Historical novelist Gore Vidal, commenting in 2001 on the U.S. Supreme Court's appointment of George W. Bush as president, said that America was undergoing a bloodless revolution, transparent to most.

He said Americans' rights and freedom would be stripped by the new right that would push us to the brink to get whatever it wants. We are beginning to see signs of what they want and how hard they will push.

They used fear to turn 9/11 into two protracted wars of incursion and the so-called Patriot Act. They have attempted to use scare tactics to dismantle everything from women's health care to public education to environmental protection to National Public Radio to labor unions.

Because nobody likes paying taxes, they have told the electorate that they will guarantee no new taxes, despite the toll it takes on the public and on the government's budget.

Finally, they identify government as the real enemy and wage war against it. Didn't we once consider the obstruction of government with the intend to dismantle it the mark of treason?

Well, only if they are unsuccessful. Otherwise, it's a bloodless revolution.

VON BRASCHLER, ST. PAUL