The Republican Response to Obama's Speech

OK, I am having some problems with people in the US deciding that Obama's speech about children getting an education was politically motivated. Rather an amazing response given what crap the US system of public education happens to be. There are many reasons that the wealthy put their children in private Schools in the US.

On the other hand, people don't seem to begrudge locking away people in prison at a cost of far more than a good public school.

So, here it is.

Ed Meese's rap song from Da Ali G Show:

"I was attorney general/my name is Meese /I say, go to college/don't carry a piece."

Musing on the religious right

There are three constituencies in the US which do not represent the American public, yet have more power than they should: the Israel Lobby, the RKBA crowd, and the religious right. Despite the talk of democracy, and the Constitution, these three groups are the most open in running the American political scene. I could add the Oil Companies in here as well, but they aren't as vocal or counterproductive to US interests as these three special interest groups.

I said in an earlier blog that I thought Mike Huckabee would be the Republican nominee, which has proven to be wrong. My reasoning was that the religious right appears to be a significant factor in US politics. The real reason may be much simpler in that most citizens of the US are pretty apathetic with the exception of these three groups. The Average American is pretty much fat, dumb, and happy with loads of debt and kept in isolation by too much television which is pretty much crap. To quote Bruce Springsteen, whose music I hate, but has bang on politics: "500 channels and nothing's on". Loads of ESPN rubbish. Bread and circuses for the plebians.

Somehow, the religious right's message is fading away, but I am not sure about their influence. These groups are pretty good at subverting the Constitution. Article VI says that no religious test should be applied, but woe upon Mitt Romney for belonging to a "Cult" (see Mitt Romney post). I'd hate to think about a Jew, or, worse, an ATHEIST running for office.

Fortunately, the Republicans are just that and not democratic, or the squeaky wheel crowd might be fielding Mike Huckabee as a presidential candidate. I'm not sure Huckabee is out of it yet, as he could be in line for being veep. That would be the true test of whether the religious right has any power.

But, it's people like my sister in law, who was born Jewish, yet supports the republicans out of fear of things like "socialised medicine". She is less afraid of the religious crowd and voting with her purse. That is the only reason the religious right has appeared to have so much sway. "Conservatives" believe that it could never happen here, forgetting the lesson of Adolph Hitler, who was democratically elected by people who were more afraid of Communism than Hitler's anti-semitism.

The religious right and RKBA crowd work on the politics of fear. Fear that gays will erode the institution of marriage, destroying the family. On the other hand, what are they doing about the high rate of divorce? Isn't that eroding family values? There is this myth of a golden era of the church, the family, hardy individuals, and other things which make the US feel good about itself. Never mind Ben Franklin had a bastard son and Thomas Jefferson diddled his slave.

The problem is that the fear mongers are the ones we should be afraid of, as they are taking us farther and farther from a safe world. FDR said that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". The world has become a scarier and scarier place under the right wing. We have lost the Communist bogyman who was keeping things safe in Eastern Europe under Bush Senior and lost a Bogyman who kept Iraq under control. Would 9-11 have happened if the Communists were still there to keep a reign on the Islamic world, and we hadn't given aid to the Mujahadeen who later became Al-Queda?

The problem is that the Genii is out of the bottle due to Americans not thinking and letting the special interests control us. Better yet, maybe our leaders will realise that these groups are not representative of the Ameican people and stop pandering to them.

Perpetual elections

It seems as if the US presidential election has been going on since the end of the last election in 2004. Barely has it officially started and it has been going on far too long.

This whole thing reminds me of the African Politician, I think it was Jomo Kenyatta, talking about the one party versus multiple party systems who said soemthing along the lines of: "Does having one party make us less of a democracy than a two party system? Do two parties make you twice the democracy we are?"

That seems particularly appropriate in regard to the US elections. The whole thing goes on far too long, has far too few real leaders, and isn't really "democratic" anyway. The last one must seem pretty amusing given my comments on democracy. On the other hand, if a nation is going to go around boasting about how it is run by the people, the people should be allowed to properly participate. Instead, quite a few people are disenfranchised.

How? well, the whole process is really run by the parties, which are really Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber. I see no real difference between the parties in practise with the exception of the fact that the "Republicans" tend to favour plutocracy over monarchy. Additionally, they come up with the most divisive and useless issues: "Gun Rights", "Pro-life" (yet support capital punishment), and religion. This pushes me closer to being a democrat than a republican, even though in English terms I come closer to being a Liberal-Democrat or Conservative!

The funny thing is that Richard Nixon would seem pretty liberal as well by today's standards for his promotion of such things as the Clean Air and Water Acts!

I would vote for Oliver Cromwell, who was a republican in the sense that the current republican party seems to be, if I wanted a theocracy.

Sorry for the digression, but in quite a few states independents are barred from voting in the primary election. One must declare party affiliation to vote here in Pennsylvania. Sort of like in Northern Ireland: Are you a republican independent or democratic independent? The whole primary system isn't really run to be fair for all the citizens, it is run to be fair to the parties.

In the 2004 election, I supported General Wes Clark. Yet due to the primary system, he was no longer a candidate when the Pennsylvania primary was run. In fact, it seemed as if the election had pretty much been decided for John Kerry. Now, I am hearing that the Democrats are refusing to seat the Michigan delegation since the State party decided to push its primary forward. Very democratic of them.

As I like to point out, one of the reasons for the American revolution was this desire to be run locally, not by a faceless and distant government. Yet, this is what really ends up happening in US politics. Originally, the candidates were chosen in smoke filled rooms, now we have this pretense that there is democratic input. On the other hand, it is the parties which prolong the primary process until we are numb that really controls the choice of candidates.

So, the people with the largest war chests actually go on to the finish and the voters are screwed as far as choices go. In fact, I hardly hear any substantive discussion of the issues in lieu of sound bites. The real winners are the people behind the scenes who collect all the money which is spent on this process. Indeed fortunes are made on this process; so why make it shorter?

In reality, it is the special interests who really run government in the United States, not the people.

The final insult is the electoral college, which can take a popularly elected Person (e.g., Al Gore) and give the crown to someone who didn't win, and in Gore's Opponent's case, shouldn't have won. So, it is very amusing to hear George Bush rant on about democracy when he was never really democratically elected!

So, to get back to the Kenyatta quote, having one party or two parties doesn't make a government "democratic" if the underlying system isn't really democratic. In fact, it is a sham to claim to be democratic if the real result is to thwart the will of the people. Ultimately, this is not beneficial in the long run.

People are denied leadership by this process. The US stagnates with a lack of serious gun regulation and health care, the economy run for the benefit of the very rich, not for the people. Or as Dubious (Bush) said, "This is an impressive crowd of the haves and have mores. Some people call you the elite, I call you my base."