Remember Elizabeth Drew? I grew up reading her columns about politics in The New Yorker. She's a "legendary" reporter of the DC political scene. She used to be a fully-paid-up Beltway insider before New Yorker editor Tina Brown purged her.

And here's what the American political scene looks like when you're not (so much of) an insider. Jump to the last paragraph of Drew's article "Power Grab" in the current issue of The New York Review of Books:

James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper No. 47:

The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many...may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

That extraordinary powers have, under Bush, been accumulated in the "same hands" is now undeniable. For the first time in more than thirty years, and to a greater extent than even then, our constitutional form of government is in jeopardy.

Mainstreaming is hard work! Our hair has been on fire about Federalist 47 since 2005 (here, here, here, and here).

So, finally, the idea--the horrible realization, the fact--that Bush really is a tyrant as the Founders understood that word is part of Civil, mainstream discourse. Thank you, Elizabeth Drew.

But what do we do about it?

Translation: What can the blogosphere do about it?

I dunno. I'm a writer and a techie, not an organizer. That said, resistance movements have a nasty habit of becoming mirror images of that which they resist. Exhibit A: The neo-cons and Stalinists.

But I seem to recall that non-violent movements have had some success: Martin Luther King; Ghandi.

Who has an idea about massive non-violent resistance to a tyrannical regime?

I keep thinking of the digital equivalent of a sitdown strike--two minutes of silence during the working day, no matter where you are, to mourn the death of the Constitution. But that's not positive...

Alternatively, we could a cue from the master propagandists of the right--but don't send Congress bricks, send them a copy of the Constitution? Maybe a simultaneous Express Mail sending by thousands--with a requirement that the recipient sign for the delivery? That would cost you ten bucks--but surely that would be worth it? Maybe timed for July 4? Readers?