In political dialog these days, we keep arguing about what someone will do or what someone did say. I’m guilty too. That’s just the way we’ve been brought up in the modern American Presidential Election. And I think this is why it’s so hard for a sitting Senator to run and win a campaign for president. It’s only logical that it should be much harder to run a campaign that’s asking “We the People” to vote for what you are going to do when you are actually involved, real-time, and at the moment in our highest profile and most powerful Legislative Body.

That’s why I think we are all, collectively, missing a huge chance here. I think we are actually very lucky to have two sitting Senators representing the two main parties for the next president. We have the once-in-our-lifetime chance to evaluate our candidates on what they are actually doing inside the Senate and not what they are saying or promising. This is why I get so incredibly frustrated when people dismiss the FISA issue as just something that’s a campaign wedge. We are talking about an actual piece of legislation that affects actual people and the actual values or principles we claim to believe in, not just a political dogma or platform or some abstract future. We have the chance to influence what happens and we have the chance to speak out and react via an almost immediate referendum in November.

I concede: very few things are as black and white as this bill. And maybe we are so conditioned in this partisan environment that there are always two sides to every issue. But, sometimes there just isn’t folks. This is so much bigger than being on one political party’s side or the other. We have to understand that this is not something to play politics with - that if you support and vote FOR this bill you are actually on the side of Power, Money and Elite over ordinary citizens. Period. Full-stop. You are endorsing and perpetuating the Two Americas that John Edwards speaks about. You are endorsing a system of two-tiered justice that gives us countless cases of injustice based on have vs. have-not or black vs. white. You are endorsing a system of government that goes to war by scaring its citizens. You are endorsing a media that does not bother to report on fact. I don’t know if that is a harsh accusation and it’s not my intention to offend people or their favorite candidate…but it is fact and it is just that simple. When you support someone who supports this bill it makes you complicit. And perhaps most unforgivable, it erodes real –time accountability at a golden opportunity.

I beg, implore, will promise to clean your house for a week – whatever it will take – to sit down, and read this piece. Not just read it between firing off emails at work or scan it while watching TV but sit down and really READ it (maybe even 2 or 3 times) with an open and un-defensive mind. Hell, maybe you can read it differently and convince me I’m over-reacting. Either way, everyone should read it…

Then do what you gotta do in November.

(my profound thanks to Glenn Greenwald for his energy and passion and what I think is a singular talent in explanation, debate and diplomacy. It does make a difference especially to those of us who tend to trend hot-headed)