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America needs a president who does not apply fear wastefully

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Message Mary MacElveen
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In my last piece, “Each nation in the Middle East has the right to exist” I said at the end of it, "Some may say I am unfairly targeting Democrats; I have done so equally in regards to Republicans." Once again, I find myself rightfully targeting Senator Hillary Clinton who is presently the Democratic front-runner.

 

She has been called everything from "unstoppable" to the “inevitable” Democratic presidential candidate and with that said; it is my sincere hope that the grassroots within that party pulls an upset bringing forth a real change candidate.  Yet out of all the viable candidates meaning those who have raised enough campaign funds to stay in this race, I do not see such a change candidate.

 

In the last debate, Clinton, Obama and Edwards all acquiesced we will be in Iraq till 2013.  What do they have to offer the American people thirsting for an end to this war? 

 

Some may say that in writing that, I am only helping the Republican candidates and they scare me even more than Clinton.  The only exception is Ron Paul.  As I think of many of their stances concerning the Middle East and to these endless wars they wish to promulgate, the Daisy ad used by the late President Johnson in 1964 comes to mind.  I do fear a nuclear weapon will be used either by the United States or Israel.

 

I am not alone with this feeling since many have emailed me frightened beyond belief.  I am getting a sense that there is a quickening happening where events will spiral out of control.

 

In the X-Files credits you will see flash across the screen “The Truth is Out There” and at this point, if truth be told, the mainstream media is already selling us on this idea of going to war with Iran.  Through this propaganda they are preparing us for what I feel is inevitable. It is as if Iraq is now but a footnote and onto Iran.  The media helped sell us all the bill of goods which led us to invade Iraq, now the next advertising campaign is selling us that we must attack Iran.  I just wonder if the American people are buying it.

 

The late Franklin D. Roosevelt had this to say of fear, “The only thing to fear is fear itself” Quite frankly, if Senator Clinton does become the Democratic candidate and goes onto to win the presidency, it will be her presidency that I will fear equally to that of President Bush’s.

 

I can just hear the Clinton supporters screaming at me, but please read what Robert Parry who writes for writes for the Consortium News wrote of Senator Clinton, “But Hillary Clinton, who also voted to grant Bush the authority to go to war with Iraq in 2002 and staunchly supported the war for the next three years before reinventing herself as an Iraq War critic, now has reverted to her old hawkish self, jumping out ahead of Bush in urging a more hostile policy toward Iran.”

 

While Parry said of Obama that he “was absent but said he would have voted against it.” I am left thinking that campaign trails are far more important to Obama and McCain who were the only ones that failed to show up.  In failing to show up for this pivotal vote, it should discount their candidacies with the American people.

 

During the past six years after 9/11, President Bush has used fear which has all but crippled us as it relates to terrorism.  Quite frankly, I do not fear the terrorists, but the politicians in Washington, D.C. who are in control of our shared destiny.

 

At this point as it relates to Iran, I fear Senator Joe Lieberman more than I do Osama bin Laden.  I fear him because he co-sponsored the Iran Resolution which labeled the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization.  I fear what that resolution and vote will come to.

 

In this video, you will see former Senator Mike Gravel admonish Senator Clinton for voting for the Lieberman/Kyl amendment.  What chills me and also instills fear in me is her laughing at his charges given our history of toppling former a former Iranian government in the 1950s and installing one friendly to our interests.  Sound familiar? By the way, that feed briefly reminds its viewers of this history.

 

I do not know if it’s a moral deficit on her part to laugh at his charges, but her votes in favor of both the Iraq Resolution as well as this latest one are not a laughing matter.  It does frighten me that she could even laugh at the charges leveled by Gravel.

 

The politics of fear does wear us down.  I have often cited the words coming from Gavin DeBecker who wrote in his book, “The Gift of Fear” these words, “We all know there are plenty of reasons to fear people from time to time. The question is what are those times? Far too many people are walking around in a constant state of vigilance, their intuition misinformed about what really poses a danger. It needn’t be so. When you honor accurate intuitive signals and evaluate them without denial (believing that either the favorable or the unfavorable outcome is possible), you need not be wary, for you will come to trust that you’ll be notified if there is something worthy of your attention. Fear will gain credibility because it won’t be applied wastefully.”

 

I think what I am trying to get at is that we need a leader who will come forth and tell us that our fear has been applied wastefully.  We need a leader that seeks to prevent acts of terrorism through a change of course of our foreign policy and how we relate to the rest of the world instead of merely reacting to these events.

 

Roger Cohen so eloquently wrote in this New York Times article today, The Politics of Confidence, “The next leader has to be curious. Presidential body language needs to say “I’m one of you.” Facebook engagement must supplant fearful estrangement.”

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Mary MacElveen Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

I am a writer who currently writes pieces for my own blog http://www.mary-macelveen.blogspot.com I have been published by Buzzflash.com, TheLiberalPatriot.org and MikeHersh.com. I was a guest on the Jay Diamond Radio Show on WRKO in Boston and have (more...)
 
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