Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I am humbled to see that for once, negative campaigning and non-issues are really not taking strong roots among the masses. Not this time around!
Sure, tactically and strategically that may have worked in the past and it may work in the future, but times are extraordinary and in these situations the average and normal formulas may not work as usual.
Sadly, McCain's campaign and GOP as a whole seem to fail to notice this. I keep hearing the same divisive words from them and it seems they are disparately working to get votes at any cost. To me, they are literally reviewing and following the already failed Hillary Clinton's campaign, grasping their hand on every single negative thing they can stick to Obama. From J. Wright, to healthcare, to taxes, to B. Ayers to Anti-Americanism.
Yes, talk of anti-Americanism about Obama is not new. He's been accused of it since his name was in the media for this election. It's really interesting and simultaneously disgusting how first of all a Nobel peace prize winner, a former president of the United States is called "anti-American" who would be Carter; and 2nd, it's even more interesting how some compare Obama to Carter.
Carter did some good things and faced really hateful opinions. "Panama" canal (and not Americana canal) was returned to its righteous owner, Panama. So, somehow this was a bad move in view of most of the Americans back then. He did create two new departments and he did cut U.S. oil import by 50% within 4-5 years (Jay Hakes, A Declaration of Energy Independence: How Freedom from Foreign Oil Can Improve National Security, Our Economy, and the Environment, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2008, pp. 41-70).
I can't define anti-American nor I'm willing to do so, but I certainly don't think Jimmy Carter is anti-American.
Now, regarding comparison drawn between Obama and Carter, I think that should in fact be a good thing in 2008. We need world peace and energy independence far more than in 1970s. If, one views what carter did back then by todays standards, they should note that such actions are much needed these days. We face much more hatred around the world and have more serious enemies than just the Soviets. here is a question for those of you who disagree with Carter's foreign policy: Don't u think Arab nations would have had a worse relationship with us or even more wars with our "ally" Israel, had Carter not successfully negotiated the Egypt and Israel's peace agreement?
On the other hand, many people say he played a key role in Iranian Islamic Revolution, letting a "power vacuum" to take place for the extremist Shia clerics to take over the rule. This is fundamentally wrong, Iran's revolution and it's associated anti-Americanism have far deeper and older roots, they in fact go back to 1953 Iranian coup which is still viewed as something that "Iranians wanted". This is an outright lie, and there are plenty of accounts for it. We did take part in that coup-de-tat and we simply pointed the fingers to Iranians later on. A very good sign for this lie is that Mosaddeq's oil nationalization in Iran's, is celebrated as a national holiday in Iran, even under the hardliner Islamic regime which usually does not associate itself with non-religious nationalism (oil nationalism was not purely religious, but was supported separately by the clerics, however the job was done by the non-religious and democratically elected prime minister).
So the whole ordeal of anti-Americanism and the so called islamic revolution had roots in the 50s not 70s. Carter happened to be the president when this long lasting grow came to a harvest in 1979 and got all the blame for it.
Done with Obama vs. Carter, now lets get to the main point about different Americas.
I'm not here to point fingers around or to shoot the ball back into my oppositions' field just for the sake of fighting back, which can include many cheap shots; I'm not down for cheap shots. But, I think we need to find the definition of America. What is America? How can we have different Americas in some people's minds but one "United States of America" in the real world? How can an American, call another American an "anti-American"? You are either American, or not an American. Plus, who is to define America? America is not 1 race, it's not 1 tribe, it's not 1 party, it is a melting pot, an ever changing society and country. Just look at the different phases we've been into and how drastically different we are now in many ways compared to just a hundred years ago. From, culture, to people's rights to social taboos. Divorce and bankruptcy were big social NO NOs just a few decades ago, and now they are just so accepted and widespread that are no longer even considered special, odd, weird or even bad. This is the speaking history: Things DO change despite how many people like or dislike them. No two successive generations are the same, nor they look at different things in life the same way.
I defy the extremist rightists who keep beating on this divisive drum, either you like and accept America as it is, which is a melting pot of sometimes clashing ideas, or this time, you can get your ass out and go to some other country in which you can be the extremist u want freely. yes, I even dare to say that, because I have no home in this world and have been planning to make America my home (legally) and these people are just ruining my plans!
In fact, I think South or better put the pro-slavery, pro-maximum profit, pro-free labor Americans must have not rejoined the union. That way, things would have worked out much better for everyone, including non-Americans. Sure, that way slaves would have suffered for a longer time and perhaps in worse conditions, but think about it this way: if in 2008, we still got measurable racism among 300 million people, if we still got racial prejudice, if we still got targeted profiling of blacks, what good was the end of slavery for? Slavery, just downgraded and changed faces, now Nike and South Pole do the slave running business and the Judicial-Prison industrial complex which consists of Lawyers, judges, Law enforcement officers and every other legal or actual entity involved in trials and arrests (like construction companies and those businesses who serve different parts of this chain including prisons), do the bounty hunting of the runaways. I was surprised when I first saw people who were hardly making ends meets on regular basis, to own more than 10 pairs of shoes and t-shirts (of the special kind that not the majority of the society wears). See my point? There are very good reasons for hundreds of thousands of African-Americans in our prisons, and there are very good reasons for their general poverty or lack of education as a specific race, I won't count them one by one, but people should wonder and really think about it, especially African-Americans should open their eyes on this. You have been kept segregated in a not so sensible manner, but read between the lines and you'll see what I mean.
You have heard the phrase "tough on crime" a zillion times, how many times have you heard about crime prevention by means other than deterrence by use of harsh penalties or "law enforcement". There is a much cheaper way for tax payers to reduce crime, it's called education and we got close to none of it in the right direction.
Now, back to the point: If America had stayed divided as two different countries, perhaps now we would not have to deal with these comments, neither did these people who say such words had to deal with what is angering them.
But, in the real world, we got one America and it is not defined by one person or entity and can never be. America has always been changing, why should it stop from changing now? After all, capitalism and democracy are not god-given principles, they can have their own shortcomings or even failings. However, relatively they have performed somewhat better compared to other types of governments or economies. Now, I'm not saying Socialism as in the way it is known is good nor am I saying Obama is a socialist. But, people need to understand that this is not a true democracy we live in nor it is a pure capitalistic economy. for the love of god, we just had the most conservative government of our times pass a $700 billion plan to take over parts of the economy for the apparent benefit of a very large crowd (or perhaps avoidance of bigger losses for the nation), now ain't that socialist or even Marxist by definition? From left and right, the people in congress voted for it and it was proposed by a republican pro-capitalism conservative government. As you see, even this administration has acknowledged that you gotta somehow take care of vulnerable classes of the society. Remember, during the great depression the wealthiest didn't suffer to the point that they had to stay in soup lines, they merely lost capital in somewhat large volumes, but they had enough to sustain a normal and respectable life. It was the middle and lower class who suffered massively.
As far as I am informed, consumer spending is the largest part of the US GDP and when you got some 90% of Americans under financial pressure and mounting debt, this spending will come to a slow down and eventually a stop. No matter, how much tax cuts may help the wealthiest and corporations to keep making jobs, in the short run, when the jobs created do not make up for the lost consumer expenditure, we will hit rapidly growing economic slowdown and eventually a recession.
The unemployment rate right now, is not too high when you look at the large picture, but continuation of current economic pressures can break the back of consumer spending within a very short time.
Socialist or anti-American, whatever you would feel better deep inside you to call it (which I can tell corresponds to human emotions called "hate" and "anger" of certain concepts, words, people or races) Obama's economic and energy plan for those who drive the GDP in reality at the expense of an addition to the tax slice of the wealthiest, will work far better for THE ONE AMERICA THAT I KNOW OF than continuation of current policies that John McCain is most likely going to follow with minor modifications.
Don't get me wrong, in theory I'm all for the invisible-hand free market, but in the practical world, that just won't work out as good as expected; it has been proven a number of times in the past. This is exactly why I very much like to leave out my feelings off the table when the time comes for decision making. For instance, most humans natural reaction to fire is to fight it with fire (eye for an eye, or revenge). But, one must always know, this is not necessarily the most efficient or useful response, check the history and your very own life experience, you will find such cases with ease! So, I do my best not to base my decisions on my emotions and feelings, I do involve them in my thought process but I put the greatest emphasis on logic and practicality.
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