"You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president..."
How telling that a member of the opposition party in a self-proclaimed "democratic nation" would publicly support a war criminal and characterize him as "my president".
He may be a ruthless potentate, but he is OUR ruthless potentate. And don't you dare criticize George W. Bush!
Sadly, the reality in the United States is that there is little difference between Republicans and Democrats. While both parties give ample lip service to meeting the needs of the working class and the poor, most of the Duopoly's "elected" officials zealously devote themselves to advancing the interests of their corporate and aristocratic patrons.
Some might defend Rangel's remarks as evidence of his "patriotism" or allegiance to his nation. Yet the virulent nationalism that has swept the United States since 9/11 is not a healthy loyalty to fellow countrymen. "Patriotism" in the United States today is a symptom of the rapidly spreading malignancy of fascism. Sadly, being a "patriot" in the United States requires one to support egregious crimes against humanity, domestically and abroad.
Consider James Bryce's thoughts on patriotism:
"Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong."
Given its economic might and obsession with militarism, the United States is certainly strong. But righteous? While she may be 305 feet of towering nobility, Lady Liberty is up to her eyeballs in the fetid fecal matter ceaselessly flowing from the bowels of an empire built on economic oppression, genocide, bellicosity, racism, and the pernicious lie known as the American Dream.
Even some of the most oppressed people in history have succumbed to this infection of pathological "patriotism". A group of indigenous people in Alaska recently refused Chavez's offer of free heating oil.(1) Facing 25% unemployment rates, winter temperatures as low as minus 15 Fahrenheit, and heating bills of $300.00 per month, these psychologically enslaved individuals rejected Venezuela's assistance because Chavez insulted George Bush.
Bear in mind that these are people descended from victims of genocide waged by the predecessors of Bush and the members of his regime. Despite surviving the attempted extermination, these Native Americans face significant structural barriers to overcoming perpetual poverty, including years of under-education and marginalization.
Yet Justine Gunderson of the tribal council for the Aleuts in Nelson Lagoon is convinced that they "did the right thing" by choosing to suffer to defend a war criminal's "honor":
"As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our country. But I don't want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us. Even though we're in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make."
Dimitri Philemonof, another leader in the Aleutian community, further exhibited the efficacy of the US corporate propaganda mill when he opined:
"I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it's loyalty."
Many of those Justine and Dimitri represent have been doomed to the misery of chronic poverty by years of institutionalized racism. Yet they live in a state inundated with the oil for which they pay such an outrageous price. And they have chosen to forsake their own well-being out of loyalty to the guardians of a rapacious economic system principally dominated by wealthy White elites. The same elites who tenaciously strive to ensure that the poor and minorities continue to wallow in wretchedness. At least they can still wave the Stars and Stripes with pride.
Hugo Chavez embodies nearly everything the working class and poor in the United States have been indoctrinated to fear, hate and ridicule. Like Evo Morales in Bolivia, he champions indigenous poverty-stricken people and their long unfulfilled needs. Both men are on the cutting edge of a South American political revolution in which the people are wresting power and resources away from corporations and the minority wealthy elite. Morales' administration is in its infancy, but Chavez has had time to deliver free health care, free education, and food at subsidized prices to many of the staggering numbers of Venezuelans who had been living in abject poverty in a nation flush with huge reserves of precious petroleum (2).
Jason Miller is a recovering US American middle class suburbanite who strives to remain intellectually free. He is Cyrano's Journal Online's associate editor (http://www.bestcyrano.org/) and publishes Thomas Paine's Corner within Cyrano's at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/.
It's rare that I read something with which I agree 100%; this is one such occasion. Thank you for sharing your vision.
It is said that the sign of a true prophet is one who delivers the message that the people need to hear, not what the people want to hear. That's the message I hear in your post.
And there might also be a correlation here to intervening against an addiction. Initially, since people cling to their addictions as if they're the only things in life worth fighting for, they consequently see any attempt to take the addictions away as "evil". It's only after the addict achieves a significant degree of sobriety that s/he is able to then see how distorted the addiction had caused his/her vision to become.
Most of us in this country have become systematically addicted to things like the "News Media", "Hollywood Fairy Tales", subliminal advertising, false patriotism, drugs flooding into all our communities, false religious, educational, and political leaders, etc. It's a real shock to confront the "American Dream"-turned-Orwellian-Nightmare. But at some point, we need to face down this reality, or else stare straight into the face of World War III. For me, reading this post was like basking in the company of an old friend.
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Lilith's Spirit (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 115 comments)
on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at 10:24:21 PM
you noted yourself that Bush is a dictator. That is why congressmen on the other side of the aisle have to cover their backs. Charlie Rangel has spoken out plenty on BushCo, but one must survive to continue fighting the good fight. Ask Thomas More. Rangel is not only a Democrat, but he is black. How fast do you think the feds would have had him in the clink if he had come out in support of Chavez?
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terri Kionka (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 83 comments)
on Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 9:43:41 AM
The worst addiction in many ways is the compulsive, materialistic consumption that drives Americans to borrow, spend and work long hours while not understanding that they are feeding an economy that is designed to make the rich richer and screw everyone else. Forget political freedom - its freedom to spend that defines the United States of Delusion.
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Joel S. Hirschhorn (116 articles, 22 quicklinks, 52 diaries, 468 comments)
on Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 11:56:09 AM
