This recent press back that we are seeing in the media against Senator Obama is probably to be expected. Here is why...
I think that it is representative of a greater issue than the US elections that is taking place within the US-what we are actually witnessing is a
tug of war between two opposing right here within the United States borders. One one side of the rope you have something that seems to be representative of today's conservative movement-that is an outlook dominated by fear, pessimism, and a feeling of moral superiority and on the other side you have a group that today seems to present in the vast majority on the left-hope (for a better future).
Abraham Lincoln photo from Public Domain.
Library of Congress via pingnews.com
HistoricalFrom a historical point of view, I believe that the mid 1990's saw a conservative base that was growing steadily in strength, yet found it very difficult to fully flex their muscles given the brilliance of former President Bill Clinton. President Clinton was an enigma of sorts, came in on social issues adopting a stance that was difficult to neatly categorize. On some issues he was liberal but on many others he appeared to be centrist or to the right of the center and on fiscal/trade issues he was extremely bullish. He faced a republican controlled congress, but somehow found ways to implement measures that benefited a very large cross section of the US population, while still doing things like balancing the
national budget.
I think that him being able to make his accomplishments look so easy greatly infuriated the majority of the Republican party and followers. Naturally, when word got out about the Monica Lewinsky situation the conservative base saw the event as if it was manna that had fallen from heaven. So in spite of his many gains for our nation, Clinton became vilified by the conservative talk show hosts and the un-biased media followed suit. The practical side of this vilification is that democrats or liberals, as they like to call us, began to become very unpopular in politics at this time.
Conservative Backlash image by ndifference
So given that as a backdrop Al Gore's task of campaigning to become US President in 2000, while trying to distance himself from Clinton was an uphill battle. The person that had been touted as a moral and business, George W. was sworn in as the US president following a bitter and contested election. And it seemed that the energy had been drained from the Republican Party because after winning they became quiet whilst the rest of the country was still crying foul. On top of that a steady stream of stories began coming out about prominent and visible members of the republican party-like corruption, sex scandals, and the like...
Lo and behold comes the tragedy of 9/11 and things began to turn around for the conservative movement. But at first, like for the first few weeks after the tragic events of 9/11, our nation saw a coming together of America's previously separate communities. It was very amazing and inspiring to see everyone displaying so much unity, pride, and togetherness in our country. In contrast to today even the international community surrounding us was eager to come to our aid.
Can Someone Say Subliminal Programming?
But against this new found all encompassing mood of togetherness there was a rather quiet, but deliberate change in rhetoric. This change in tone came from the top-the Oval Office or from very powerful people that influence the oval office. Somehow, we the people, were slowly and carefully wound up with fear. Every day on the radio, in the airports, and on the TV we began hearing something rather foreign to us-terror alert warnings. One day it was being said that the code has been changed from yellow to orange and the next day it was red. And this continued, the days became weeks and the weeks became months and so on and so on. And by and large it was really hammered home to the American collective psyche that we were in trouble and no matter who or what stood in our way we were going to get justice. This was only the beginning of how extreme elements in the conservative movement tricked us in to becoming a nation led by fear.
Soon Washington began openly criticizing both the international community and any American who was not 100% behind going into Iraq. Following that the talk show hosts, radio personalities , and other right wing media outlets that were once powerful in the Clinton era found a new spring in their steps and had a new purpose. They were going to rid the entire globe of terrorists by going into one country...Of course Iraq's leader at the time really did give dictators a bad name and there isn't any disputing that point. But perhaps what mattered more to the current Bush Administration is the idea that, "we shoulda' gottem' the first time when my dad reined".
So for the next several months there were tons of false allegations that were meant to link the terrorist attacks from September 11 to Saddam. Now up until then Iraq had been regarded simply as a secular Muslim nation that was surrounded by much more fundamentalist states. And so it follows that Saddam and terrorists got along like oil and water. Saddam probably more closely resembled the Shah's that were installed in various parts of the Middle East to assist the UK in getting oil, prior to their ousting by fundamentalists, than he did a terrorist. But unfortunately, because of all the propaganda that we were hit with after 9/11 we did not ask enough questions when G.W. started the country down the path of threatening to take action irrespective of an international coalition to invade Iraq.
I am sure that around this time you, like me, started hearing everyday ordinary citizens on the street talking about things like, "let's bring in those terrorists" or "Osama your Mama" and other things like this. Please note that I am not saying that those slogans or the mindsets that created them were right or wrong, but am just trying to put it into context that this mindset proved to be like clay for that ultra right faction of the republican party-because 1) they did not try to stop it or discourage it but rather seemed to encourage this behavior 2) they almost got to the point where they questioned you if you didn't blindly go along with some of their mantras. So ultimately they were able to shape the minds of the American people into whatever they wanted...And from there America's collective conciousness then became fixated upon immigration. Again, it started sort of against the backdrop of making our borders safer by doing a tighter screen on immigrants, but somehow it turned into a full scale movement where nearly the entire nation turned against the international and immigrant communities. This caught many of us who were not buying into the anti immigrant feeling off guard and we were sort of caught speechless. After all, we have always been known as a land of immigrants, right? Even more importantly America would not be able to function without immigrants.
"Un-Patriotic"photo by McBethAfter being able to manipulate the mindsets of ordinary, everyday, hard working Americans this successfully the fear mongers felt that it was time to implement the next phase of their plan. This is the one where that can take one word to label someone and that one word could end up affecting how everyone looked at that person. We are talking about that word "Un-Patriotic". if you call a liberal politician that long enough or even just an ordinary person looking for a low paying job un-patriotic for long enough their career will suffer. It's like when someone is called that all of the fury left over from 9/11 gets chanelled at that person as if they were somehow complicate in the act.
And that is how the un-patriotic axe was wielded...first it started out with Washington elite saying things like, "if you don't support us invading Iraq, you aren't supporting the troops, and by default not supporting the troops makes you un-patriotic". But somehow (and I still have not figured this one out) they the elite powerbrokers of the conservative party at the time added a new twist to this un-patriotic thing. Also, it should be mentioned who I am referring to when I say the elite power brokers within the republican party-I am talking about those who started using "faith and morals" as a hammer against anyone who didn't agree with them and who took over the republican party around the time of the Iraq invasion by using fear. After they were firmly entrenched in every corner of America what they did is they started combining the message of patriotism with family values. In essence, they almost made the two inter-changeable.
The way that it worked is that if someone was called un-patriotic and as someone who lacked family values it meant that you were either:
- were against the Iraq invasion
- a democrat
- or representated a minority group-whether it be ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, or etc
And sadly, if you happened to fall into one of these groups then you had to work extra hard to gain the approval of the new republican leadership. In fact, I might not be exaggerating to say that it at this time it was even common to for no reason be randomly labeled as un-American, liberal, socialist, and etc just because you couldn't be classified as patriotic or morally correct".
Let me now point out that by the time each of the above phases that I mentioned took place that the conservative's doom and gloom ideology had fully taken a hold of our country. They had their way in Washington and were able to re-write the script for what it means to be an American. Whereas once America has had an air of inclusion and fairness, these folks have somehow found a way to go beyond their base and sell the idea that Americans should be mad or contemptuous towards anyone who is not "like us". Actors who willingly acted along in this disastrous play were none other than our trusted community leaders-our pastors, politicians, local media spokes persons, and even neighbors. I am not mad at them and would not advocate you being mad, but just want you to understand what you are dealing with.
The Matrix
Image by twiztid_juggalo09Just like the movie, "The Matrix", so many of us Americans fell for this bait, became like zombies, and jumped onto the band wagon. In my opinion this is how so many who do not fit the traditional mold of the Republican Party got drawn in to the republican party during Bush's first and second terms. As long as you had that counter culture, pessimistic, fear leaning attitude you felt at home in the new republican party. All the while though, while this "anti-everything" cloud swept through our country you had this quiet group that pretty much just kept their mouth shut during conversations that veered towards American politics, religion, or race. We stayed quiet because we were intimidated by the aggression, the anger, and the fact that we often felt very out numbered in these situations.
Hope and Change Prevail
photo by Joshua Wanyama/African Path
Then in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention someone that most Americans had never heard of before took the stage. He had a really weird name but when he spoke, people felt him...those that heard him instantly loved him because he spoke the language that America's heart yearned to hear for so long. Senator Barack Obama spoke the universal language of hope. And then when he announced his candidacy in 2007 everyone that he had inspired back in 2004 became re-energized. No body thought that he could emerge from the primary contest by appealing to America's sense of hope and love. But somehow he did. And that very moment when he accepted the nomination signified to those that had fallen for and championed the twin traps of pessimism and division that there time of glory was about to end. As soon as the DNC was over the conservative base became like a swarm of angry ants that had been awaken. So when you look at it from that light, everything that the conservative base is doing should really be expected. Because the republican party is more adept at getting the general public to fall for their tactics and because they know how to sensationalize the mundane the media has pretty much taken the bait too. I mean after all let's face it, there isn't much that attracts viewers, listeners, and readers like good old fashion sensationalism.
This is why Mccain was able to make a strong rally last week without tweeking or correcting any of his campaign's policy or ethical lapses, it is also why no matter how much empirical or statistical evidence you present to some folks they still say things like, "I still don't know who Obama is" or "I just don't think he's one of us" or "Obama's going to raise taxes" or "is a socialist" or "I don't think he has enough judgment and experience" . Sidenote on the socialist thing, which administration just effectively nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Is anyone calling Bush a socialist? This backdrop should explain why. This is also why the architects of this pessimistic movement are running scared right now and are willing to do anything to change the game. We have just been so thoroughly
brainwashed and our minds are so numb that we get mad when we should be happy and get happy when we should be afraid.
Bringing it HomeOne more point or statement that I would like to make is that I am not saying that the republicans are bad and that democrats by default are good, because in life you always want to have balance rather than inequity. Afterall, there are some republicans who are doing some stellar jobs and there are some democrats who do the opposite. For crying out loud, I used to vote republican. So it is not really about finely drawn partisanship. What I am saying is that in the last 10 to 12 years the republican party and our country got hijacked if you will by this very negative outlook on life. It is that negative, gloomy, and often sarcastic approach to life that I am against not one party or another. It just so happens that today it is the republican party that has more often carried that mood.
It's time to take our country back, people. This is not the time to panic every time a slanderous article is written about Senator Obama or every time the polls show unfavorable numbers or any of the like. After all, strategically Obama has run probably the best campaign of most of our lifetimes. If he stumbles it will still be ok and get back up to keep moving forward. What people of hope for our nation, like you and me who are supporting Obama, should do is stay focused. Keep
donating, keep registering voters, keep blogging, keep talking to neighbors, and just stay
involved.
