The American right-wing machine has cranked up its engine of evil to prevent Obama from doing what needs to be done.
The election of Barack Obama has ignited something ugly in the American conservative movement. Where the world stands today, foreign policy-wise and economically, is in part traceable to the brash and ill-considered policies of the Bush administration. America’s place on the world stage was mauled and abused by the Bush-Cheney alliance and their cronies, a cabal so senselessly drugged on ideology and impervious to common sense that in governing, they gave effect to the very meaning of stupidity. It was bad enough that these people instituted policies that were diametrically opposed to fact, the calamity which will defy reason till tomorrow will still be the decision to invade Iraq.
It is easier to consider things in hindsight, and any attempt to understand why this cabal decided to invade Iraq, a sleepy Muslim country with an excitable dictator, can only lead to one conclusion: stupidity. Utter senseless stupidity and disregard for the principles of Rule of Law and Sovereignty, ideals which Western democracies proclaim they hold dear. The war in Iraq has been lamented about enough, so there’s no point going through all that again. But the fact that such a bad idea gained momentum in America, and most Democratic Senators were railroaded into tagging along, in this day and age, suggests that there is a right-wing machinery capable of serious evil; because by any measure the idea that Iraq should be invaded is such a bad idea that it should have been shot down from day one.
In any case, we are where we are today. There is a new President in America, who touts a broad progressive agenda. He is not a perfect proponent of Theoretical Liberalism (and he shouldn’t be), but he is undeniably a Progressive. It is important that you lot, as Democrats, support him wholeheartedly. Hold his feet to fire when he appears to forget his roots, but it is vital that you support him. Why? Because the times are too tough, the challenges are too dire and a lot rests on his success. In order for the world to be placed on a path which would jell with the needs of the 21st century, the Democratic President, Obama, must serve his two terms of 8 years, undisturbed by legislative noise or right-wing stupidity.
Background: nothing underscores Obama’s international appeal more that his reception in London for the G20. By now, there can be no doubt that the world loves Obama. However, this is by the side. The thing that excites people who operate based on hard-fact the most is what can get done, internationally, if he does 8 years. Of particular interest are: nuclear disarmament and the Middle East. No doubt, he will have his work cut out for him but no American politician is best suited to navigate the treacherous waters of international affairs now than Barack Obama. With John McCain, the world dodged a serious bullet. Take the current financial mess for instance, McCain, who has proposed a spending freeze across all levels of American government except defence would have been naturally inhibited from doing anything serious about the global financial mess. All he would have done was to come down here to decry Osama Bin Laden and thump his chest like a castrated gorilla. That is not what the world needs right now. We’ve had 8 years of that, and it is enough.
You see, to us, well, to me at least, BHO is like JFK in certain ways. Obama, like Kennedy, understands that while America is militarily the strongest nation on earth, there is a moral side to international affairs. Things are not always black and white, and no one derives any benefit from ill-thought out cowboy actions like incessant war and the tolerance of an obscene international financial framework. Contrary to the accusation by right-wing lunatics that Liberals want to redistribute wealth, it is important that Western governments start looking seriously into economic justice as foundation for financial policy because it is the only principle that can provide an inherent buffer against the kind of crash we have seen recently around world economies. Obama understands this.
All that said the road will be tough. The American right-wing machine has cranked up its engine of evil to prevent Obama from doing what needs to be done. I get Fox News on what you can refer to as cable, and it is clear that there is a systemic attempt to muster and organise against Obama’s agenda. Now, organising against the Democratic agenda is not in itself a bad thing. It is only right that in a healthy and functional democracy there exist a strong and viable opposition, laying their cards on the table. However, what we witness now is not the laying of cards, but rather: IRRATIONAL HATRED. The kind of hatred that Clinton faced and that Kennedy before him faced. The kind of right-wing hatred that propels individuals to shoot up schools and immigration centres under the demonstrably false contention that the election of Barack Obama, America’s first black President, would herald a drop in their standard of living, a standard that had already received permanent residency in the toilet after W.’s first term. The kind of hate that pushes duly elected member of America’s legislative arm to call for "revolutions" or to accuse the President of the United States of being a "socialist". The kind of hate that leaves the American secret service no choice but to put in place an unimaginable security regime around the American President just to ensure a Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity inspired lunatic does not turn everybody’s worst nightmare into reality.
There’s nothing new about right-wing insanity. You have them everywhere—from Dutch MPs wanting to kick all Muslims out of Europe to Jewish Foreign Ministers wanting to strip Israeli citizenship off Israeli Arabs. Even in Kennedy’s time, American ‘war hero’, Major General Edwin Walker, a man who derided Eisenhower as "a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy", already found it hard to tell the difference between Liberalism and Communism, a disease which afflicts talk-show host Glen Beck today.
The problem is that in this time, this kind of behaviour is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE. Equating robust Liberal policies or tenets with Communism or Socialism is a tactic that has been perfected over the years by Western Conservative movements; even more so in America. It has to stop. The merits or demerits of each Party’s ideological inclination were put to the test in November election, and the Republican not only lost, they lost badly. It is the kind of defeat that should have pushed them to think constructively about who they are, what they believe in and where they want to take their country going forward. What we have seen, however, is murderous hate filled rhetoric and stupidity of the highest calibre.
It is vitally important that Democrats stand up to this nonsense: curb the demented American Right. Hate speech should be called out for what it is. Support your President. Work those phone lines. Let the right-wing lunatics understand that they don’t surround you: you surround them. If they surrounded you, they would have had more votes. It’s a question of simple mathematics. Also, in order for Obama to be able to carry out his agenda, he needs to be able to control the various levers of his government. The Military, the Intelligence agencies and Policy outfits have to be in perfect synchronisation with his agenda as he is the duly elected President of America. The onus is on Democrats to clamour and organise for this. As an outsider, one can only imagine the vastness of institutional opposition he faces. Democrats need to be on his side, fight for him and most of all, pray for him.
Bless.