I believe:
- The Democratic Party is the last, best hope for America, but that is only contingent upon the sensibly progressive and practical, yet disenfranchised, wing of the party taking control. Without that it’s just going to be more of the same crap. I have little hope of this happening, do you? A guy like Kucinich is a joke candidate to the very people who agree with him for some reason, so they vote for people who they KNOW will not fix things. Why? Because they like to ‘win’. First Prize is 4 years of Hillary in the White House. Second prize is two terms of Hillary.
- Until that happens the foreign policy of the last 60+ years will continue, with the two parties taking turns with the whole good cop/bad cop thing to keep Americans confused and stupified. Specifically, I believe the Democratic leaders are currently mollifying the populace with no intention of withdrawing in a manner that reduces the benefits of having gone there (access to our tax $, power from controlling it’s spending, access to oil). Their job is to repudiate the ‘madman’ Bush to repair our image worldwide while tacking on the FUs to extend the feast or enshrine the sweetest parts while pawning off the rest. A kinder, gentler carpetbagger.
- The Global War on Terror is our excuse for just about any bad behavior, but especially aggressive war. It is also a grand sissification of the American people – spend billions and billions on chasing ghosts and shadows out of fear of lightening striking. More people die each year from Pharmaceutical company deceptions than terrorism, yet where are the billions to fight that? Gutlessness and greed from top to bottom. The only way to win against a tactic is to remove the will to use it. Killing innocent people buy the 100s of thousands rarely helps remove the will to commit terrorist acts. There is no real political will to change ourselves. Therefore the war is already lost, we will have to accept terrorism with or without the GWOT, so why not without. How is Israel’s War on Terror going?
- The American public enjoys spectacle more than solutions. Mass marches, tax revolt, direct action are off the table for most people. Perhaps they are too busy working to pay off their mortgages, but they want politicians to do the work for them. Conclusion? Americans want the war to end without sacrificing anything. We’ll accept the role of being Israel to the Palestine of Iraq rather than face $5/gallon gas.
- Same goes for global warming. Americans want global warming solved without cost or inconvenience. Want, want, want, want, want… The solutions are all around, but not enough people are acting to solve even a small part of the problem. Solutions have to have money-making attached to them. We knock over the glass of wine and say to the host: ‘Oops! Could you be a dear and get that for me? Or better yet you guys come to a donor conference and pay us to clean it up – it’s save you the work.’
- None of this is going to change as our culture is built on fear and excess and the unattainable. Fear to drive us to distraction, excess as the available manner to make our mark on the world, pursuit of the unattainable (aka Christian Dogma) to make us more easily controlled. The greater the excesses, the greater the man. The greater the Fear, the better the patriot. The more controlled by dogma, the better the Christian.
- Given that transformations such as are required to fix our system necessarily involve personal sacrifice for Americans (especially the elites) and no politician seems able to ask this of us (even Al Gore rarely promotes specific policies that add up to real solutions, just the potential for them), it is unlikely we will go down that path until waaaaaay too late. We’ll just plan on cashing in on the changes that come about (Northwest Passage, Ahoy? Selling “Grandma was killed by a hurricane in Montana and all I got was this T-shirt” souvenirs?).
- I am stuck on this Earth and I do believe that America has within it the potential to lead the world through REAL threats, as opposed to imagined ones. Perhaps more than any other nation. But this is the greatest frustration of all: We CAN DO IT! But we just don’t – swift action just isn’t in the cards.
So, I’m at a bit of a crossroads: while I am eternally grateful for what this country has done for my anscestors, which include founding fathers and recent immigrants, I can’t see how it can provide those same benefits to my children down this road we are on. So what do I do? Where do I go? Where do I belong if nothing my country does is right or sensible, yet my fellow Americans do little?
Perhaps the only way to change America is through jealousy: If someone else is doing it better maybe that would trigger the profound American impulse to be the best at everything.
I have a 40 acre patch of land in the Bahamas: anyone wanna start a Utopian Commune (no Koolaid allowed)?
Where do you go if you want a government that limits it’s role in micromanaging my morality or politics or expression, defends without aggression, defends the rights of minorities, spends tax dollars on what they were intended for and shows they balls to ask it’s people for reasonable sacrifice?
Where is the American mysanthrope to go? For some reason Cuba comes to mind, but perhaps someone can suggest somewhere else?
