-the-street had in the days of Stalin. Or a little less than Chinese dissidents have today.

Who are we now, if not our own worst nightmare?

As Glenn Greenwald put it, this bill is

a profound betrayal …of the fundamental promises of the American system of government.

It was for this that people of my generation endured those drills at school, that endless rehearsal of ducking under desks so that when the time came (it was always when, right, not if?) we would be able to escape the Red menace’s nuclear radiation? It infected us anyway, didn’t it? After the self-destruction of the Soviet empire, we, of our own free will, have voted their worst excesses into law? Our law now.

Even they never had the brazenry to make it the law, it was just what they did anyway, off the record. So now, we’re actually out-Sovieting the Soviets. I guess it’s true. U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.! Number 1, baby (Hi Mom!)!

The America we used to be, the America we thought we were, no longer exists. That America was invaded a long time ago. We didn’t realize it at the time, but preparations for the assault began on September 12, 2001. Maybe the invasion itself was launched on March 19, 2003 (which is, of course, the day that Iraq was invaded). Every step on the way to launching the invasion of Iraq was a step to launching the invasion of the America we used to be.

On September 28, 2006, on the floor of the Senate, that America was finally vanquished. We are now under occupation. We are now, officially, an oppressed people. Like oppressed people everywhere, we are going to have to learn to sing the praises of our oppressors. So join me, please, in a chorus of “Heil to the Chief!”

It is the duty of every American who used to believe in that lost America, and still does, to resist this occupation. Fight it, tooth and nail, in your heart. Fight it, hammer and tongs, at the ballot box. Let’s tell all these spineless bastards who we are, the Democrats as much as the Republicans. Let’s tell them who they need to be if they want to represent us.

* Till somebody comes up with something better, I suggest that just as devout Muslims cannot say Mohammed without adding Peace Be Upon Him, anyone who still believes in the America we used to be should replace the words “George Bush” in their vocabulary with “George Bush (the motherf***ing spineless lying coward bastard), spit”. I will henceforth use the abbreviation TMSLCBS.