Start Making Sense
by Frank Scott
California replaced a very unpopular political hack who represents the rich, with a very popular unpolitical hack who represents the rich. So? The recall sent a message to the political establishment, but whether it’s understood is questionable. The same gang that jumps to attention at any demand from wealthy lobbies is inclined to totally disregard demands made by ordinary voters.
The recall was an expression of disgust with the status quo, but its result will hardly bring real change. Without a powerful left, voters will respond to a powerful right. That is the result of a corporate financed ruling party with one wing that liberally pretends, while the other conservatively performs .
The California governor was held in such contempt that he never should have been protected by the Democrats, whose leadership may be in grief counseling after its shattering defeat. He was decisively dumped, and the Hollywood bicep-with-a-bankroll got far more votes than they anticipated. Most analysis of the election only revealed elitist contempt for the public, and senseless ignorance of what happened or why.
The awful neo-cons won because the awful neo-libs were seen as even worse. Given a choice between lesser evils, voters can only choose evil. The greater good of the majority is meaningless, in a system based on the greater gold of a minority .
The recall offered one hopeful voice calling for actual democracy; Peter Camejo of the Greens. He was able to participate in debates and present a perspective never before part of a mainstream campaign. That he received the lowest vote among the debaters is more due to fear and disorganization among his supporters, than any rejection of his message.
The Democratic campaign of hysterical mudslinging was a dismal failure, but it scared many progressives into supporting the wretched governor. Why did they panic and vote against their convictions? In part, because they have been told, repeatedly, that candidates they really like cannot win, and so they support candidates they really don’t like, because they fear something even worse. And repeatedly, they get something even worse. This form of crackpot “realism” needs to consider the old adage: it is better to vote for what you want and not get it, than to vote for what you don’t want, and get it.
A neocon financed exercise in confused democracy was totally bungled by the neolibs. Their multimillion dollar campaign, empty of political content and slimy in political style, had normally thoughtful people voting based on manufactured fears of an alleged nazi-sex-fiend , while real problems of the state, the nation and the world were totally neglected.
As death tolls rise in Iraq, Israel and Palestine, the flea-brained fanatics in D.C. continue their bloody policies, with support from most Democrats. Some of the spinally challenged have begun standing, almost erect, to criticize the intellectually challenged leadership. But not because of its horrors in the middle east, or the criminal fabrications that support its policies. A possible felony committed in leaking a CIA agent’s identity has them righteously supporting investigations.
Anything that puts imperial idiocy on the defensive is welcome, but expecting a strong performance from the Democrats is a very long shot. These hypocrites , who are strongly pro-choice for American women but strongly anti-choice for Palestinian people, play a major role in maintaining the morally perverse world order.
An administration which should be impeached for its criminal twisting of public consciousness, remains powerful because its official opposition is powerless. If Democrats in California perform like the sorry bunch in Washington, the state is in for trouble, but its situation will pale in comparison to global conditions under the rule of chaotic capital .
No market boosting or bible thumping can rationalize the dreadful misery in the middle east, which may come home to roost in more ways than one. The threat of terrorism has clearly increased , to all but our dismal leaders and confused sectors of the public. USrael is moving closer to a total mideast war, with the schizoid USA Likudniks playing Israel’s follower one day, its leader the next.
No advertising or cosmetics can disguise the fact that American jobs are vanishing, and reappearing in foreign countries where capital finds greater profits . Or that consumers are increasing personal debt in pursuit of a false security in the present, while the ruling cabal insures that there will truly be more insecurity in their future.
A privatized economy perverts supposed family values , making child and senior care facilities produce financial gain from individual stress and isolation. Markets move to steal more from public protection, to increase the personal fears that create still greater private profits.
Millions of jobs lost, millions of people working only part time, and even more lacking health insurance, and what do we get? Private tax cuts for a rich minority and public program cuts for the working majority.
Brutal foreign policy is an extension of brutal domestic policy, and as we show contempt for Americans and disrespect for the world, our reliance on foreigners to sustain our massive debt by investing a billion dollars a day on our financial paper becomes ever more dangerous.
Wall Street consults financial astrology charts and forecasts a boom, but will it be an explosion of investment dollars, or terrorist bombs? That question needs more of our conscious concern than does the personal, gutter politics practiced by our rulers and their professional help.
Until we rid ourselves of their presence in Washington, the California recall will mean little as a lesson for the status quo gang. Their days may be numbered, but so are ours, unless we create an alternative to them.
Society and Nature both face ruin until the way of unregulated capital becomes controlled by the will of democracy. Time may be eternal , in a universal sense, but we don’t have that much of it to develop peace and justice, in a global sense . Hurry.
Copyright (c) 2003 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
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frank scott email: frank at marin.cc.ca.us 225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901 (415)457 2415 fax(415)457 4791