Two Weeks of Hypocrisy
by Mamie van Doren
As I write this, Thursday evening, September 4, 2008, Cindy McCain is saying that she has "the most marvelous husband..." and she remarks about John McCain's "steadfast sense of honor," neglecting to mention that his honor did not apply to his first marriage.
But to the subject at hand....
After two weeks of political conventions marked by flag waving, betrayals, confetti, lies, patriotic music, and some of the most shameless and unforgivable lack of imagination yet to be foisted on American citizens, both parties have shown that they are no longer capable of understanding what America and the world need to survive. Instead, we have been given an overdose of the sugary, pre-packaged imagery that public relations firms dream up, a focus-grouped fantasy of American life that the parties want us to think we want. There are no jobless, homeless, legless, and armless; no minorities discriminated against, no mentally crippled citizens wandering the streets uncared for. No war refugees, no political prisoners, no blighted cities or oil soaked beaches. Only the pristine wilderness, the home town, the sacred family, the holy war against the enemies of The Land of the Free. They want us to stay asleep.
Some how, some way, we must wake up.
We will not wake up in time to defeat either or both of the major parties' candidates in November. For a time, the forces of hypocrisy will rule, destroying our republic by calling oppression security, corporate greed prosperity, and spreading imperial conquest of the world disguised as free trade. The poor will continue to suffer, our troops will continue to die, and our economy will continue to wither.
Obama betrayed Hillary and the millions who voted for her, picking instead Joe Byden for Vice President, a tired political hack with plenty of experience in the kind of back room, rat fucking politics practiced in Washington.
McCain responded by picking Sara Palin, a young political hack once mayor of a one horse town in Alaska, who managed to get herself elected governor. America has suddenly been confronted with its own soccer (or hockey) mom image, cheerful as a Starbucks barista, shrewd and hard as a street hooker, chatty, opinionated, and vapid as a character out of a sitcom.
Obama declares that we should get out of Iraq "honorably", but continue allowing our children to fight and die in Afghanistan. For the fiction of capturing Osama Bin Laden.
McCain says, however, that Obama's too soft and we should honor our troops by staying in Iraq too--honor here meaning, presumably, that we best honor our young people by allowing them to be shot at, maimed, and killed. For oil and Israel.
I will vote for Obama, though the prospect is not appealing. If he is elected there is a chance, a small chance, that some day things will get better. There are terrible forces arrayed against him, to be sure. The far right loathes the idea of a person of color as president. They will do everything to discredit him.
If McCain wins there will be a long, dark night for America--the dark night begun by the last eight years. It was only the beginning of the end when the administration destroyed habeas corpus. Look for more erosion of the few rights you have left as a citizen.
If we stay awake, however, present to bear witness to the sorrows of our wars and the decline of our economy, there may come a day, perhaps after we're gone, when the sun will shine again.
Sometimes, as Jack Kornfield says, all you can do is plant the seeds and pray.
Peace.