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Democracy Is a Beautiful
Thing
Democracy is a beautiful thing, except that part about letting
just any old jerk vote.
By
William Blum
"The people can have anything they want.
The trouble is, they do not want anything.
At least they vote that way on election day."
Eugene Debs, American socialist leader, early 20th century
03/02/08 "ICH"
-- -- Why was the primary vote for former presidential
candidate Dennis Kucinich so small when anti-Iraq war sentiment
in the United States is supposedly so high, and Kucinich was
easily the leading anti-war candidate in the Democratic race,
indeed the only genuine one after former Senator Mike Gravel
withdrew? Even allowing for his being cut out of several
debates, Kucinich's showing was remarkably poor. In Michigan, on
January 15, it was only Kucinich and Clinton running. Clinton
got 56% of the vote, the "uncommitted" vote (for candidates who
had withdrawn but whose names were still on the ballot) was 39%,
and Kucinich received but 4%. And Clinton, remember, has been
the leading pro-war hawk of all the Democratic candidates.
I think much of the answer lies in the fact that the majority of
the American people -- like the majority of people all over the
world -- aren't very sophisticated politically, and many of them
aren't against the war for very cerebral reasons. Their
opposition perhaps stems mainly from the large number of
American soldiers who've lost their lives, or because the United
States is not "winning", or because America's reputation in the
world is being soiled, or because a majority of other Americans
express their opposition to the war, or because of George W.'s
multiple character defects, or because of a number of other
reasons you couldn't even guess at. Not much especially
perceptive or learned in this collection.
I think there are all kinds of intelligence in this world:
musical, scientific, mathematical, artistic, academic, literary,
mechanical, and so on. Then there's political intelligence,
which I would define as the ability to see through the bullshit
which the leaders and politicians of every society, past,
present and future, feed their citizens from birth on to win
elections and assure continuance of the prevailing ideology.
This is why it's so important for all of us to continue
"preaching to the choir" and "preaching to the converted".
That's what speakers and writers and other activists are often
scoffed at for doing -- saying the same old thing to the same
old people, just spinning their wheels. But long experience as
speaker, writer and activist in the area of foreign policy tells
me it just ain't so. From the questions and comments I regularly
get from my audiences, via email and in person, and from other
people's audiences as well, I can plainly see that there are
numerous significant information gaps and misconceptions in the
choir's thinking, often leaving them unable to see through the
newest government lie or propaganda trick; they're unknowing or
forgetful of what happened in the past that illuminates the
present; knowing the facts but unable to apply them at the
appropriate moment; vulnerable to being led astray by the next
person who offers a specious argument that opposes what they
currently believe, or think they believe. The choir needs to be
frequently reminded and enlightened.
As cynical as others may think they are, the choir is frequently
not cynical enough about the power elite's motivations. They
underestimate the government's capacity for deceit, clinging to
the belief that their government somehow means well; they're
moreover insufficiently skilled at reading between the media's
lines. And this all applies to how they view political
candidates as well. Try asking "anti-war" supporters of Hillary
Clinton if they know what a hawk she is, that -- as but one
example -- she's promised that American forces will not leave
Iraq while she's president. (And Obama loves the empire as much
as Clinton.) When Ronald Reagan was president, on several
occasions polls revealed that many, if not most, people who
supported him were actually opposed to many of his specific
policies.
In sum, even when the hearts of the chorus may be in the right
place, their heads still need working on, on a recurring basis.
And in any event, very few people are actually born into the
choir; they achieve choir membership only after being preached
to, multiple times.
When I speak in public, and when I can mention it in an
interview, I raise the question of the motivations of the
administration. As long as people believe that our so-called
leaders are well-intentioned, the leaders can, and do, get away
with murder. Literally.
"How to get people to vote against their interests and to really
think against
their interests is very clever. It's the cleverest ruling class
that I have ever
come across in history. It's been 200 years at it. It's superb."
Gore Vidal
Another interesting view of the American electoral system comes
from Cuban leader Raśl Castro. He recently noted that the United
States pits two identical parties against one another, and joked
that a choice between a Republican and Democrat is like choosing
between himself and his brother Fidel.
"We could say in Cuba we have two parties: one led by Fidel and
one led by Raśl, what would be the difference?" he asked.
"That's the same thing that happens in the United States ...
both are the same. Fidel is a little taller than me, he has a
beard and I don't."[1]
Speaking of political intelligence ... take a little stroll with
Alice through the American wonderland ... just for laughs
"This war [in Iraq] is the most important liberal, revolutionary
U.S. democracy-building project since the Marshall Plan. ... it
is one of the noblest things this country has ever attempted
abroad." -- Thomas Friedman, much-acclaimed New York Times
foreign-affairs analyst, November 2003[2]
"President Bush has placed human rights at the center of his
foreign policy agenda in unprecedented ways." --
Michael Gerson, columnist for the Washington Post, 2007[3]
The war in Iraq "is one of the noblest endeavors the United
States, or any great power, has ever undertaken." --
David Brooks, New York Times columnist and National Public Radio
(NPR) commentator (2007)[4]
If this is what leading American public intellectuals believe
and impart to their audiences, is it any wonder that the media
can short circuit people's critical faculties altogether? It
should as well be noted that these three journalists are all
with "liberal" media.
And when Hillary Clinton says in the January 31 debate with
Barack Obama: "We bombed them [Iraq] for days in 1998 because
Saddam Hussein threw out inspectors," and the fact is that the
UN withdrew its weapons inspectors because the Clinton
administration had made it clear that it was about to start
bombing Iraq ...
Obama didn't correct her. Neither did any of the eminent
journalists on the panel, though this particular piece of
disinformation has been repeated again and again in the media,
and has been corrected again and again by those on the left.
Comrades, we have our work cut out for us. The chorus needs us.
America needs us. Keep preaching.
Teaching political intelligence
If you're a high school or college teacher, you might want to
look at
http://www.teachpeace.com/highschoolkit.htm for
teaching aids to impart a progressive outlook on US foreign
policy and related issues to your students.
NOTES
1 Associated Press, CNN.com, December 25, 2007
[2] New York Times, November 30, 2003
[3] Washington Post, September 7, 2007
[4] Mary Eberstadt, ed., "Why I turned Right: Leading Baby Boom
Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys" (2007), p.73
William Blum is the author of: Killing Hope: US Military and CIA
Interventions Since World War 2, Rogue State: A Guide to the
World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir, Freeing the World to
Death: Essays on the American Empire. Portions of the books can
be read, and signed copies purchased, at
www.killinghope.org
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