"How in the World did Republicans become Communists?"

“Obama is a Socialist!” was banded about by US Republicans in the waning days of the American Election of 2008. Arizona Senator John McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the respective Republican candidates for President and Vice-President, used the S-word in an attempt to fire up conservatives and scare the hell out of mainstream moderates. Few bit, however.
First, most Americans realize and accept they have some form of mixed economy where free market capitalism operates inside a container of government regulation and control and that was what saved us from the Great Depression and the Second World War. Yes, many Americans also realize their economy has a tint of socialism in it, but unlike Communist regimes the US does not spout Marxist rhetoric or squash liberties and freedoms or slaughter millions of it own people like the Communist states of Soviet Russia, Red China, the Khymer Rouge, or North Korea. So McCain’s and Palin’s claims of “Socialism!” fell flat. Many people yawned, and many Republicans felt embarrassed.
It’s hard to yell “Socialist!” when you identify yourself as a Red Stater. Hey, hasn’t anyone else noticed that the US Republican Party identifies itself with the term “Red State?” Has anyone else noticed that ultra-conservative Republicans identify as “Reds?” It must drive a conspiracy theorist wacko to think hey, the Communists actually won after all by infiltrating and silently taking over its archenemy those US Republicans.
The same right-wing anti-communist conservatives not that long ago called the Soviet Empire and the People’s Republic of China and their respective allies Red states. Cuba is a Red state. So is North Korea. Communists are called “Reds,” right? There’s a famous 1981 movie with a star-studded cast about American Communists who got swept up in the Russian Revolution called Reds.
Red has traditionally been a color of revolution and the blood spilled as a sacrifice to liberate the common people from tyranny and despotism. Tyrants were associated with conservatism back then, especially kings, queens, and emperors who sought to maintain the status quo of imperialism, feudalism, and eventually capitalism. As a color red was embraced not only by Communists but by all manner of “regular” leftists everywhere from socialists to liberal progressives. In fact, the color blue, associated with the US Democratic Party, has traditionally been the color of conservative parties in nations as diverse as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Russia. The title of this article could’ve easily have been “What the Heck are the Democrats doing calling themselves Conservatives?” by associating with the term Blue Staters.
Truth of the matter is neither major political party in the United States of America associates with an official color. The Green Party, for example, as a third party embraces the color green to represent its focus on environmental issues. Both Republicans and Democrats embrace the old-fashioned red, white, and blue colors of the American Flag. They didn’t want to get automatically drawn into the way Europeans “did politics.”
The Red State – Blue State divide is ripe with multiple ironies. Republicans, before being hijacked by intolerant Fundamentalist Christians and then the secular Neo-Conservative cabal, were traditionally the party advocating small government, individual liberty, low taxes, non-intervention in foreign wars, domestic unity, pro-business, pro-capital, and pro-free market and a strong national defense. The Republicans, however, became so dominated by Fundamentalist Christians and Neo-Cons with an aggressive big government approach that led to world wide military adventurism in the name of patriotism and the systemic dismantling of the US Constitution.
This process accelerated tremendously under the Bush-Cheney regime, especially after the terror attacks of 9/11. For many Americans, especially of the Blue State persuasion, the Republican Party and the Bush Administration became synonymous with authoritarianism. We had an embryonic, creeping dictatorship on our hands. President George W. Bush actually gave himself the power to declare martial law, suspend the Constitution, and even suspend elections; a power not authorized the Executive Branch by Congress, the Supreme Court, the States, or the Constitution. Somehow the party of individual liberty and low taxes and business entrepreneurs turned into a party of religious fanatics, realpolitik warmongers, and greedy tyrants. No wonder the Republican Party, even with two “mavericks” like McCain and Palin at the helm, lost the Election of 2008. Americans don’t like Communists, even if they call themselves Republicans.
Of course, US Republicans are not really Communists. Far from it. The seduction of power, however, corrupted all that was good. The Bush Administration became synonymous with abuse, corruption, incompetence, paranoia, and heavy handedness. And to be fair, the terms red states and blue states were not invented by Republicans and Democrats but by the mainstream mass media. Color-scheming to mark different states going for different political parties and candidates harkens back to the Election of 1904. During the 1960s color television grew as a widespread technology as did color print in what had been black and white mediums. During the various elections of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s different primary television news networks used different and competing colors for different parties and their candidates. Some used blue for Republicans while others used blue for Democrats, and vice versa for other news networks using red for Democrats or red for Republicans.
The controversial and divisive Election of 2000 which included the so-called bloodless Republican Coup led to the designation of states that went Republican as “Red” and those states voting Democrat as “Blue.” Tim Russert, a television journalist for NBC, and a man voted by Time Magazine in 2008 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, solidified the widespread use and acceptance of the Red state – Blue state paradigm during the Campaign of 2000.
For many the divide of America into red and blue states was a loud alarm. It demonstrated a disturbing degree of polarity and animosity that some feared was a prelude to civil war and that the so-called “culture wars” would eventually turn violent and ugly. It was easy to recall the division of the American states during the first Civil War of the 1860s was preceded by increasing polarity between the states over a number of issues.
For better or for worse the American Presidency is not chosen by popular vote but by State delegates in the Electoral College. Thus an entire state will go “red” if the bulk of its delegates vote Republican and “blue” if Democrat. In reality, Americans of a wide range of political affiliations, including those who don’t vote at all, live scattered amongst themselves. A better way, perhaps, is to view the counties of all 50 states as well as population density. In many states the urban areas trend blue and the rural regions red. In Washington State where I now live the urban areas with the greatest population density went so blue it threw the whole state blue, but from a perspective of acreage the larger but less populated rural counties went red. Many regions are actually “purple,” what many call the mix of blues and reds in the same area. It can be a relatively small number that tips a particular state delegation one way or another within the Electoral College count.
This color schism became so ingrained under the Bush-Cheney Regime that it took a half-White half-Black Kenyan-Kansan senator from Illinois named Barack Hussein Obama to call for all Americans to get over this red-blue color divide and go purple. He reached out during his acceptance speech election night as the President-elect of all Americans. So too did George W. Bush, ironically enough, after the much more divisive Election of 2000.
Many Americans, however, felt Bush’s ascension to the Presidency was the result of a bloodless coup, was unconstitutional, and thus Bush was not their president. There were even bumper stickers proclaiming “He’s Not My President!” and then after the equally contentious Election of 2004 “He’s Still Not My President!” That is an unusual situation in American history. The last time large numbers of Americans refused to accept the President as their President was when Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln, also of Illinois was elected in November 1860. The landslide nature of the Election of 2008 prevented riots, martial law, and possible civil war. A repeat of 2000 and 2004 would have triggered an explosion of protest and violence among Americans.
We are not out of the woods yet. Our planet’s environment is in a state of chaotic and dangerous flux. We have polluted and plundered it to the verge where we tempt fate with our own extinction. Our economy, divorced from environmental reality, is collapsing. A possible second Great Depression seems likely. Religious fanatics run rampant around the globe as racist militias experience resurgence in our own country. Corporations and bank cartels still control governments at all levels in many areas of the world. Terrorist groups, drug gangs, imperial cabals, failed states, and volatile nation-state regimes present a graveyard for hope and change.
The so-called Euro-American Global Empire has a unique chance presented by the election of Obama to the US Presidency to shift away from imperial ambitions that serve the Central Banking System, the Corporatocracy, and the military-industrial-intelligence complex to serving a new global community of fair trade, freedom, liberty, equality of opportunity, social justice, environmental stewardship, green energy, local businesses, tolerance, plurality, and peace. These are tall orders. Together we can do it. If we fail we risk social-political-economic collapse at the planetary level where everything local is global. We risk death, destruction, and yes, as a species our own extinction.

William Dudley Bass
November 22-23, 2008

Sources:

“Red states and blue states.” Wikipedia. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states

McCain, Palin hint that Obama’s policies are ‘socialist.’ Election Center 2008, CNN Politics.com. October 2008. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/18/campaign.wrap/

“Reds (1981).” IMDB, the Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082979/

“Tim Russert.” Wikipedia. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Russert

© by William Dudley Bass

Two Days After Veterans’ Day

Veterans’ Day in the United States has come and gone now. It originated as Armistice Day to celebrate the armistice that ended combat on the Western Front in Europe in the First World War. It evolved into Veterans’ Day within the USA to honor veterans of all America’s wars. In other countries involved in the First World War it is still remembered as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. Major hostilities officially ceased with the German surrender in 1918 at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Called the Great War, the War to End all Wars, it was neither the first nor the last world war, although it was the most terrible up to that time. Nor did it end with the signing of the Armistice. The actual peace treaty officially ending the war wasn’t signed until 1919 and fighting continued on other fronts as the international slaughter morphed into a vast, interconnected network of revolutions and civil wars across several continents and included great violence in Russia, Germany, China, the Middle East, Mexico, and elsewhere. The so-called Spanish influenza pandemic swept around the planet in the wake of the First World War and killed more people than the war itself. The wars spawned by World War I eventually converged into the Second World War such that some historians include the violence of 1914-1945 with the Great Depression in between all one monstrous war.

My grandfather, Carroll M. Bass of Richmond, Virginia, served in the US Navy in the Great War. All I can remember from family stories of that time is that he was out in the Atlantic Ocean hunting German u-boats as part of an anti-submarine unit. There was always present the fear of being torpedoed, blown up and sunk in unimaginably deep, cold water. A medal lies on my desk, an old tarnished coin-like medal. Face-up is an image of what I fancy is woman in a long dress waving good-bye or hello with a smaller, encircled image of the Goddess of Justice. On the back is inscribed “Presented by the citizens of Richmond, VA to C.M.B. (illegible) in grateful recognition of patriotic service in the World War, 1917-1918.”

His son, William M. Bass, my daddy, later served five years in the US Navy during the Cold War and the Korean War. Dad had his enlistment frozen for an additional year, and his proudest service was as a sailor aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway, the lead ship of her class. In my family tree I also had relatives who served in the American Revolution against the British, for the Confederates in the US Civil War, in World War II, and in Vietnam. We honored these veterans for their service, and I honor these veterans even if I disagreed strongly with the Confederate cause and opposed the US war in Vietnam.

Me? I am no veteran, as I was never a member of the Armed Forces. I'm hearing impaired; partially deaf in both ears. Once I tried to enlist in every branch of the military. One recruiter squinted at me and asked, "Do you really want a paper-pushin' desk job in the military?" Not me. I fancied myself as too much of a natural warrior to stand that. "No, thank you, sir," I replied. "Not really." "Well, you wouldn't even make it in a desk job with you being hard of hearing and all." And that was that.

In the US the term “veteran” officially refers to members of the United States Armed Forces. That includes women as well as obviously, men. A veteran does not have to engage in combat or even during war time. Their sacrifice is their service and hoping they won’t have to experience combat. What about, however, members of intelligence and police forces that served in wars, such as CIA agents? Should veterans include guerrilla fighters who fight on the American side but who are or were not actual members of the US Military? During the Civil War of the 1860s there many guerrillas on both sides who were not official military, and many of them also committed atrocities. There are other questions society has left unresolved. Are those who fought in the American Colonial forces for the British Empire considered veterans? Would Native Americans who fought against United States forces in the Indian Wars be considered veterans, too? Were Confederate veterans ever truly rehabilitated? And Americans who fought on opposing sides in the numerous, small but ugly local wars that speckle US history were certainly not all members of the Armed Forces. The US has a surprisingly large number of local wars: race wars, riots, local insurrections and rebellions, labor wars, range wars, gang wars, mining wars, even fishing wars. Surely veterans of those conflicts would not be considered Veterans.

We honor our veterans. They and their families make tremendous sacrifices. Long tours of duty far from home, uprooting families to move from base to base, domestic strife, death, injury, horrible maiming injuries, high exposure to disease, imprisonment, torture, and psychological and emotional damage. Whether veterans are drafted or volunteered, they and their families should be honored. They should be honored regardless of their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation as long as they served honorably. The only exception to dishonorable conduct may be actions stemming from psychological or physical trauma that warps one’s ability to choose.

It is shameful to hold up benefits for our veterans and their families, or to deny or repeal them. They are worth every dollar. Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice. Some would say that is death. Others would say it is coming back alive with arms and legs blown off or a face mangled and burned away. Others would include the devastation of post-traumatic stress syndrome and the disruption of families. Veterans need to be taught skills to support their reintegration into society, and they need to be better paid. There should be no homeless vets. That is the ultimate shame. Not only is homelessness itself symptomatic of our culture gone awry but for veterans to be allowed to fall through the cracks while we bail out Wall Street bankers is shameful.

More problematic, however, is to honor veterans of wars that were not officially called wars, such as military interventions in a number of small, volatile countries that were wars in every other sense of the term, and unpopular or unjust wars. Do we honor every veteran who follows his or her Commander-in-Chief orders to fight in wars that prove wrong or ill-conceived? What about unconstitutional wars such as the current campaigns in Iraq? What about all the wars and invasions under both Republican and Democratic presidents that were not supportive of America’s vital interests but instead supported the financial greed of capitalist barons in the growing Corporatocracy? What about wars expended to support the growing weight of the military-industrial-intelligence complex? These wars are cloaked in patriotism. Should we support our troops in every case?

The Second Indochina or Vietnam War saw the first widespread and organized resistance to a war by its own American veterans. Many US veterans today opposed the so-called Global Long War on Terrorism with its preemptive campaigns around the world. They support a wiser and more thoughtful and conservative use of American blood, treasure, and firepower. Not every war is justified. Few are. And once you’re in it, it’s too late. Even if a mistaken course is rejected, the damage is done.

American veterans that engaged in atrocities, whether in the past against Native American tribes, Filipino nationalists, Vietnamese peasants caught up in a civil war, or in today’s War on Terror need to be held accountable and prosecuted for war crimes. We all are accountable for the conduct of our armed forces when they serve on our behalf. And we need to make sure they are serving the interests of all Americans and our Constitution, not the corporate interests of Free Traders.

As a global superpower the United States is one of the most aggressive projectors of military force in human history. This power demands wise and responsible use, not acting like a teenaged macho gunslinger. Together with the European Union and many other allies around the world welded together by the globalized Bank Cartel and the Corporatocracy it constitutes a de-facto Euro-American Global Empire. Its glue is far more economic and financial than political and social, it differs from empires of old, but American military might provides the shield and the sword. This is not what our troops should serve. Our troops should serve the ideals that inspired the American Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, not the whims of politicians and their corporate contributors. To be clear, many politicians are honorable and many businesses ethical and we as citizens have a responsibility to stay vigilant. Not just vigilant against assaults on our liberties from our own government in the disguise of freedom, but vigilant, too, against the misuse of our Armed Forces, the neglect of our veterans, and against crimes committed by our forces including the suppression of evidence.

Sometimes I could almost weep for the soldiers. Sometimes. I've met a few of them, young men and women. Many enlisted in the wake of 9/11. What several officers who have protested the Bush Regime’s abuses of power, including misuse of our military, point out is that when one joins the American armed forces one takes an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States of America. They do not take an oath to a person or to a specific office. They are not to blindly follow orders that are in violation of law. Many of us forget that.

Freedom demands a healthy military, a wise foreign policy, strategic interdependence with the rest of the world, sustainable economics, and vigilant citizenry. And respect for all of our veterans who serve honorably regardless of their mission. Most importantly, however, we must find the courage within ourselves to honor those soldiers and veterans who risk ridicule, job loss, harassment, imprisonment, fines, even murder to refuse to fight in wars that are unconstitutional, illegal, and morally wrong.

William Dudley Bass
November 13, 2008



© by William Dudley Bass

Remember the Pygmies

A holocaust has been going on under the radar of the world’s media and the canopies of the African rainforests. “Never again!” has become an empty cry as one genocidal massacre after another continues to pinball through our post-World War II history. Little known is the on-going extermination, enslavement, and even cannibalism of the Pygmy people. Yes, you read that right. Cannibalism. While Pygmies have not risen in armed revolt against any government nor engage in combat against any armed faction in the Great African War, they are nevertheless hunted down like wild game animals, killed, and eatened. By other people. Survivors are enslaved. Sometimes they might be paid in cigarettes. The most that seems to have happened in response are heart-wrenching cries for help to the United Nations which in turn does little or nothing.

Pygmies are people. They are human beings. While their genetic origins remain unclear they represent some of the oldest ethnic groups on Earth and predate many of the so-called Black, White, and Asian races. Yet in Africa many other humans including Native Black Africans consider their Pygmies brothers and sisters subhuman and “down there” with edible monkeys. In the morass of genocidal wars engulfing Central Africa including Congo and the Great Lakes region all the warring factions target Pygmies, some more so than others. The Pygmies, however, have yet to resort to arms. They are a peaceful people and prefer to live simply in the equatorial rain forests and mountains. Many of them still live as hunter-gatherers and subsistence farming. Much of their farming, however, is as for all practical purposes slaving away as indentured serfs on land owned by African neighbors of non-Pygmy tribes. It is their skill as hunters and trackers that make them valuable assets to the various guerrilla armies and bands roaming wild across the broken borders of Central Africa.

The name “Pygmy” is often considered a derogatory slur. It is still widely used; however, as no one better word has evolved to replace it. The Pygmies themselves speaked different languages and prefer to identify with their own tribes within regional ethnic groups. Some of the more well-known Pygmy ethnic groups of Central Africa are the Mbenga Aka and the Mbenga Baka of the western Congo River basin, the Twa of the Great Lakes Region, and the Mbuti of the Ituri and southern Congo rain forests. They live spread out across many countries of the region. An estimated 600,000 Pygmies lived in Congo with about 200,000 concentrated in South Kivu. As no clear records were kept the exact number is not known. Nor is it known how many have been killed, although mass graves have been found. Many Pygmies have also been uprooted in never ending refugee migrations. The jungles of Central Africa are not empty; they are full of warring factions, bandits, and refugees.

Many of the tribal peoples of Central Africa have a fondness for killing and eating monkeys. This has been a contributing factor for many previously unknown viruses jumping into human population groups. HIV/AIDS and Ebola are two of the most notorious diseases suspected to have been transmitted from monkeys to the humans who eat them. So perhaps it was not much of a leap that during a time of extreme socio-political and economic breakdown for monkey-eaters to eat other primates considered “subhuman.” It is but one more monstrous step from the days of the Second World War when the European Nazis made soap and lampshades from the flesh of “subhuman” Jews.

The level of violence directed against the Pygmies is horrific. Early on in the so-called Second Congo War, London-based Minority Rights Group International (MRGI) presented evidence for war crimes and genocide to the ICC, the International Criminal Court, at the Hague in the Netherland. War crimes included massacres, torture, cannibalism, and mass rapes. Mark Latimer, spokesperson for the MRGI, called on ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo to arrest the perpetuators and prosecute them. That is a daunting challenge considering the complex nature of the war with atrocities on all sides against Pygmies. The ICC declared its primary task is to prosecute war crimes in Congo, and that was all it did. The crimes continued unabated.

One witness for the MRGI claimed to have survived a late night assault on his village. The entire village population was massacred. The survivor claimed “everyone was shot and hacked to death and the huts were burnt.”(1) One of the primary groups identified by MRGI with the systematic extermination of the Pygmies was the MLC, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, or Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo. Headed by Jean-Pierra Bemba, the MLC was a rebel group that fought the Kabila regime or the Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo government forces throughout the Second Congo War. They control the northern and northwestern parts of Congo including portions of the provinces of Equateur, North Kivu, and Orientale. Bemba’s MLC were backed by Museveni’s Uganda, fought the DRC forces, and headed a campaign of extermination against Congolese Pygmies.

The Third Congo War is in full sway, with renewed MLC-DRC fighting breaking again in 2007 and 2008. Uganda supported Congolese Tutsis and Hema factions against DRC, Hutu, and Lendu factions. The MLC Congolese harbored religious beliefs that eating Pygmy flesh conferred magical powers upon whoever ate a Pygmy. The mass rapes were also justified by religious beliefs. These mass rapes grotesquely calls into question the designation “subhumans” as a justification by those who murder Pygmies for I’m not aware of people who eat monkeys raping them, too.

Pygmies are used as slave labor, as “human mules.”(2) Even the DRC authories consider their Pygmy fellow citizens subhuman and do nothing to stop any one group of combatants from abusing and killing them. Another group notorious for torturing and slaughtering Pygmies along with all of their other enemies is the Mai-Mai or Mayi-Mayi militias in South Kivu and Katanga provinces. The only distinction the Mai-Mai seems to make among their numerous enemies is that they also eat Pygmies. The Mai-Mai rape Pygmy women claiming sex with Pygmies cures a host of ailments such as low back pain. Once organized by the DRC as community militias against the Rwandan, Burundian, and Ugandan invasions, the Mai-Mai turned on the DRC and almost everyone else except the Hutu militias. They continue to war with the Hutus against various Tutsi groups as well as the DRC. The Hema-Lendu war in the Ituri region of Congo led to both sides cannibalizing Pygmies.

Perhaps the worse are a rebel group known as Les Effacers or The Erasers. They seek to cleanse entire areas of all people and clear the land for mining and other forms of mineral exploitation without any concern for the rainforests with its wildlife, plants, and streams. The Erasers also hunt, kill, and eat Pygmies. They seem to revel in their cannibalism.

It keeps getting worse. Pygmies had their sexual organs cut off to be used as magical charms. Some of the various tribal militias and guerrilla bands had marauders draped in the amputated human genitalia of Pygmies. In 2003, and this is over five years ago now, at a United Nations Indigenous People’s Forum indignant Pygmies spoke out against the outrage and appealed for help.

Sinafasi Makelo of the Mbuti Pygmies claimed his people were hunted down and eaten. In his own words, he said “In living memory, we have seen cruelty, massacres, and genocide, but we have never seen human beings hunted down as though they were game animals. Pygmies are being pursued in the forests. People have been eaten. This is nothing more, nothing less, than a crime against humanity.”(3)

The Pygmies, those that continue to survive, still await that help. I can not imagine what it must be like for my family and me to be on the run, hunted by everyone with no one to turn to, afraid we would be devoured by cannibals. What seems to be the Third Congo War phase of this Great African World War is breaking out. Fighting is rapidly spreading throughout the region once again. Ceasefires break down, warlords are on the march, governments wring their hands, the mainstream media focuses elsewhere, refugees swarm, and borders break down. And still the Pygmies endure. And they need help. Only massive international intervention into the region will work. The rest of humanity is preoccupied with the global financial crisis and the Middle East, but the extreme violence in Central Africa forces itself upon the world stage. Will there be any Pygmies left by then?

William Dudley Bass
Friday, November 7, 2008

Footnotes:

(1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm
(2) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article402970.ece
(3) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm

Sources:

Coglan, Andy. “New monkey virus jumps to humans.” New Scientist, March 2004, http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4798

Second Congo War, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War

DR Congo Pygmies ‘Exterminated,’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm

DR Pygmies appeal to UN, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm

Global Security: Mayi-Mayi Alliance pour la resistance democratique (ARD), http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/mayi-mayi.htm

Movement for the Liberation of Congo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_the_Liberation_of_Congo

Pygmies struggle to survive in war zone where abuse is routine, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article402970.ece

Pygmies, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy

Human Rights Watch: D.R. Congo: Mai Mai Warlord Must Face Justice: Katangan Warlord ‘Gédéon’ Should Be Charged and Tried for War Crimes, http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/05/17/congo13381.htm

Human Rights Watch: Uganda in Eastern DRC – Summary, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/drc/drc0301-03.htm

© by William Dudley Bass

Obama Stands Tall…and the World Stands Up

“Obama rocks!” my daughter Kate shouts, pumping her fist high in triumph. She’s three and a half weeks away from her 10th birthday, and she is excited about politics for the first time in her life.

I realized for the first time just how ashamed I have felt to be an American under the Bush-Cheney Regime. I have both supported and opposed various policies of different administrations over the years, demanding the light of truth be shined on any and all things. Despite terrible things done by Americans over the course of US history I was proud of what we achieved. I was proud of what we stood for even in the midst of our imperfections. There were events in US history that outraged me, such as slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, the support for anti-Communist death squads in the name of life and liberty, the rise of militant racist and fundamentalist religious groups, race and labor wars, and the internment of Japanese-Americans. But I have never consistently felt ashamed until we had George W. Bush as President and Dick Cheney as Vice-President.

I also realized how for the first time how much I feared my own government. Now the United States Government has made many mistakes over its life in its pursuit of various agendas. But never have I experienced the systemic erosion of liberty and the deliberate dismantlement of our United States Constitution and all it stands for as experienced under the reign of Bush-Cheney, who were sworn in during what for all practical purposes amounted to a messy but bloodless coup. I have great hope; in fact I pray that the infamous American Pendulum so well described by Naomi Wolf in her book The End of America swings back to rest at the center of liberty. I stand the now-loosening grip of the Neo-Con Far Right has so shook people up that conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike are now wide awake and moved to action.

This election is historic, for so many obvious reasons I won’t repeat here. But it is historic for another reason that seems overlooked in the mainstream mass media: I believe the landslide nature of it saved us from civil war. If it had been close, if there had been widespread fraud and obvious vote rigging on the scale of the Election of 2000, if McCain-Palin had ended up being declared the winner by the Republican-dominated Supreme Court as Bush-Cheney were there may have been violent uprisings in the streets. If President Bush had actually invoked clauses from the Defense Authorization Act of 2006, Section 1076 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act, and Executive Order – National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive NSPD-51/HSPD-20, all which grant him near-dictatorial powers, to suspend the elections and impose martial law for whatever reason, even if justified, it would trigger national outrage and revolt.

The armed forces would be torn between following orders and firing upon their own people. They would be torn between their allegiance to the Constitution and their oath to a Commander-in-Chief who violates that Constitution. Any possible scenario could unfold, and in the midst of the global economic and environmental crises all invoke nightmares. But none of that happened. Why? Because, quite frankly, Obama’s landslide saved us. And I want to be clear; it is the historic nature of that landslide and the overwhelming emotional response to that landslide that mattered. It is doubtful that a John McCain landslide would have triggered McCainomania or even a Sarah Palinomania. Conspiracy fears aside, I don’t know if Bush and the Neo-Con cabal had any real intention to impose martial law and establish a dictatorship cloaked as a democracy, but if they did they certainly knew by Election Day night millions of otherwise complacent and busy Americans would have perceived that as crossing the line and would rise up in revolt. Thank God for that landslide. And Goddess, too.

The landslide saved us. As it unfolded my family began listening to National Public Radio. We’re not big TV watchers. But the excitement was too much to contain. Joyous, incredulous, hopeful we dashed to the television and tuned in to Public Broadcasting Station. Obama called out to those who doubted and feared for our democracy to look right here at the election results. He called upon all of us US citizens to recognize we’re all one America. He acknowledged not just Blacks and Whites but Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans. He acknowledged “gays and straights, the disabled and the not so disabled.” All of us Americans. And he drew attention to the hard work that lay ahead for all of us. He acknowledged the financial contributions of five dollars and ten dollars from working class families and how it all added up. The man had clearly grown and matured immensely since his first primary debates almost two years ago as a rookie Senator jumping onto the court to play with the big boys and girls.

David Horsey, the renowned Seattle political cartoonist, recently portrayed Obama as being cast as a devil by those who saw him as a mix of Karl Marx and Malcolm X versus those who saw him as an angelic mix of JFK and Jesus. Obama stood off to the side, shouting he’s just “an ordinary guy.” One journalist described the popular swell for Obama as “messianic fervor.” Obama himself knows he has work to do, that the whole world has high expectations, and he’s not wasting time. He’s already learned from the transition mistakes of past administrations, both Republican and Democratic, and is rapidly assembling his staff and team.

Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat known for his ruthless and aggressive drive to get things done as well as his ethics and integrity, was handpicked by Obama to be his White House Chief of Staff. Obama will have the opportunity with both a Congress now dominated by Democrats and a majority of states with Democratic governors to reach out, still be bipartisan, and change the socio-political and economic landscape in a way that has not been done since FDR and Abe Lincoln. In fact the popular and astute journalist/analyst Fareed Zakaria predicts Obama to be another Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At least he will certainly have that chance.

We certainly do live in extraordinary times. And no one realizes this better than President-elect Barack Obama and the Black centenarian he praised, Ann Nixon Cooper of Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Cooper was born in rural Tennessee 106 years ago. She remembers the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. visiting her when he was a little boy at his mother’s knee long before his assassination in 1968. Ms. Cooper remembers not just a time without cars and airplanes and antibiotics but a time when women and people of color were not allowed by the White, male power structure to vote. She is in awe that an African-American, and although actually half-White and half-Black is a true African-American as Obama’s father is from Kenya, was voted into the White House. She is in awe, too, that the Election of 2008 was a pivotal year for women candidates as well. As she said earlier, “I ain’t got no time to die.”

I sit here filled with emotion. In hindsight I wished I had done more to support Barack, but instead I supported Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul. They were intellectual giants blessed with common sense and a profound understanding of both the US Constitution and the Money Power. I failed, however, to see their failure to connect from the heart as well as the mind and to demonstrate a presidential level of calm presence. I failed to see Barack Obama for what he was, a transformational figure of archetypical proportions just beginning to blossom. And now that he is, my eyes are open. With that said, it’s time to roll up the sleeves. Much hard work needs to be done. There are wars, terrorism, regional and global conflicts, global climate disruption, environmental and energy crises, and of course, the looming, crushing global economic crisis that threatens a second great depression.

Last but not least is work we all need to do to safeguard our liberty, our freedom, our Constitution, to roll back and address the abuses of power under the Neo-Con regime. Let us remember George W. Bush is still President of the United States of America until Sen. Barack Obama is inaugurated on January 20, 2009. Bush can do anything he wants until then. We all must not let down our guard simply because “Obama won.” Instead we must maintain vigilance, ever constant vigilance.

William Dudley Bass
Friday, November 7, 2008

© by William Dudley Bass

Congo Rises: The Great Central African "World War" Returns

The continent where humanity was born threatens to pull the rest of the world into a whirlpool of the most savage violence. The situation is complicated by large, ever changing numbers of warring factions that cut across international borders, the local desire to feed the global lust for its natural resources whether it’s coltan for cell phones and laptops or a desire to view rare gorillas, and the absence of conventional “good side versus bad.” It seems most although not all of the various factions have some degree of legitimate claims for their involvement, and yet all of them commit horrific atrocities, even the UN Peacekeeping forces. The media keeps the world focused on Iran, Israel-Palestine, Syria-Lebanon, Pakistan-India, North Korea, Russia, the Balkans and the Caucasus, Venezuela and Bolivia, and Bush-Obama-McCain and the global financial crisis. But it is Africa that spills the most blood, draws in the most countries, has the greatest treasures, and where no one who doesn’t live there wants to bother with.

In what has been called Africa’s World War violence rippled out across Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Zaire then Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo, Sudan, Chad, Libya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, impacted other African and European nation-states, and drew in various international organizations and corporations. An unusually large number of rebel groups emerged in the constantly shifting chaos, many of them warring against each other as well as different nation-state governments. The scale of the war is equivalent in size to Europe. The casualties are staggering. Almost a million dead in Rwanda, over five and a half million in Congo, and more deaths in other neighboring countries. Millions of people maimed and mutilated. Untold numbers raped and sexually traumatized. Hundreds of thousands of children kidnapped and forced into slavery, combat, or sexual slavery. Thousands of Pygmies killed and even eaten. Whole economies and governments destroyed. It is the largest hot conflict since the Second World War.

In spite of long-ago efforts by Joseph Conrad and Mark Twain in their writings Heart of Darkness and King Leopold’s Soliloquy as well as outraged reformers, Central Africa including the immense Congo basin remains an enigma to the outside world. The true horror of Conrad’s masterpiece, perhaps, is that “The horror! The horror!” never really ended. The horror continues to this day.

The Congo Free State which preceded the Belgian Congo was the scene of a long and horrific occupation and series of overlapping wars and rebellions that merged into one long war seemingly without end, just as today’s “African World War” does. In this most savage conflict, from about 1877 with the first European military invasions to the establishment of the Congo Free State in 1885 to its being taken over by the Kingdom of Belgium in 1908, up to an estimated ten million human beings died. This does not even include a much smaller number of non-Africans who died trying to kill and exploit Africans. In addition, the destruction of Congo's environment led to widespread death by disease on both sides.

The Belgians, among Europe’s most gentle people, and their European and North American allies behaved with the most barbaric and grotesque savagery. The irony is that the native Africans of Congo were considered by the European invaders to be the true savages. The Belgian conquest and occupation was of a scale of cruelty that rivals the Nazis and Communists of later ages. The violence didn’t necessarily end with the official Belgian government takeover in 1908, and was soon eclipsed by the outbreak across Europe of the First World War and its spread into the European colonial empires in Africa and the Middle East.

The Congo Free State was also an early example of the early Corporatocracy at work. The Congo along with all its natural resources and even its people were the private property of one man and his company, King Leopold II of Belgium and the deceptively titled Association Internationale Africaine. Professing humanitarian concerns, drawing in European support while playing their governments one against the other, King Leopold was the early epitome of proto-fascism, merging private corporations and industry with the machinery of the Congo and Belgian governments to create an absolute tyranny where the collection of basketfuls of severed human hands was regarded as a form of currency and symbol of tyranny.

Now Congo is once again in chaos. The United Nations stands by helpless once again as it’s largest military “peacekeeping” force on the planet is unable to stop the violence, protect refugees, confront armed combatants from any faction, or help maintain infrastructure. Yes, aid is arriving, thanks to shaky ceasefires and ceasefires called by Laurent Nkunda, the primary warlord of the Kivu region.

General Laurent Nkunda, the Banyamulengen or Congolese Tutsi leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) who revolted against the DRC government and conquered much of eastern Congo is driving hard to capture the regional capital of Goma. From North Kivu, he left Congo in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide to fight for Tutsis there. He is a veteran of earlier campaigns in Uganda and Rwanda before returning to Congo to help overthrow the dictator Mobutu. Nkunda rose through the ranks in the so-called First Congo War. He then fell out with President Kabila’s chaotic regime and was a major player on the Tutsi side in the so-called Second Congo War. Both Congo wars along with a number of other interrelated conflicts are part of the so-called Great African War or Africa’s World War. Earlier world wars were fought in Africa but spread there from elsewhere. This one, however, originated in Africa and so far seems confined to that continent. Nkunda and his CNDP have been in continual warfare since 2004 against Hutu militias that moved into Congo from Rwanda and Burundi as well as against the DR Congo government. This phase of the Great African War is called the Kivu War, although the term "Third Congo War" is gaining traction.

Nkunda is a charismatic intellectual trained in psychology prior to his emersion in the ways of soldiers. His agenda seems to be a mix of anti-Hutu Tutsi nationalism, Evangelical Pentecostal Christianity (he sometimes identifies as a Rebel for Christ), a desire to protect Tutsi people from recurring Hutu massacres, and political ambition. The wars in Central Africa are compounded by the ugly fact all sides commit atrocities. The Tutsis once had world-wide sympathy for their cause, but now those under Nkunda are accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.

Laurent Nkunda himself was accused of leading the massacre of 160 people in Kisangani, the capital city of Tshopo Province in northeastern Congo, in May 2002 and beating UN investigators sent to confirm those charges. This prompted Mary Robinson, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, to demand that Laurent Nkunda be arrested for war crimes. Of course, in this lawless realm he was not. General Laurent Nkunda was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court back in 2005. He remains under investigation even though Refugees International and Amnesty International have accused him and his army of murder, rape, looting, and kidnapping children to serve as child soldiers. Nkunda, however, either denies these charges or implies mistakes were made in the past and the future should be the focus. He not only claims to be a conservationist but helps protect the rare mountain gorillas. Even so, in a case that outraged the world and struck the locals with grief, seven gorillas were killed in Virunga National Park from a family of twelve great apes in 2007. Their human killers remain unknown, but Nkunda used it an excuse to expand his protectorate there. Perhaps more importantly from a political standpoint, Nkunda claims to be the grand protector of Congolese Tutsis. The DR Congo government which broke with its former pro-Tutsi allies Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda continues to target Congolese Tutsis, known as the Banyamulenge, or ignore their plight as Hutu militias kill and maim them.

The latest upheaval is spreading quickly out of control. Nkunda’s forces drove the remaining DRC government rangers out of Virunga National Park on the Congo-Rwanda border and stormed toward Goma. DR Congo troops scattered, pillaging and raping in their retreat, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of panicked and exhausted refugees. Nkunda’s troops, despite their Draconian and criminal approach, appear well-disciplined and orderly by comparison. His Protestant strictness seems almost welcomed by the war-weary populace.

General Nkunda’s ambitions are far-reaching, however. Unlike the Afghan Taliban, this austere soldier has no desire to return to some Medieval past. His sights are on Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He insists on serious negotiations to bring about meaningful change not just in Kivu but in all of Congo, maybe in all of Central Africa. If not, he may well consolidate his conquest of Eastern Congo and drive on Kinshasa to overthrow the weak and ineffective regime of President Joseph Kabila. Meanwhile, he ignores calls for his arrest, denies Rwandan military assistance, and acts with a calm, self-assured confidence. After all, he is a student of human behavior and has been engaged in almost constant practice of the arts of war and leadership since the Rwandan Genocide compelled him to action 14 years ago. Will the UN have the courage to arrest Laurent Nkunda and try him for war crimes?

Proposed Solutions:
The immediate solution is for the United States and the European Union to work in concert and send air, land, and riverine combat forces into Congo to secure territory, secure air and river ports, protect refugees, allow the unimpeded flow of food and medical supplies and other much needed aid, and establish secure communications. These forces can be independent of the NATO command and can work in coordination with MONUC (United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo). What this region needs, however, are not more peacekeepers but an international intervention from beyond the region to defeat rebel armies, tribal militias, ethnic gangs, regional warlords, national militaries, and cross international boundaries to pursue the constantly crisscrossing armies and arrest suspected war criminals.

If humanity truly wants to resolve these seemingly intractable conflicts, more has to be done than pious speeches over the media and a parade of lightly armed blue helmets. This war roots are in ethnic and tribal conflicts exacerbated to an extreme degree by thoughtless European colonial empires that drew arbitrary lines helter skelter across maps of “the Dark Continent” without any respect to geography and ethnicity. Current Neo-Liberal globalization practices with a focus on Free Trade and economic exploitation by the Western Corporatocracy of its resources have to be reversed. Such catastrophic approaches need to be replaced by economic policies that are sustainable and encourage local entrepreneurship. These must be based upon fair trade and be environmentally friendly and socially responsible.

Get off the high horse of national sovereignty, realize that nation-states are co-dependent and not independent, that we strive toward interdependence and integration, that the concept of national sovereignty is as obsolete as the Divine Right of Kings. A series of UN-AU brokered conferences can redraw the boundaries of this area. Each major ethnic group or coalition can have their own homeland as a nation-state within the United Nations and the African Union. There can be one Tutsi state and one Hutu state that encompass parts of today’s Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo. Perhaps the people of North and South Kivu provinces can have their own states while the Lenda and Hema in the Ituri region have their own states. This approach can be applied to most if not all of the nation-states of post-colonial Africa. Action, too, must be taken to protect the Pygmy tribes as well.

At the same time it has to be clear that anyone has the right to live where they want within reason, that one’s ethnicity, tribe, religion, or nationality are not grounds for exclusion from a new ethnic homeland as micro-state. The media focus is on Hutu killers of Tutsis, especially as the Hutus seemed to have slaughtered the most people including large numbers of Tutsis. It must be remembered, however, Tutsis also killed Hutus in vicious massacres. Nevertheless, Hutu and other militias have to be disarmed and disbanded, by violent force if necessary. The world has an interest in socio-political and economic stability in this region, the heart of Africa. Powerful and heavily armed combat forces must be introduced to squash all combatants while economic rebuilding begins.

Troops will have to come from somewhere and have the clear authority to go into battle against any resistance. If not UN & AU, then the superpowers from North America and Europe, perhaps even Russian and China, will have to step up and work together. Much has to be done in the way of building infrastructure, not just physical ones such as roads, bridges, water and sewage systems, hospitals, communication systems, and electrical power plants but the infrastructure of a progressive, responsible civil society including courts, health clinics, police, fire departments, and worker protection. Medical personnel including therapists and counselors are needed to address not just epidemics but the deep traumas of mutilation, rape, child combat, and torture.

At the same time, professional Congolese police and military forces need to be trained and held accountable. It may take years to build up these forces. These Congolese forces have to protect all the people of Congo, including the Banyamulenge Tutsis and the Pygmies, not just those living in the capital of Kinshasa. Poorly trained troops who pillage, rape, and slaughter their own citizens as well as refugees from other nations while running away from real combat merely drive their own people into rebellion and destroy their own country. And the rest of the world cleans up their mess because the rest of the world didn’t want to do the work required in the first place.

The demand for justice, especially to address war crimes such as massacres and mass rapes, has to be addressed as well as balanced with truth, reconciliation and forgiveness. It will take time, it will take attention, and it will take troops, lawyers, engineers, doctors, nurses, and construction workers. It will take money. And if not addressed the bloodshed and chaos of this area will pull in yet more countries as a black hole in space consumes stars and planets. The war may well spread across the whole of Africa, merging with other conflicts and jumping to Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. Or some warlord will emerge from the fury like some African Tamerlane and bent on conquest sweep half-way across the planet before he is stopped.


William Dudley Bass
Wednesday, November 5, 2008


Sources

“Africa’s great rift in mercy: A solution to Congo's latest war lies in Rwanda's attempt at Tutsi-Hutu reconciliation,” http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1105/p08s01-comv.html
“Congo Civil War,” http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/congo.htm

“Congo Free State,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State

“Congo rebel leader threatens to expand fighting to Congo capital,” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/04/congo-nkunda

“Diary: Protecting mountain gorillas,” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7549444.stm

“DR Congo: International Leaders Should Act Now to Protect Civilians,” http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/10/30/congo20107.htm

Erlinder, Peter. “U.S./U.K. Allies Grab Congo Riches and Millions Die, 2001-2003 UN Expert Report,” Global Research. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10815

Kinzer, Stephen. The new Rwanda: The crisis in eastern Congo isn't really about Congo – it's a continuation of the Rwandan genocide, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/03/congo-rwanda-genocide-violence

Hawkins, Virgil. “Stealth Conflicts: Africa’s World War in the DRC and International Consciousness,” http://www.jha.ac/articles/a126.htm

Hochschild, Adam, King Leopold's Ghost, Pan (1999).

Jenkins, Mark. “Who Murdered the Virunga Gorillas?” National Geographic. July 2008,
Vol. 214, No. 1, 2008: 34-65.

Kinzer, Stephen. “The new Rwanda: The crisis in eastern Congo isn't really about Congo – it's a continuation of the Rwandan genocide,” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/03/congo-rwanda-genocide-violence

“Kisangani,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kisangani

“Kivu Conflict,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kivu_conflict

“Laurent Nkunda,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Nkunda

“MONUC: UN Mission in DR Congo,” http://www.monuc.org/Home.aspx?lang=en

“Nkunda's campaign blazes new trail of devastation in Congo,” http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2008/1105/1225523373023.html

“Profile: General Laurent Nkunda,” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3786883.stm


© by William Dudley Bass

On Political Parties and an Endorsement for the American Presidency

I endorse Obama.

I stand for the man who has the courage and the vision to take on the issue of race, who calls for the world to come together to solve our now global challenges, who recognizes that to solve the energy issue also addresses our environmental and economic problems, and who made it clear to our best military commanders that if elected President he would be their Commander in Chief.

As a proud Independent voter, as a citizen of the United States of America, I have over the years cast my ballot for Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, and various Independents. I am not a member of any political party and share George Washington’s disdain for political parties. The first American president distrusted factions competing for power leaving strife and division in their wake. Yet political parties have become a necessary part of the political landscape worldwide. Quite simply they have the resources to leverage candidates into office. Perhaps in some future time candidates with little resources with no party affiliation will have the technological power to market themselves to the world from whatever evolves from today’s Internet. Such a possibility would return political power to the individual, and yet that for now is a mere dream.

We humans are social animals. Thus it’s only natural for people to come together and work for common causes and mutual agendas. From this social networking today’s powerful political parties have evolved to foster their respective visions and agendas. And so I choose to work with them without being a member of any one of them. In the primaries, for example, I supported both Republican Representative Ron Paul of Texas and Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich from Ohio. Both were staunch supporters of the Constitution and of revolutionary new ways of dealing with the world. Ron Paul was a traditional conservative, and Dennis Kucinich a visionary progressive. I knew eventually I would have to choose between them. The mainstream mass media, however, alternately ridiculed and ignored both and banished them to the fringes. Senators McCain and Obama battled their way to their respective nominations. With so much at stake I knew I could not in good conscience vote for a Libertarian, Independent, or Green candidate.

As such I endorse Illinois Senator Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States of America. I endorse Delaware Senator Joe Biden for Vice-President. Both candidates represent the Democratic Party. I feel and think Sen. Obama is by far the most dynamic and compelling candidate for President and Sen. Biden for Vice-President.

There are indeed specific issues I am not at all supportive of regarding these two, such as corporate control over much of the electoral process including the corporate grip on both mainstream parties with the same large corporations contributing to both parties. There are certain actions by Obama I am disappointed in, such as voting for FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) and not publicly disavowing torture of prisoners. Although Obama is a Constitutional scholar, he has not publicly condemned the Bush-Cheney Regime for systematically undermining the US Constitution. He has not advocated the radical changes necessary to address the current global financial crisis such as to bring the Federal Reserve System and the Money Power under Federal and thus public control and establishing a set and determined fixed measure of value for the free-floating and falling US dollar. He continues to advocate the same Free Trade policies of the Corporatocracy instead of Fair Trade, although he stands for “fairness.” Nor has he heeded calls to further investigate real discrepancies regarding the terrorist attacks of 9/11. There are controversial allegations regarding the location of his birth including that he had his Hawaiian Birth Certificate and his college records sealed from public scrutiny. He continues to rely upon key Neo-Liberals such as Zbigniew Brzezinski for advice and stated he would also turn to arch Neo-Conservative Henry Kissinger for counsel, two dominant figures of empire, war, and intrigue.

Sen. Obama represents a mainstream political party as dominated by the Corporatocracy and special interest groups as its rival the Republicans. Key leaders of both the US Democratic and Republican Parties hold membership in the same so-called “secret societies” including the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Bilderberger Group. Even so, this time I refuse to make the mistake I made in the Election of 2000 by voting for Ralph Nader and the Green Party instead of Al Gore and the Democrats who actually won the popular vote and contested the electoral. The US Supreme Court stopped the vote count and threw the election to George W. Bush in the so-called Republican Coup and the Neo-Cons seized power. I will not make that same mistake twice. Yes, politics is politics, the game of taking power, and voting sometimes challenges one to make decisions based upon pragmatic reality as well as character and ideological stances.

I’ve already voted via absentee ballot for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I feel McCain-Palin would be a disaster not only for our country but for the world. Obama is cool under pressure and doesn’t hesitate to ask questions from people who may know more than he. He has matured in his ability to think on his feet and trust his gut instincts, as his recent and respectful debate with Army General David Petraeus over military strategy in Iraq demonstrated. As President Harry Truman had to do with General Douglas McArthur during the Korean War, Obama made it clear that if elected President he was the Commander in Chief. (1)

While he often appears cerebral and up in his head and has been criticized for not connecting from his heart, Obama nevertheless is a master orator and has time and again demonstrated his depth and power in connecting with large crowds of hundreds of thousands of people. For the first time in history, thanks in part to technology, an American candidate becomes in a sense the world’s candidate. If a planetary election for a democratic world republic were to be held today, Obama would win hands down. The global Obamamania is a reflection of American’s iconic position upon the planet today and the hope America is restored once more to it’s statue as a beacon of hope and freedom for the world, not a corporate-dominated giant that tortures prisoners and chips and slashes away at the freedoms of its own people. Hope for America becomes hope for Earth.

On March 18, 2008 Obama delivered his famous “race speech” from Philadelphia. He calls it “A More Perfect Union.” This was a landmark speech addressing the proverbial elephant in the American living room, and it convinced me more than any other. Race isn’t just the American elephant, it’s the world’s monster. And it isn’t just race, it is also religion, gender, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, ethnicity, whatever divides people and divides people violently. These metaphorical elephants are used to justify put-downs, oppression, and tyranny. They are used to deny human beings liberty, opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness. Obama himself is of mixed race. Born in Hawaii, his mother was a White woman of European descent from the American state of Kansas. His father was a Black man from the Luo tribe from the East African nation of Kenya. Scientists claim that from a biological perspective there is no such thing as “race.” Genetic research demonstrates race is a cultural construct. And Obama courageously addressed the painful reality of this construct, a divide that exists more in our negative imaginations than in physical reality.

Obama’s speech in Berlin was another turning point. On July 24, 2008 he addressed the crowd as a “citizen” and called for people all around the world to come together as one to solve planet wide problems. In fact, his Berlin speech was titled “A World that Stands as One.” We have a global convergence of challenges unique in human history, and Obama recognizes that on some level we all need to grow up as a species to the next level of planetary cooperation to resolve these issues.

While Obama realized the Global War on Terror has turned into a disaster with the war in Iraq a colossal blunder, he also realizes it would be irresponsible to simply pull out and leave without cleaning up the mess. A number of other international crises loom and not just those in the Middle East and South Asia but also the expanding hornet’s nest of interconnected wars in Central Africa including Congo. Struggles to avoid a Second Great Depression and to launch his Manhattan Project and Apollo Mission style energy and health care initiatives will also consume his attention.

This particular presidential election is fraught with danger. We slide toward possible economic collapse, environmental catastrophe, and messy wars. Rumors abound of President George W. Bush and his Neo-Con cabal declaring martial law and suspending not only the Constitution but the election itself. While I can not imagine why George Bush would want to stay in office a day longer than he is supposed to after all the debacles on his watch, I also can not imagine that the Neo-Conservative cabal will simply just pack up its bags and walk away from its massive accumulation of executive and military power. Nor can I imagine far right wing White supremacist and Christian Dominionist groups staying silent and peaceful. And should John McCain and Sarah Palin win, legitimately or by fraud, I can not imagine the American street staying silent and peaceful. We have become increasingly polarized and divided as a nation. In a worst case scenario, riots, coup attempts, military intervention in domestic civil unrest, domestic terrorism, racial strife, and even civil war is possible. All which would further sully America’s standing in the world.

I urge all of us to stay calm in the face of the unknown. Fear often is False Evidence Appearing Real and dwells within our own imaginations. Let us all reign in fear and face forward with courage. Let all of us, Liberals, Conservatives, and Independents alike stand together for our collective and individual liberty and for our American Constitution. And get out there and vote anyway.

William Dudley Bass
Sunday, November 2, 2008


Footnotes:

1) Klein, Joe. “Why Barack Obama is Winning.” Time.com. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1853025,00.html. October 22, 2008.

© by William Dudley Bass