After seven years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, their infantile and ruinous response to 9/11, disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law, shameless pandering to corporate America and the wealthy, official disdain for science and reason, signing statements, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath – which is still an ongoing humanitarian tragedy even if the mainstream media chooses to ignore it – after all this misery, shame and outright stupidity, it’s hard to muster much hope for the future, regardless of who captures the White House this November.
Barack Obama tells people it’s all about Change, this political season’s magic word, but Mr. Obama is thin on the specifics of what that means. Obama reminds me of an old-fashioned snake oil salesman, selling bottles of hair restorer from the back of a wagon. “I know you’ve dreamed of having a lustrous head of hair, a flowing mane, and here at last is the product that can make your dreams a reality…”
Hillary Clinton touts her “Day One” experience, though it seems to me that this experience is predominantly grounded in failed policies, particularly those of her hubby, William Jefferson Clinton, a master political manipulator, accomplished liar, and renowned skirt chaser. People seem to have forgotten that Democrats got creamed in the ’94 mid-term elections and lost the U.S. House, Senate and a number of governorships. That shellacking gave rise to Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay and a host of corrupt hard right GOP nitwits. Although Bill Clinton won re-election in ’96, he spent the rest of his Administration fighting a holding action, including nearly two years of White Water and Monica Lewinsky accusations, denials, admissions and apologies. Some legacy.
John McCain, war hero and aging war horse, bases his candidacy in Safety & Security. McCain has an undeserved reputation as a maverick, and is now furiously trying to distance himself from past statements and policy decisions in order to court the GOP’s wing-nut religious right faction. “I never said that ethics in government were more important than God. I promise you that I will consult the Almighty before making even the smallest decision. I believe that God is Great, and that He is on our side.”
It wouldn’t bother McCain at all if American military forces maintained a presence in Iraq for the next hundred years. Never mind the cost, never mind the wishes of ordinary Iraqi citizens for hegemony over their own country, in McCain’s mind Americans have a right to plant military installations on foreign soil, and to buttress this argument, McCain cites Germany, Japan and Korea, where the United States has maintained military bases for nearly half a century. McCain doesn’t spend much mental energy wondering why, with the Cold War a speck in our rearview mirror, we “need” military bases in Japan or Germany; he’s obviously comfortable with American Imperialism as it’s currently constituted.
The thought of Cindy McCain as First Lady scares me. Cindy looks a tad uptight to me, a woman prone to hysterical fits; I can easily imagine her chewing out the gardener or her personal assistant or any other lackey who helps her get through the day. I heard her say that she’s proud of her country, but the statement only makes me wonder if she knows what’s really going down in America – anyone who claims to be proud of the United States today hasn’t been paying attention during the past seven years.
In case you’re wondering, I don’t hate America and hope for its demise; I served in the armed forces, vote in every election, write letters to elected officials and participate actively in our Democracy. My issue with America is that instead of coming closer to realizing its historic promise, it has drifted further away. Once we believed – and acted upon that belief – in equality of opportunity, basic fairness, and the welfare of common people and communities. Although far from perfect, we at least lurched in the right direction, albeit often fitfully and painfully.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the Lincoln Memorial in August of 1963, he said that the signers of the Declaration of Independence had made a promissory note with the citizens of our new country – a note the country defaulted on where citizens of color were concerned. Today I think an argument can be made that America has defaulted on its promise in many other ways.
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