Republican politicians tried tirelessly over the weeks preceding the mid-term election to convince Americans that all politics is local. They assumed we are not capable of understanding that local is also global.
Economy is an issue on people's mind. Economy is the gas in our cars imported from the Middle East and Venezuela; it is the oil and electricity in our houses. Economy is the high paying jobs we export to India and China; it is thirteen million illegal immigrants walking our streets. Economy is local and local is global.
Terror and Iraq are weighing on the American psyche. Terror is planes going into buildings in our streets, taking off your shoes and belt in the airport and getting your baby formula inspected. It is three thousand kids coming home in bags, twenty thousand life-changing injuries in our hospitals. Terror is global and global is local.
Corruption is billions of dollars in uncontested bidding going to a few mega corporations such as Halliburton; it is the tax breaks for companies making huge profits while people earning five dollars an hour pay three dollars per gallon of gas. Corruption is local and local is global.
Now that the election is over the mess that contributed rightfully to how we voted is still there, we did not vote democrats in we voted republicans out, they know it and we know it.
How to clean up the mess, how to bring back the troops, how to stabilize our energy supplies and how to use tax money to improve people's lives are questions that we need to ask, to find answers for and to track progress on.
The days of no accountability are over-- hopefully forever.
Since all local issues are global, we can safely raise simple questions that we could not talk about for years such as the root cause of our problems with the world, the world is local.
Let us for a second forget about the Middle East, recent polls in Europe indicate that a majority consider America's policies dangerous to the world.
Is it our policy of going it alone? Is it the belief that our value system is superior to all others? Is it our insistence on solving all problems with guns, bombs, and F-16s?
If European polls reflect such sentiment, the statistics show that our voting record in the general council is one of the reasons. America overwhelmingly votes on the opposite side of the rest of the world, this is a fact depicted in the voting record.
The Middle East polls are more terrifying, a poll conducted in July 2004 indicates that 95 per cent of the populations in moderate Arab countries are dissatisfied with the way the US is handling the Arab-Israeli conflict.
No political analysts dispute the fact that US popularity in the Middle East is extremely low. The politicians, including the president, point out hatred of our freedom as the reason, and then contradict themselves making the case that people want our help in seeking freedom!
Our veto record in the United Nation Security Council provides a picture where protecting Israel from criticism regardless of the events seems to be the only consistent American policy in the region. This record points out a reason that is more realistic. middleeastinfo.org/article63.html
Therefore, the hatred of US policies in the world is a matter of fact and looking at our positions on international affairs provides a clear explanation. This hatred is a tool used by our enemies to recruit people willing to hurt America and American interests domestically and abroad.
However, since all local politics are global we need to ask ourselves why America hurt itself with the world. The answer is so simple-- interest groups control our politicians. They are the groups that pay for extremely expensive campaigns and get in return their agendas through bills approved by the president. The interest groups come in all shapes and colors, some of the groups are interested in gambling casinos; some others are interested in Israel's well being such as the American Israel Public Affair Committee (AIPAC).
I am an Egyptian American born in Alexandria. I immigrated to the US in the late eighties, during this time lived in many places in US and Europe. I work as an IT manager and love it. I love to travel, it makes me feel young, and it awakes in me sense of adventure and curiosity. I love knowing people from different cultures; it never fails to amaze me how we all live in our little worlds that never meet. History is my second amazement, it always differ depending on who is winning, that leads me to my third hobby, politics is it history or human nature that is the culprit?
