In hekebolos'
dairy , he documents a speech and Q&A section by Senator Kerry. It is an excellent dairy in terms of journalism. Two things stood out to me. First is the author says that Kerry was much more warm then his stereotype. WTF, of course, he is. And W will be more prickly then his stereotype. This is why the parties spend millions of dollars pigeon holing candidates. And Al Gore was never as stiff as his stereotype.
The second thing that stood out and really pissed me off was Kerry's response to "the Rise of Muslim Fundamentalism." Kerry called it the challenge of our generation. Again, WTF! Elections being stolen, Americans being so fucking ignorant that they allow a second Vietnam to happen, tax payer's money going to robber barons like in a neo-Feudal horror movie. And the biggest challenge of his generation is Muslim fundamentalism?! Bullshit, and fuck him for parroting that line.
First of all, Muslim Fundamentalism represents a small portion of extremists within a very large religion. Are these extremists pissed? Yes they are. But in reality they are not a big threat to us as a nation. Yes there probably will me more terrorist attacks, but welcome to the real world boys and girls. The entire rest of the world has to deal with international violence why shouldn't we. I am all for protecting ourselves to a relative degree. But 9/11 happened because of ignorance and incompetence. Not because there is some horrible beast out there called Muslim Fundamentalism that is going to kill 50% of America. If Bush/Cheney didn't have his head up his ass, we could have stopped 9/11. The reality is that Karl Rove has used the event to scare everyone shitless and to build up this façade of W as a strong leader. It has certainly worked, we have our boogey man, our Homeland Security and a perpetual wartime president.
But for Democrats to go around crowing this Rovian line is bullshit. I know that the right has forced this down the country's throat, but fuck, it simply is not true. Muslim Fundamentalism is not the challenge of this generation. Let's take a look at what is:
Ignorant Americans who are happy to believe that government knows best and will debt and eat themselves into a stupor while their rights are crumbling around them. I think this is the biggest challenge of our generation. How do we wake up a nation so they will see what is happening to them and stand up for what their rights? How do we get people to see that America is not a benevolent loving caretaker of the world and that we are simply another nation in a world of hundreds of nations? How can we get the nation to see that children are starving in America and to not believe bullshit about how it is the parent's fault? I could go on and on. I mean it is not even funny anymore. America is melting beneath us and the nation does not care. We have to get the nation to wake up and care.
Another possible challenge could be to cut through the Rovian bullshit and learn to deal with real issues. Abortion, Gay Marriage, Abstinence, Stem Cell Research, Immigration, all of these are simply pandering points the right uses to win elections nothing else. I know that all of these have very important effects of segments of the population (like half for abortion), but a sane society would let these things be and be done with them. And then focus on issues like defense spending, taxation on corporations, environment, and elections being stolen. There are fundamental issues to the continuation of nation that are at stake here. Then we allow the Right to take our focus away from these issues. Why the fuck can't a democrat stand up and say that the Right's pandering on immigration is simply a lie and a power grab for the election taking advantage of ignorant people. Bush probably wastes more money in a day in Iraq then undocumented people spends in social services. It is simply a lie. Why not call them on it. Why not call out the conservatives on Abortion. It is bullshit we use so many cycles on this issue when if we just left it the way it was 10 years ago, things would go smoothly.
Another possible challenge of our generation is Class. We as a nation will simply not survive is we continue to ignore class as a driving force in this nation. Right now, the nation is set to make the rich (10 million or up) richer and then to protect those people and their money at the expense of everyone else. The whole dribble down theory and pull yourself up by your bootstraps has always been bullshit. We allow children to starve in this nation because we assume they are poor and that they must deserve to be poor. It is bullshit. Mexico is poor so it must deserve it so we have to keep them out of our country and our country club (except to clean our houses and lawns). At some point, we have to address our cultural class prejudices and then redress them. In the next breath we have to discuss Race. Katrina, `nuff said.
Another challenge is the environment. Education, health care, pharmaceutical companies jamming drugs down our throats, food companies `owning' seeds, on and on and on.
There is a lot of work to do in this country and therefore with the rest of the world. Until we actually wake the fuck up and start to address some of these issues and will falter and fail as an entire nation. So when Kerry says Muslim Fundamentalism is the greatest challenge of our generation, he is full of shit. And not only is that he parroting a republican talking point. You know what fuck him, and all the other democrats that wouldn't stand up and say the republicans are liars and focus on real issues.
What kind of nation do we live in anyway?