The Politics of Hate and Democratic First Responders
Today, Super Tuesday, will feature a referendum on “the politics of hate (racism),” or the “southern strategy” implemented by Richard Nixon years ago as a staple of presidential politics. Ironically, the democratic candidates, particularly Hilary Clinton, will benefit also from the legacy of slavery, one of America’s two original sins: the genocide of Native Americans was the second. Black voters see Hilary as a fellow traveler of Obama. Meanwhile the Republican Party has transformed the party of Lincoln into a subversive attempt to transform constitutional democracy into the plaything of billionaires and demagogues. Democrats have followed in their wake and moved to the right.
Republicans ignore traditional notions such as bi-partisan foreign policy, equality under the law, and have re-interpretated the first amendment in favor of corporations and the second amendment in favor of serial killers. In their racist zeal Republicans invite foreign dignitaries and right wing extremists to join them and speak up against Obama (Iran and Israel). Four hundred years of science has been rejected in the name of “ideology” as the party of Lincoln moves further and further into “reality show” politics.
But the election of “Mr. Hope but No Change,” Obama, as Chris Hedges, a nationally known polemicist and war correspondent notes, has created continuity between the Bush and Obama administrations. The latter has one-upped Bush by putting more Americans in jail under the repressive Espionage act than all other presidents combined. The First Amendment languishes with Snowden in exile, Chelsea Manning in prison, and Julian Assange in London’s Ecuadoran embassy. So much for unpaid free speech. Torture continues. Gitmo shames us all.
Obama has met in secret at the White House to orchestrate and codify the targeted killing of American citizens, assassination, as a norm. Welcome to the death penalty: due process (like the Irish and the Muslims) need not apply.
The much-maligned health care initiative welcomes those who are broke or possess pre-existing conditions. But Obama-care also serves as a “boon” for enriching insurance companies with taxpayer dollars. He will leave office with better prospects than the Clintons, when it comes time to collect checks from the unindicted Wall St. financiers.
Whereas the nomination of Donald Trump could destroy the hegemony of the Republican right wing, the nomination and election of Hilary Clinton will politely mend the fissures between the haves and have-nots in words, not deeds. Hilary is a right-of-center (Republican) wolf in Democratic clothing.
What we need is a “political revolution” in this country: feel the Bern and send the bullies home.
Local Note: I don’t know who to vote for first today in the Town of Taos elections. But my second choice is Sign Man candidate, David Cortez. He works hard and is a little crazy, like Bernie. Feel me? He speaks up and can’t keep the kool-ade down: his stomach rumbles.