Comments for the 2008 Elections
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In
the summer of 2000
I
wrote a
Fable predicting that America would come to "rejoice
in the slaughter of countless non-English speakers who wore funny
hats." That was an easy prediction to make, even before the
election.
In the summer of 2004 I predicted that Americans would, in their shame over the War in Iraq, oust President Bush! Later that year ..., after the elections, I wrote an article predicting that the US would enter a period of "Fascism-Lite", a gradual and painless erosion of civil rights, and that further electoral choices would become meaningless.
Four years later and surveillance cameras are everywhere: in Minneapolis at every corner of Nicollet Mall. 1 of every 100 adult Americans is now in jail, the highest incarceration rate on the planet and a new record for this country. The people whom the government was detaining illegally four years ago, are still being held - quasi-legally.
And, is it just my imagination, or do the police swagger a bit more now, marching down the streets? I’ve read that arrests for discretionary charges, like "Resisting Arrest" and "Interfering with an Officer" (i.e. asking questions or taking pictures) have increased. It’s safe to predict that "Fascism-Lite" will get much heavier when the Republican Convention is in town.
This year, though, I don't want to make predictions. I’m afraid they may come true. When Americans aren’t killing Iraqis, they seem intent upon the massacre of their own families, their coworkers or their classmates. (Thank a lot, NRA!). But I do want to remark upon the candidates.
Four Reasons I like Barack Obama
1. He wrote a book all by himself and got it picked up by a major publisher. That’s got me beat, as well as every recent Presidential candidate except Al Gore.
2. He can talk about his religion without making me want to puke.
3. He grew up in a multi-ethnic society outside the mainstream of American culture. For a time he lived entirely outside the United States. So does most of the human race (so did I). His patriotism doesn’t seem to be infected with the attitude that "I have more money than you and I have more guns, so that makes me better."
4. His election would, at last, say something good about the US. Should we be saying anything good about the US? Certainly the Republicans don't want us to. I honestly believe that no other country in the world, outside of Africa, would elect someone of his ethnic background as their president.
Four reasons I dislike Hillary Clinton
1 She kept her husband, Bill, and gave away Socks, her cat.
2. Her husband. Remember "Don’t ask, don’t tell." "The end of welfare as we know it"? Remember bombing the Sudan? Whenever there was a choice between a principled action and a sleazy one - sleazy won every time!
3. Health care - She had her chance and blew it. Her plan was a mish-mosh of private and government funding. Nobody really understood it, but everyone knew it must be a scam. Her present plan, and Obama’s too, is no better.
4. Marc Rich. There was a push, towards the end of the Clinton Presidency to get a pardon for Leonard Peltier. It was a long shot and it didn’t happen. Instead, though, there was a pardon for a fugitive millionaire whose wife was contributing thousands to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. and whose very name was "RICH"!
One Good Reason to despise her:
1. The Telephone Ad: even beyond sleazy, it's the worst instance I've seen of fear-mongering by someone who knows better. It taps the same ugly vein of paranoia that Bush gorged on all these years. And, against McCain, it's going to backfire. I can just imagine his commercial: the same phone rings in the night; a woman answers it "...Oh...Oh No! Honey, its for you" OK, I’m sure it won’t be anything that blatant, but you can bet that’s the message they’ll get across.
As for McCain,
his is a complex personality. Matt Taibbi cites his "arrogant refusal to be a craven imbecile" on behalf of the Republican Party - whose only consistent agenda is to make people suffer - through torture, through disease or through Global Warning. Taibbi also calls McCain "a solid bet to deliver them World War III."
Actually, no soldier I’ve ever known loves war. They may love the military, the camaraderie and sense of purpose that war brings, but knowing the actual business of killing strangers, soldiers hate it. McCain’s efforts to ban the torture of P.O.W.’s shows a perfect understanding of the Golden Rule. His final acquiescence displays more the military love for authority rather than any personal sadism. What McCain would do as the highest authority on the planet?
In Conclusion,
One problem is that the War in Iraq will never end. Bush and his cohorts have read "1984" and they came up with the formula for perpetual war.
The U.S. is like someone propping up the very narrow center-of-gravity of a building whose supports he himself have demolished. A permanent support can’t go in as long as he’s standing there. But if he moves, the whole structure will collapse.
An American withdrawal in Iraq would revive the factional war. The Kurds, a genuine nation, would either be "ethnically cleansed" or would be forced to declare their independence. And an independent Kurdistan would precipitate an intervention by other Middle Eastern nations.
Michael Parenti points out that, when the media wish to divert our attention from real issues, they concentrate on personalities. Four years from now the United States will still be at war, If we have health insurance, it’s going to benefit the insurance companies more than the sick, like Part D, the latest Medicare legislation.
The Left is trying hard not to like Obama. It’s difficult. The man has real substance, intelligence and grace. In many ways, he embodies our highest dreams. The problem is, he, or anyone in his position, is bound to disappoint those dreams.
Two irreverent sites to follow the election
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/6535/
http://wonkette.com/