The People of the World Unite!!!

I’ve always found it interesting that polls from around the world that measure sentiment towards Americans and our government always seem to conclude that the majority of the American people are good, just, fair and civilized while at the same time, these citizens of the world conclude that our government is bad, corrupt, unjust and a threat to world peace. The irony is that the citizens of the U.S. view Iran in much the same way, government “bad,” people “good.”

I find this so compelling because the U.S. is supposed to be a democracy and yet we conceive of the people and government of Iran in much the same way that other countries think of us.

If we are in fact a democracy, then why don’t the citizens of the world fault us, the people, for the failings of our democratically elected government?

And why would we, the people of the U.S., go to war with the people of Iran if we believe that they are fundamentally good?

Someone has to either be misgauging the quality of each of our characters’ or else someone other than the people are the ones truly pulling the strings of the mechanism of war. And while that raises extremely interesting questions about the true power structures of a capitalistic democracy it doesn’t, at least in my mind, eliminate the question:

If we believe that the people of Iran are in fact good people, why then would the people of America ever consider going to war with them?

(Photo by Jayel Aheram used under a Creative Commons license.)

The Status Quo Rebellion

Some on the Left seem to be discouraged that their ideal candidate isn’t running for office and are lumping Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton together in their attacks. Some are even planning to lodge a protest vote by choosing to vote for another non 2 Party candidate. These people are essentially not voting, although they are going to go to the polls and pulling the trigger, their vote will be wasted on someone who doesn’t and unfortunately probably never will have any chance of winning. I admire these people’s ideals but certainly not their pragmatism.

I’m not saying that when given the choice between 2 candidates that resemble George W. Bush you should vote for one or the other. In a case like that I hope that people would vote for the 3rd Party candidate. But the differences in this election between John McCain and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are tremendous. On the one hand you have candidates that are supported by elitists and the criminally insane that back perpetual warfare and corporate welfare and on the other hand there is Barack Obama. The contrasts could not be more stark.

I’m supporting Obama not because I want to promote imperialism, the police state, corporate welfare, NAFTA or the monopolies of the 2 Party system but because I believe his candidacy might offer this country a glimpse of what it would mean to move away from the Uber-Right wing that has so dominated our politics in the past 50 years. His candidacy could mean a historical and sweeping leftward swing for the next 20 years or more. Don’t you think the agents of war and big business (Clinton, McCain, etc.) haven’t thought of that and are presently attempting to throw every disparaging nonsense they can at him in order to get something to stick?

Obama’s not going to be a savior but I believe with his brilliant ability to articulate solutions and his talent for empathizing with those with whom he disagrees, he just may be able to sway quite a few people away from the dark side. I’ll aid that cause in any way I can because after all, the overwhelming majority of people aren’t in the trenches fighting the good fight or out reading Chomsky or Zinn, they’re typically easily distracted by the simplicity and attractive baseness offered by the Right wing. If things are to change non-violently in this country they must happen through dialogue, patience and evolution, not revolution. If the present conditions persist and the purveyors of the status quo (McCain and Clinton) are successful in their quest for the Presidency it may mean dire consequences and spur thoughts of bloody revolution for the millions of people who come to believe that they are without representation, especially if they realize that the situational economics of their lives are not going to change, that they’ll always be fighting for the scraps, they’ll never going to get ahead and what they thought of as the “American Dream” is truly an oligarchic nightmare. Daniel Shays may just become the next “American Idol.”

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