Just another country?
| By Doc Martin - Mar 10th, 2008 at 8:28 am EDT |
| Also listed in: Evergreen Progressives |
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Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Civil Liberties / Privacy, Peace & Social Justice, Foreign Policy & Security, Economic Fairness & Security, Environment / Conservation, Smart Energy Policy, Effective & Ethical Government, Electoral Reform, Affordable Healthcare, Education, Consumer and Worker Protection, Property Rights, Separation of Powers / Federalism, Media Accountability, Corporate Accountability / Workers' Rights, Crime & Penal Reform, Budget Priorities, Religion, Immigration, Reproductive Rights
Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Civil Liberties / Privacy, Peace & Social Justice, Foreign Policy & Security, Economic Fairness & Security, Environment / Conservation, Smart Energy Policy, Effective & Ethical Government, Electoral Reform, Affordable Healthcare, Education, Consumer and Worker Protection, Property Rights, Separation of Powers / Federalism, Media Accountability, Corporate Accountability / Workers' Rights, Crime & Penal Reform, Budget Priorities, Religion, Immigration, Reproductive Rights
I am a consultant in development economics, so I travel internationally a lot. Currently I am in West Africa. This exposure gives me a special perspective on our elections.
To the world, America is not just another country - it is an Idea. That Idea embodies all the words that we throw around in our political discourse - opportunity, justice, democracy, inclusion, tolerance. So this election is about the Idea of America. (Don't get me wrong. I have met no one so naïve as to think the reality always measures up to the ideal. People understand all about bigotry, abuse of power, kleptocracy, corruption and injustice. But these facts on the ground do not overcome the Idea.)
One of the many tragedies of the Bush-Cheney years is that this Idea of America is on the verge of being extinguished in the eyes of the world. America is increasingly seen as guided by self-righteous self-interest. Big, dangerous, disrespectful, selfish, threatening and bullying. Bush and Cheney have turned America into just another country.
So the issue here is not Hillary Clinton's question of which candidate crosses the threshold to be Commander-in-Chief. The issue is which candidate crosses the threshold to shift America from the pursuit of self-righteous self-interest back to the Idea of America. Which candidate most recognizes that our national self-interest is best furthered by embracing the Idea that America represents, that leadership means having a willing following, not one cajoled into obedient ranks by threats and bribery; one that recognizes our mutual global interdependence, not beggar-my-neigbor and go it alone.
The world is following our election very closely. People may not understand our political process very well, with primaries and caucuses and all that. But they understand that democracy is in action. We are in a process that is being watched by cab drivers, waitresses, street vendors and panhandlers from Abuja to Yerevan and from Nassau to Addis Ababa.
If we show the world that Americans can use democracy to restore the Idea of America, all God's children will be dancing in the streets.
To the world, America is not just another country - it is an Idea. That Idea embodies all the words that we throw around in our political discourse - opportunity, justice, democracy, inclusion, tolerance. So this election is about the Idea of America. (Don't get me wrong. I have met no one so naïve as to think the reality always measures up to the ideal. People understand all about bigotry, abuse of power, kleptocracy, corruption and injustice. But these facts on the ground do not overcome the Idea.)
One of the many tragedies of the Bush-Cheney years is that this Idea of America is on the verge of being extinguished in the eyes of the world. America is increasingly seen as guided by self-righteous self-interest. Big, dangerous, disrespectful, selfish, threatening and bullying. Bush and Cheney have turned America into just another country.
So the issue here is not Hillary Clinton's question of which candidate crosses the threshold to be Commander-in-Chief. The issue is which candidate crosses the threshold to shift America from the pursuit of self-righteous self-interest back to the Idea of America. Which candidate most recognizes that our national self-interest is best furthered by embracing the Idea that America represents, that leadership means having a willing following, not one cajoled into obedient ranks by threats and bribery; one that recognizes our mutual global interdependence, not beggar-my-neigbor and go it alone.
The world is following our election very closely. People may not understand our political process very well, with primaries and caucuses and all that. But they understand that democracy is in action. We are in a process that is being watched by cab drivers, waitresses, street vendors and panhandlers from Abuja to Yerevan and from Nassau to Addis Ababa.
If we show the world that Americans can use democracy to restore the Idea of America, all God's children will be dancing in the streets.
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Nothing else will impress them.
Currently by our imperialism, our illegal invasion and occupation they know us, and they also know that the Democratic majority in Congress is stonewalling the public on stopping the Iraq War.
They could stop it now if they cut the funding with a simple lockstep Democratic Majority vote, but how many die in the next year just isn't important to them.
Instead the Dems will probably do another Stem Cell bill just to embarrass Bush and score points.
The Iraq War will stop if the voters rise up and force the House Democrats to Impeach Cheney.
The Peace & Justice, Anti-War groups and MoveOn needs to put away their anti-war signs and use nothing but impeachment signs.
MoveOn's 3,000,000 could stop the war by backing impeachment but they have become as calculating as Clinton.
Remember that the Clinton impeachment was only a short decade ago.
Replacing journalists with the "Happy Talk" newspeak on-air-"personalities" American corporate media has not happened to the news services of other countries actually do explain events around the world (even if you see the English language versions of BBC world news and Deutsch Welle in an adult to adult conversation).
I would say that it is not a "triumph of democracy" but that there is an understanding of what the Constitution is about and how the separation of powers means that the impeachment process is about redressing an imbalance to the system of governance as envisioned by the founders of this nation.
The people of the world has come to loath Mr. Bush and views that the American experiment is coming to an end as he continues to remain in power because Congress has utterly failed in it's constitutional duties.
jk
Since I wrote that post, I have been traveling and working in Jordan and Egypt. In Jordan, editors and reporters are jailed at the rate of several per week, and in Egypt, any group of 5 people is considered a mob and is subject to arrest as an illegal assembly. Illiteracy is rampant and many are so poor that their belief in their god is all that separates them from beasts.
These are people whose only experience with removing an unpopular leader in their country and their neighbors is by military coup, assassination, civil war or foreign intervention.
But I saw one wearing an Obama T-shirt like it was his favorite soccer team. And for the first time in years, my conversations were about Obama and Hillary, not the war in Iraq or Guantanamo or the treatment of Palestinians.
So while I would be happy to see impeachment and war crimes trials for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Feith, etc., that is not the message I am trying to convey. Rather it is my prayer that America elects a President who represents and can restore the idea of America that is the hope and ideal of people all over the world, as well as ourselves. And when I ask myself which of the three candidates most embodies that hope, I only come up with one answer. Who do you come up with?
Those lessons in the nineties were lost when Mr. Bush came to power. He, who was known as "the Enforcer" during his father's tenure, is the most partisan president in memory. He has overturned the civil servants of the federal government into political lackeys for the Republican party.
Why else would there be organizations of former civil servants from the Department of the Interior (e.g., Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics) and our intelligence agencies that are telling the people that the policies within their respective departments and agencies are being politicized to the detriment of the nation?
Remember that people in other countries are more discerning and have made to some degree a distinction between Mr. Bush and the American people.
I believe that it us, the people of America, who have a long hard road to make amends to the rest of the world for the actions of Mr. Bush- the worst man to have occupied the office of the President in our nation's history.