From Compromise to Conflict: America Gets Positional and Forgets How to Get Along With Itself

Several essays I read recently by different pundits and news analysts gave me pause. They addressed different points of the same view. Much has been written about the rising vitriol in American public discourse with the spread of far-right and far-left extremism to infect the great middle.

Note the resurgence of armed militias and racist groups with the rampant rise of violent hate groups first under President George W. Bush with many more under President Barack Obama. The tragic shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D) and others around her this past January triggered a national debate that went beyond passion to inflammatory rhetoric. We have become a nation polarized and divided that refuses to get along with itself.

There have been calls for a military coup, threats of martial law, and fears of riots. Even the specter of a possible civil war or revolution has been raised as our nation reaches levels of polarization not seen since the 1850s with the possible exception of the 1960s. The uprisings sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East with rioting and protests in Europe and elsewhere, including the American state of Wisconsin, have been hailed as harbingers of similar upheaval here at home. London burns as I write.

The recent “Budget Deal” reached early this August between Republicans and Democrats was another case in point. Yes, a deal was reached. After much rancorous and extremely ugly arguments in Congress and the White House and across the nation. It was so bad even Representative Giffords came out of rehab to cast her first vote since she was shot in the head. And it was a deal no one liked and everyone hated. Much was made of “Look at us! At least we made a bipartisan deal.” The agreement was bipartisan in name only and the U.S.A. was promptly stripped of its sterling AAA credit rating, the stock markets crashed and crashed again as gold soared, and other nations from China to Europe scrambled.

There was a time Republicans and Democrats were able to wheel and deal to get effective legislation accomplished. Of course, they did not satisfy the ideologues chomping with dismay in the wings of both parties, but the vast majority of Americans were pleased. Years ago, President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, and Senator Tip O’Neill, a Democrat, were famous for fierce debates over many issues. After the votes were cast this way or the other, however, both would go out together for beers and laughter. Former Senator Teddy Kennedy was another stand-taker who mastered the art of compromise.

Now compromise is a bad word. It was noticed recently that President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner, political polar opposites, are among the last waves of baby boomers passing through American politics. They have not mastered the art of compromise and both come across as “nice.” While Boehner has run a company, Obama has not. Neither developed the experienced of going nose to nose and toe to toe with opponents in management, in the labor unions, in the military, in combat, or against the Soviets.

The generations passing and for many already passed are the ones that grew up in the World Wars, survived the Great Depression, and went eyeball to eyeball with the Soviet Empire with fingers on the nuclear triggers. Many ran large companies or colleges and universities. Most of them were military veterans, and many had experienced the horrors of combat.

These men and women knew in a crisis to all come together for the national good, not tear the country apart. They had heard enough of that from their elders regarding the horrors and the aftermath of the Civil War. These men and women also knew that for different folks to all work together everyone has to compromise. Compromise was a form of sacrifice. It was good.

Now compromise is shunned, even ridiculed. Politicians act like spoiled children fighting over toys in the playroom oblivious to their own house burning down. People talk of “cooperation and collaboration,” but we see this more among NGOs and today’s business enterprises as entrepreneurs and big corporations alike struggle and adapt to survive the Great Recession. We don’t see it in government. This paralysis extends up into the international and down into the state and municipal governments as well. As the country runs out of cash, credit, and amasses even more debt the more people argue with politicians eyeing the next election campaign rather than the deep and broad reforms not only required, but also demanded.

As the memories of the Second World War with its total war fade, many today forget that many times in the past, not just World War II but others as well, that surprisingly often more soldiers would die in one day of battle than in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq put together. There were many battles with extremely high casualties, not to mention the widespread slaughter of civilians by both sides. Few really want to repeat total war, obviously, but many forget its cost. Now there is sloppy and callous talk among war planners in government of using mini-nukes and bunker-busting nukes in military first strikes or even on the battlefield.

We have politicians in power who don’t or can’t relate to these matters. Instead of compromising, they go positional over values. They make values more important than reality with real results. The polarization between our politicians is a reflection of the even greater polarization and anger among the general public. There is a lack of leadership, leaders that can compromise and that means being strong enough and possessed of enough liberty and self-confidence to compromise their own values.

Values don’t exist out in reality. They live in our speaking. They dwell in our inner worlds of our minds. They are anchored by beliefs, and beliefs are made up in our minds. Facts are used or discarded at whim to fit not reality but whatever people want to believe to thus justify taking extreme stands on their values.

Of course values are important. They are ingrained in our Declaration of Independence, in the U.S. Constitution, in the traditions of all the world’s religions, and in the ethics of secularists and others. A sense of values was what brought past generations together to push through the wars and calamities of 1914-1991. They also had enough sense not to let these same values get in the way of working through their own differences to achieve even greater results.

In surveying all this, I realize one possible reason my wife Kristina and I sometimes have differences over issues in a way that perplexes me. She often uses the word “values” in our arguments and conversations. I do not. I certainly take stands on issues, but I am also quite willing to change my mind and work with others, especially when shown evidence that is contrary to any of my beliefs. We are almost ten years apart in age. I’m among the last of the baby boomers, too, and she identifies with Generation X.

Recent studies indicate GenX and subsequent generations place much greater emphasis on values than prior generations did. They are more extreme in taking stands for their values. I recall conversations about morals and for ethics and getting clear as to what our credo was. Beyond that I don’t remember a heavy emphasis on “values.” I also grew up in the revolutionary and turbulent 1960s. Instead of being polarized between two extremes, there were multiple factions quarrelling with one another. The term “values” was tossed out as an archaic concept. There were more important things, such as eradicating war, poverty, racism, and sexism.

I for one don’t want any more violence here at home or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. I certainly don’t want to see the United States of America fragment into revolution and civil war. My stand is we return to civil discourse and hold our politicians accountable to do the same. As American citizens we elect our politicians, and they hire our bureaucrats. Our military would be wise to remember their sworn oath is to uphold the Constitution, not pledge personal loyalty to any one person or office. And our political leaders must begin to demonstrate leadership. Along with the love, what little they show, they also must demonstrate spine. Some backbone! Keep in mind a healthy spine is strong and flexible. A sick spine is soft and swollen or rigid and brittle.

If we are to really be a stand for values, then allow for the values of compromise, agreement making, cooperation, and collaboration. These values in turn will safeguard most others. We have too much at stake as multiple crises converge upon our species.

We can work together. We are already doing so in realms as diverse as business and activism. The spread of new portable technologies facilitates these actions. Our politicians, however, seem content to bicker until some fabled earthquake brings down the temples of government. I certainly oppose corporate control of politics, and as businesses prove themselves more adaptable and resilient what will happen? Perhaps we need new models of self-government, one grounded not in ossified traditions of the past but in newer models of local-global cooperation, resource sustainability, and engaged, collaborative leadership.

What will it take for you to take a stand for what you believe, and be willing to compromise the same for higher values such as the survival of our country and our world so we can transform our differences to build a truly prosperous global civilization?

William Dudley Bass

August 8, 2011

© 2011 by William Dudley Bass

"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

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