Why do the Republicans have a great advantage in November? Why might they win the election even though, by every reasonable measure, they should be soundly trounced because of the last eight years?
I am old enough to remember when football players did not celebrate in the end zone after making a touch down because it was bad sportsmanship. I remember when competitors refused to take advantage of circumstances that gave them an edge because that was not a cool way to win. I remember when two political parties battled over issues in a restrained and somewhat honorable fashion. I remember that after politicians won an election, they sometimes asked members of the opposition party to join the government. I remember when a politician never challenged the results of an election because it could cause a constitutional crisis (Al Gore in 2000). I remember when John McCain played by the rules of this honorable old school.
Believe it or not, I remember when it was more important how you won than whether or not you won.
Unfortunately, all of this has changed and not for the better. Now our philosophy is Just win, baby! And it’s an admired and celebrated philosophy, finding its origins in such work as Machiavelli’s The Prince, where the prince is advised to “know how to follow evil courses if he must.” This concept is greatly admired by business leaders, as well as politicians. And so too is a volume on a similar theme, the Art of War by Sun Tzu. Just win baby! has forced our sports competitors to dope and sells everything on TV from clothes to beer.
Machiavelli justified his philosophy by basing it on consequentialism ─which means in simple terms, the end is so great it justifies any means.
Republicans have gained an advantage in the recent race by embracing the philosophy of consequentialism; not just in accepting it, but carrying it to the degree of a religion, a religion that replaces the old tired and boring absolutes found in Judeo-Christianity. (Do not kill; Do not lie; Do not cheat…etc.)
What gives the Republicans this great advantage is that they have embraced this consequentialism to the degree of believing that they are engaged in a holy war, a jihad, against all non-believers─non-believers being defined as those who don’t agree with them, question them or simply get in their way.
If the end justifies all means, then anything goes. Everything is legal. Everything is justified and appropriate: Lying, cheating, distorting, and using half-truths are expected to be applied in argument and debate without question and without the consequences of guilt or having to say you’re sorry (or repeat a dozen Hail Mary’s).
Since the Republican base believes it is fighting to save millions of unborn fetuses, (or else they just like to win), they feel they have the moral imperative to turn the election into a holy struggle. Ironically, the number one technique they have embraced to do this is that which comes from the play book of one of their past enemies, Vladimir Lenin, who believed, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
Here are some of the lies told again and again by Republicans: Obama is/was a Muslim; Obama was educated in a Muslim school; Obama is not like us (code: because he’s black?); Obama is not ready to be commander in chief because he won't admit he was wrong on the surge in Iraq; Obama has not passed any significant legislation; Obama has not reached across the aisle; Obama wants to take everybody’s gun away from them; Obama wants to raise taxes on those who made 30,000; Obama doesn’t say the pledge of allegiance; Obama didn’t hold his hand over his heart when saying the pledge of…; Obama doesn’t wear a flag pin because he doesn’t believe in America, and most recently, the worst lie for a father of two young girls, Obama has supported legislation to teach sex education to children; and so it goes ad infinitum, ad nauseum…
Obama recently expressed his frustration by saying, “They can’t just make stuff up.” Oh, yes they can. Yes, indeed they can, when anything goes, anything is legal and there are no moral consequences.
Obama, a man of integrity, responds in disbelief that such untruths could be told over and over again, not just by hacks that run McCain’s campaign, but by Republican Senators and Representatives with whom he serves in Congress.
He responds in disbelief, not willing to accept that the great protector of democracy, the news media, will allow this to happen.
But they do, because they too work for the party that represents the corporations, the corporations that own the organizations, and I mean all the main stream organizations that pretend non-bias while reporting the news. They continue to play the game that the media somehow leans to the left. The news media leans toward protecting their jobs from the pressure of the corporations they work for.
Obama’s only hope rests with the Internet, where he has raised so much of his money and which is still free and uncluttered from the influence of the corporate state. My hope is that Americans will rise up and rally around a man who can’t seem to bring himself to play by the new American rules: Just win any way you can, baby, legal or not; true or not, moral or not.
Obama has too much integrity. And may lose because he does. Which is a stark comment on the new America.