As I take in what's happening in America politically right now, here is my sense of what needs doing.
First, everything possible should be done to encourage Obama to show his core, to fight by using the moral truth as his weapon, to focus on the central thrust of why he’s running and why he’s the leader America needs right now.
That's what I've been trying to do since the kitchen sink attack strategy paid off for Clinton on March 4.
But here's another part that now feels to be to have come front and center: The assignment now is to challenge the American people to see rightly what this choice is and to choose right.
Here’s our chance for a redo. This time, for God's sake (and I MEAN that), let's not fail again. This presidential election is offering America a chance to redeem itself and choose the course of healing and integrity and fairness and personal honesty and compassion.
Once again, the truth is right before our very eyes. We can see Hillary for what she is—and it is not pretty. We can see John McCain for what he is—and it is not really solid, in ability OR in integrity.
And we can see Barack Obama for what he is: an extraordinary man come forward to deal with an extraordinary time in American history, a time when --because of the great damage that has been done, the poisons that have been sown, the structures broken, the trust betrayed-- America desperately NEEDS an extraordinary leader, a healer, a bridge-builder, one who is eager to work with the people rather than use them.
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Second installment: So the job is to work to get America to see what is right in front of its face, as it has failed so dismally to do in terms of the Bushite regime. America refused to recognize EVIL when it was on clear display. Will America now be able to recognize the GOOD when it is put up to offer?
(Read DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, oh ye skeptics, and see if you cannot see the virtues shown there in a way that could not be faked. See the speech on race, which so many people saw as manifesting something important and good-- about what this man is about as an actor on our public stage, and what he wants to be about if elected president as THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER OF THE WHOLE NATION.)
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Third installment. The question is: is America still able to recognize what the various forms of goodness look like?
If America asks itself, which candidate offers us healing, surely it can only be Obama.
If America asks itself, which candidate follows scruples and not mere opportunism, again it can only be Obama. It’s been shown right before our eyes. He has no history of embracing the devil or of using the devil’s ways, and that’s not something either Hillary or McCain can say.
If America asks itself, which candidate offers us Wisdom, surely it can only be Obama.
Does America think in terms of the idea of a "Wise Ruler"?
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
Being a charismatic and good orator doesn't make one intelligent or qualified. You spoke of looking at the other candidates records. I suggest you do the same for Obama. He, just like the others you mentioned, is nothing but a capitalist lap dog out to help himself and his corporate masters. If you can't see that it's only because you won't look. You didn't even mention the one candidate that does have the intelligence and ability to turn this mess around. Probably because you believe the myth.
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arlen custer (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 280 comments)
on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 8:03:05 PM
"He [Obama], just like the others you mentioned, is nothing but a capitalist lap dog out to help himself and his corporate masters. If you can't see that it's only because you won't look."
I marvel at the powers that enable you to know how much of a look I've taken at Obama.
Or is it just that you are able to deduce, through pure logic, that no one could have looked at the overall picture as well as you have and have reached, in good faith, conclusions different from yours?
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (314 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 146 comments)
on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 9:06:39 PM
No I made my assessment because you support Obama and I know his voting record. As Richard has pointed out. While Obama may have voted against the war in Iraq, he has voted to fund it. He supports the other racist war in Afghanistan. Interesting note, the poppy production under the Taliban was almost none existent but sense our invasion it is surpassed all previous levels. Obama doesn't mention that because there is profit there. He has voted for the patriot act and all other legislation's that do nothing but strip us of our rights and protections. So either you haven't looked at the record or you don't care about that and just want anyone but a republican. Either way it's not real change.
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arlen custer (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 280 comments)
on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 7:36:07 AM
No, it's something that's evidently not on your map
<blockquote> So either you haven't looked at the record or you don't care about that and just want anyone but a republican. Either way it's not real change.</blockquote>
No, Arlen, it is neither "a" nor "b" --because neither of those is true-- but rather something else that evidently doesn't register on your map as a possibility. It has to do, I believe, with a difference in how you and I envision how transformative leadership --the kind that could bring real change-- COULD come to power.
You could apparently readily supply us with a picture of what you think the "record" of a leader who embodied the possibility of real change would look like: there would be, in your portrait, a bunch of "he would have voted this way, and not that way," and "he would have said this, and not that," etc.
And when we had that portrait of how this leader would have acted and spoken, we would confront the question: how much chance would this leader with this record have to be elected president of the United States in 2008.
I would bet heavily that the answer to that question would be: the chance of a snowball in hell.
If that's the case, as I strongly suspect it is, then the question that we --who yearn for transformative leadership-- must ask is: given the realities of American politics, if a leader were to arise who a) would conduct him/herself in a way that maintains the possibility of being elected president, and b) has a true and deep desire and ability to be a transformative leader for America toward the good, WHAT WOULD BE THE SIGNS of that desire and ability?
That's the question I'm asking, and with Barack Obama I see many clear and compelling signs. The signs are not mostly to be found in terms of "voting record" and "campaign policy statements." We're dealing here with politics at a different level, at a level where the chief messages are moral, and spiritual, and human.
And those, indeed, are the levels at which --in America, after these years of rule by evil and lying thugs-- this nation's need for change is most profound.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (314 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 146 comments)
on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 11:45:17 AM
Progress Is Whats On My Map, But I Don't See Any Coming From
Well Andrew you apparently buy into the idea that a third party candidate cant win. And as long as people like you believe that, it is absolutely true. But you should also realize that voting for some one that supports the big money agenda, as Obama does, You will not get any substantive change. So go ahead and vote for your lesser of two EVILS and enjoy the consequences.
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arlen custer (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 280 comments)
on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 2:27:26 PM
It's certainly true that there's absolutely nothing in American history to indicate that a third party candidate CAN win. (The closest thing was Teddy Roosevelt --a successful former president-- and his Bull Moose Party in 1912.)
But beyond that, the third party issue is irrelevant to what I was saying. The American public is what the American public is, whether you or I like how it is or not. What kinds of "positions" on the "issues" they will support is not JUST a function of the two major parties.
You are free to entertain fantasies of an American electorate that will respond to rhetoric like yours about "capitalist lap dogs," and such. But it is just a fantasy. That electorate does not exist, and is not going to exist any time soon.
This is the same electorate of which roughly half voted for GW Bush even in 2004. The problems in American history are well-embedded in the hearts and minds of the American people.
Ignoring that reality, and fantasizing about how the American people will respond to something the way you --who are hardly representative-- do is hardly to deal with the world as it is. And hardly to help it become the better world that it MIGHT become.
SO once again, the question is: given the realities, in what way COULD a good transformational leader present himself to the American people and gain sufficient support to be elected president?
Obama manifests one plausible answer to that question.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (314 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 146 comments)
on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 2:56:11 PM
Yes Andrew History shows that the people arent on the ball with keeping an eye on our government. And I guess I have had an epiphany about what my problem is. I was taught that a true judge of a persons character is their actions and not their words. But I guess that all you mature adults have found that the real determination of a persons character is their words and not their actions. I suppose I will never grow out of this childish belief. But I still have hope that people will some day gain some common sense. And by the way after 5000 years of recorded history. When does this learning begin?
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arlen custer (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 280 comments)
on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 5:04:26 PM
People who live in a country that has been ruled by lies for seven years should know that the distinction between words and actions is not so clear-cut. Words have consequences. Words can wound, or words can heal.
The actions of a Senator, embedded in a dysfunctional governmental system, have a certain limited range. Feingold did some fine things. Dodd did at least one. If a US Senator --especially a black one, especially a rookie-- is going to become president of the United States, the path to that goal allows certain actions, and certain words.
For the president of the United States, a much larger range of actions are possible. But even there, there are constraints. FDR had to fight for more than a term to gain the ability to institute some of his policies. And even then, the main means by which he succeeded in getting that capability involved the use of words.
One can curse the darkness, and live in fantasies of how things ought to be. Or one can light a candle, and deal with the actual possibilities that exist to start taking the steps out of the darkness and toward the light.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (314 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 146 comments)
on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 5:12:25 PM
It seems to me that you haven't really learned much from history. You appear to believe that the lies we have been told have just been in the last 7 years. Boy are you way off. I don't think W has lied more than any other president, in fact he is probably more truthful than most. He just comes right out and says what twisted crap he intends to do and the representatives and many in the public applaud and help him do it. And yes FDR worked hard to give a bone to the masses, but as soon as the bone was given the proses of taking it back began until now there is none of it left. Our problems are as they have been for all of history. The many allowing the few to control everything, and believing that it needs to be this way. As long as most believe it, it is true. We don't need leaders, we need organizers. There is one thread connecting all of history and is at the core of all the problems. Leaders and followers. The leaders always destroy and corrupt. While the masses, for the most part, actually do it for them. Then complain about the bad conditions they created for themselves. All the while blaming someone else. Ya we humans are real bright. And we sure learn from history. So we can just go on ignoring all the things that make us uncomfortable and believing in that great savior gonna come fix it all. Good luck with that.
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arlen custer (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 280 comments)
on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 8:14:04 AM
Funny you should mention this, Arlen. Because that's precisely what Obama is clearly indicating that he wants to be as president.
His whole background is as a community organizer. (I recommend once again that anyone who wants to know what Barack Obama is about read his book DREAMS FROM MY FATHER.) And the whole way he speaks about what he envisions doing as president, which he repeatedly says requires that the American people be paying good attention to the political process and be working with him to protect their interests, demonstrates that he's proposing to take the ethic and practice of community organizing to the presidency.
He's running, in other words, to be COMMUNITY ORGANIZER FOR THE WHOLE NATION.
Since we have to have a president, Arlen, whether that's how you want the world organized or not, Obama seems like as good a choice as we're likely ever to see.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (314 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 146 comments)
on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 11:45:00 AM
I would love nothing more than to believe that. But I have trouble getting past several of the legislative choices he has made in the short time he has been in a position to have a voice. The worst being his thumbs up on the patriot act and connecting legislation's. Then there is his support of big insurance and pharmaceuticals that are helping to fund his campaign. He may well have the best of intentions. But there reaches a point of no return in dealings like that. In a capitalist culture, You don't get something for nothing. The more you are obliged to someone, the more they expect of you. And We All Know This. Obama, if in fact he really is as you claim, is walking a very fine line. He hasn't realy shone that enlightenment in his choices sense getting a little taste of power. I will admit that I am cynical but he could have and should have made other choices. The thing is he could have without any real political fallout, but he didn't. That causes me to question that he is any different than the rest. He can say anything but I will still judge him by what he does, or what he doesn't do when he could.
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arlen custer (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 280 comments)
on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 7:17:48 PM
AND THE GLOBALIST CONTROLLED MEDIA DECEPTION, IS BLOCKING WE THE PEOPLE FROM LEARNING WHO HE IS, AND THAT HE STANDS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 100%, JUST LOOK AT OBAMA'S VOTING RECORD, AND TELL BE HE NOT A GLOBALIST, HE VOTES TO FUND THE WARS, HE VOTES BIG BUSINESS ALL THE TIME. THE ONLY WAY TO SEE WHAT CANDIDATE STANDS FOR IS LOOK AT WHAT THEY VOTE FOR, AND THEIR VOTING RECORD, AND IF THIS AUTHOR HAS A NEW WAY OF JUDGING WHAT A CANDIDATE STANDS FOR WILL HE PLEASE LET US KNOW. BECAUSE IF HE IS JUDGING OBAMA BY WHAT HE SAYS, THATS HOW WE GOT BUSH AS PRESIDENT. HE PROMISED US THE WORLD, BUT WE DIDN'T KNOW HE WANT IT FOR HIM SELF. I THINK SOME MORE HOMEWORK IS NEEDED. THE SAD PART IS THAT THE LEFT IS SILL FIGHTING THE RIGHT AND THIS WHY WE ARE IN THE MESS WE ARE IN NOW, BUT THIS IS ONLY WITH WE THE PEOPLE, IN THE GOVERNMENT THE LEFT AND RIGHT PUT ON A GOOD SHOW, BUT THEY WORK TOGETHER, AND KEEP US DIVIDED, THERE ARE TWO PARTY'S IN WE THE PEOPLE, AND ONE PARTY IN GOVERNMENT. DIVIDED WE FALL, UNITED WE CAN WIN, ITS THAT SIMPLE, REMEMBER THIS IS CALLED THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, "WHY", AND GLOBALIST ARE PLAYING THE OLD AND PROVED EN TACKED, DIVIDE AND CONQUER. AND IT IS WORKING. RON PAUL IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE THAT CAN MAKE A CHANGE, AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE GOING TO LET HIM SLIP RIGHT THROUGH THEIR MASS MEDIA DECEPTION FINGERS.
by
RICHARD SHADE (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 460 comments)
on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 2:29:17 AM
12 comments
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