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European Friends Write: "Are You Americans Crazy?"
By Bernard Weiner (about the author) Page 1 of 3 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Bernard Weiner - Writer
Dear Wolfgang and Jacqueline:
Yes, I know that you and other European friends are, as you put it, "totally confused" by what's happening here in the U.S. right now. Welcome to the club. I wish I could answer all your questions about America's current political/economic crisis with definitive certainty. But the situation is moving real fast, with one disaster after another, and with politicians flip-flopping all over the place.
As a result, it's difficult to know precisely what's going on, but I'll do the best I can. Here are my responses to your italicized questions about McCain, Obama, the financial crisis and bailout, and electoral corruption:
1. BEYOND THE "CRAZY" FACTOR
"Bush, with his policies and wars, has nearly wrecked the U.S. Constitution and economy and America's moral standing abroad. We don't understand why your John McCain, so closely associated with the Bush policies that brought these disasters upon your country and the world, should be nearly even in the polls with Obama. Have you guys gone crazy?"
Short answer: Everyone goes "crazy" for awhile now and again. European history is also replete with such examples. In the American TV age, celebrity trumps experience: We feel we "know" these candidates, since we've seen them on the big screen or had them in our living-rooms nearly every night. In recent years, don't forget, we elected a Grade-B movie actor as president (Ronald Reagan). We elected a professional wrestler and a professional bodybuilder as governors (Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger). We elected a song-and-dance man a U.S. Senator (George Murphy). By and large, those experiements didn't turn out well and did great damage to the body politic, but the fascination with celebrity is still there.
As to why McCain is nearly even with Obama in the polls, part of the explanation is that racism is alive and well in the U.S. A healthy chunk of the electorate, maybe 10% (and much higher in some states, especially in the South), simply will not vote for a black man. Sometimes, they're quite open about their reason for not supporting Obama; mostly they hide their racism by citing other supposed rationales: "elitist," "not one of us," "doesn't share our values," etc.
Then there's the mask element. McCain, for purposes of gaining the presidency, saw that Obama's change&hope mantra had captured the mood of the public. So, since his own issues weren't catching on, McCain is now Mr. Change, has re-donned the mask of "maverick reformer," and is running against the disreputable Republican record of the past eight years.
McCain apparently is hoping that voters will forget he was a major ultra-conservative part of that record -- he voted for Bush policies 90% of the time, for example, including approval of torture as state policy. But that chameleon trick seems to fool a good many voters. Plus, he added the younger, attractive Sarah Palin to the ticket and she joined him in the charade about "reform" and "change," saying she and McCain "will shake things up in Washington." But she's silent about the extreme, rightwing nature of the "change" she has in mind.
As many wise men have said, you can't go wrong underestimating the intelligence of the American voter. On the other hand, the more the public sees and hears the one-note Alaska governor, and learns more about her lack of qualifications and about the abuse-of-power way she governs, the less attractive she looks as a VP and potential president.
2. FREE-MARKET SOCIALISM
"America in general, and your Republican party in particular, is big on free-market capitalism, keeping the government out of the hair of business. Now the Republican government, supported also by Democrats, is making a 180-degree turn and urging regulation of corporations, and using billions in tax dollars to prop up failing big businesses, even going so far as to buy huge shares of these corporations. What the hell is happening? To us in Europe, who have seen similar alliances between government and business turn into authoritarian control, we can't understand why the U.S. citizens are not revolting."
The corporate elites who control the political system here just want to make profits. Most of the time, they do this best when they keep government at arms'-length from them. But in times of crisis, they go eagerly to Washington for help.
In short, in good times they're capitalists, in bad times socialists -- but only for the rich. Middle-class and poor folks recently got the foot of a burdensome new bankruptcy law placed on their necks. But the upper classes are provided privileged ways to avoid going under. It is ever thus, but it's gone to extreme lengths in the organized looting system for the wealthy arranged by the CheneyBush Administration.
www.crisispapers.org
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