Are Americans Just Too…Happy? November 8, 2008
Posted by bensix in Uncategorized.trackback
The Americans are happy. No, really, they’re delighted. Absolutely bleedin’ ecstatic. In fairness, so are most of us, but it’s about time we gave ourselves a collective kick up the ass.
In the tradition of humour making sirrious points, here’s The Onion on Obama supporters who, now that guy’s won n’ all, have lost all meaning in life…
The intensity of American dissidents will be lost if they become content with merely changing the figures involved in the political system rather than opposing the system itself. Obama will only bring “change” if he’s challenged to such an extent that he’s forced to.
I mean, do you really think that a man committed to the expansion of the Armed Forces will break down the military-industrial complex? Do you really think that a leader promising an escalation of the “War on Terror”, even as Karzai bemoans civilian casualties, will stand up for peace? Do you really think that a President who’ll hire Colin Powell as an adviser is going to hold the Bush Administration to account? Do you really think that a supporter of the death penalty – which is just a vicious form of revenge against the defenceless – shares our values?
Then there’s the advisers that he’s selected. Never mind cold warrior and grand chessplayer Zbigniew Brzezinski, how about foreign policy adviser Dennis Ross. A former director under Bush I and Bill Clinton, he’s a consultant for the hawkish think tank WINEP and a one-time supporter of PNAC. In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post, he reflected that the Bush administration’s policy towards Iran had been one of “weak sticks and weak carrots” (whatever the hell that means), and stated that the new Presidency had “got to be prepared to go outside th[e] forum” of the UN Security Council.
And this is just what we’ve got to look forward to: the lobbyists, plutocrats and intelligence agencies are still firmly in place.
There’s a need, then, for collective action, whether through civil disobedience – as Howard Zinn has eloquently argued – or campaigning. Here’s one example of active work that’s being done and should be supported…
In a passionate speech opposing the $700 billion bailout, Republican Congressman Michael Burgess declared that he had never received “any more mail, any more emails” in all the years that he’d served. In the spirit of this, the Nader/Gonzalez campaign has launched The November 5th Movement, which will encourage citizens to put pressure on their Congressional representatives. Obviously there will be disagreements between dissidents – predominantly economic – but I think that all are agreed as to the urgency of ending the Iraq occuption, abolishing torture and reinstating habeas corpus.
We think Obama sees that need as well, but he may not act upon it – or may not be able to act upon it – without a fairly hefty shove.
[...] BenSix’s roundup of why Obama’s not the messiah. He might just be a very naughty boy. There’s no mention [...]
Look, enough already! Obama isn’t even in power yet and already we’re treating him like Bush’s idiot cousin. Isn’t it just posible that he’s had to make some campaign statements that – while not promises – at least alleviate some of the concerns of those parts of America that would happily shriek “The sheriff’s a nig – ” on his approach? I’ve read too many blogs lately that within 24 hours of his election were predicting doom and gloom. Let’s judge the man on his deeds (or lack of them) rather than our own pre-suppositions. I’m all for scrutiny, but let’s scrutinise facts rather than give our attention to paranoid dot-joining.
[...] specialist machines. Regardless of how disillusioned we might get with Obama (and I’m sure that’s on its way) everything has changed, and his election marks the tipping [...]
Doug D, I am totally with you and you articulate it wonderfully, it’s as if the liberal bloggers (of which I am one) are panic stricken that now Bush has gone we’ll have nowt to whinge about in our bedrooms.
I’d leave the Obama bashing for a while Ben, give it time, let’s see what happens and let us remember, he can’t do it all, he’ll do what he can at a pace that his country can handle and if we can’t handle that we should just keep our noses out with our lay-knowledge of the American political system and mindset.
Hey Doug,
Thanks for commenting
Ah, but I don’t think that there’s any time for that. The point of civil disobedience or campaigns such as November 5th is to influence those deeds.
Oh, I haven’t even donned my tinfoil yet. These are just his stated beliefs and those of his advisers.
Hey Dan,
But that’s a position of faith.
What I’ve tried to set out in this post are reasons why Obama can’t merely be trusted. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t fine elements to him – there are – but it does mean that there’s unlikely to be any significant change without continued civil action (and, hell, that won’t include whining in bedrooms).
Ben
Faith in humans rather than gods is all good by me.
I’ve not ran out of faith just yet.