The
election is over and the anticipation is over. My
life is not over. There will be other things to write
about, such things as are not political - but not
just yet. I need to get the election results behind
me. I need to vent.
I have rehearsed this essay in a dozen letters, in
three dozen conversations. I have poured out my
consternation to friends and acquaintances as they
did to me. We have lost the election. I was up the
entire night, election night, until all but one
network had declared in favor of Bush, and then I
watched only that network. The mathematics was clear
and I eventually had to confront defeat. It left me
forlorn and frightened for my family, for my country
and its Constitution, and for the world. After a
devastating night without sleep, having descended
into a morbid depression, I found myself nauseous and
dizzy. When the morning came around and I was
supposed to leave for work, I called in sick and
climbed into bed instead.
The day after the election, I was infuriated by the
smug arrogance that beamed from President Bush's
face. In his victory speech he declared,
"America has spoken, and I am humbled by the
trust and the confidence of my fellow citizens."
He made it sound as if he had been given a mandate by
the people, a disregard for the slim margin of his
victory, that 49% voted for his opponent Kerry. It
was a melancholy week during which I was
inconsolable. By the end of a week my depression wore
away and all that remained is my anger.
The Neo-cons are coming into power, to control the
helm of the most powerful country in the world.
National chauvinism isn't just a sickness that
poisons the United States; it is a delusion that
permeates every nation of the world. Catastrophe
arises only when a nation has the power to impose
their point of view by force of arms and by force of
capital. The Neo-cons make no secret of their intent;
they even maintain a website, the Project for the New
American Century, www.newamericancentury.org, "a
non-profit, educational organization whose goal is to
promote American global leadership." They have
been straightforward since 1997 in announcing their
intent. In their statement of principals we read:
"We seem to have forgotten the essential
elements of the Reagan Administration's success: a
military that is strong and ready to meet both
present and future challenges; a foreign policy that
boldly and purposefully promotes American principles
abroad; and national leadership that accepts the
United States' global responsibilities." Many
familiar names have signed on to this, such as Elliot
Abrams, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney,
Steve Forbes, Dan Quayle, Donald Rumsfield, and Paul
Wolfowitz.
There is no suggestion that the Neo-cons are prepared
to recognize another country's leadership, another
country's global responsibility, nor another
country's principals. It presumes a priori that ours
is superior to the rest. The United Nations be
damned! I suspect the Neo-cons think of themselves as
the end to history and don't worry about setting a
precedent, like creating a model of cooperation among
nations. When China becomes the next most powerful
nation in the world, if they use Neo-cons as their
model, they will promote Chinese principles.
With half the country against it, we can hope to slow
the Bush Administration's progress, to beat back the
Neo-cons. Perhaps Republican moderates will take back
their party from the lunatic fringe that whispers
into Bush's ear, the extreme Christian right which
intends, through the present Administration, to
impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us.
They want to end the teaching of Evolution and have
their creation myth taught in its place; they want
their version of the Decalogue exhibited in
courtrooms; they want the law to recognize the zygote
as possessed of a human soul and is therefore in
greater need of preservation than the woman who
carries it; they want to stop stem cell research;
they want to stop the use of prophylactics; they want
to restrict homosexuals from the rights accorded
heterosexuals; they want prayer restored to the
schools; and, they are eager to pursue policies they
believe will hasten the coming
Apocalypse/Armageddon/Rapture.
Politics make strange bedfellows. The American
Christian Fundies [Fundamentalists] support Israel.
One wonders how it is that these two exclusive
groups, Christian extremist and Jewish extremist,
each with convictions that theirs is the one true
religion, which should put them in contention with
each other, yet share a common goal of sorts. The
establishment of a Jewish State and the rebuilding of
the Temple have a similar purpose for each. For the
Jews it will bring about the Messiah. For the
Christians it will bring about the Messiah again. The
Jewish Messiah will bring world peace. The Christian
Messiah will bring a scary circus preceded by a
one-piece band and bad weather.
Why the light of a zillion stars that forms the
Universe should be extinguished to satisfy the need
to make real a mythology found among a subgroup in a
religious sect belonging to an incidental species
floating on this speck is beyond my imagination, but
apparently not beyond the absurdly childish
mythologies of Fundamentalists. |