Decision 08

I've been sort of bemused by the current moniker of the upcoming election. It's as if the very idea of an actual fair honest to goodness vote is so embattled, that the powers that be are just calling it a decision this year. Anyway, as I have no television, I just watched 9 consecutive Youtube clips of the recent debate between this year's democratic candidates. Part of me doesn't like any of them and is depressed at the thought that the slickest, best funded candidate will probably get chosen and won't do anything that seriously challenges the last 50 years of American foreign and energy policy, by which I mean, the policy of enabling big business to do whatever it wants at whatever human and environmental costs nessecary. You can trace this pattern of behavior back at least to World War Two, and presidents of both parties have enabled it to the point that I'm almost over hoping for anything different out of this year's candidates.

On the other hand, I was pleased to see some measure of actual candor among some of the candidates, (that guy from Alaska, HILARIOUS) although, this immediately caused me to think, "That guy is totally unelectable." I mean, he is; despite his courage in deriding US foreign policy as a war policy, cursing twice, and saying at one point, and I quote, "we've scared the bejeezus out of them" in reference to Iran. Then there was sweet little Denis Kucinich who I think is, among other things, too short to be elected president. There's a reason he's the darling of the activist community. This guy is totally unswayed by the reality of the campaign universe. For this reason, he says all sorts of things that are totally true and obvious, but which other candidates won't say for fear of sounding too extreme, like the fact that we're in the Middle East for oil, and the fact that Dick Cheney deserves to be impeached, which I think he probably does. Part of that reality however, is the fact that people simply won't elect a president who doesn't make it clear that he has no problem shooting people and blowing up other countries. What makes this even more difficult for me, and renders me unable to revert to the convenience of indignation, is that I can't reconcile this conflict for myself. I desperately want a world where the US and it's business partners leave everyone else alone and start living ethically. Where we pull back our industrial colonization of the third world and all those angry young men say to themselves, "cool, now I can get on with it" and decide we're not worth fighting and quit blowing people up and everything's fine. At this point, however, I somehow doubt the response to a new, less hostile U.S. presence in the world would be this kind. Alot of people have suffered tremendously at the hands of US economic interests, and unfortunately, a soft cuddly America would probably, rather than warming the hearts of all those people, just invite them to give us what we deserve, which is to be blown off the map. That's really what it comes down to. Enemies of the United States are real. We created them, and they have very legitimate reasons for hating us. Given the opportunity, they will kill us and we would totally deserve it. That said, I don't want to die, and most of the people voting next year don't either, so Dennis Kucinich doesn't have a chance, despite the fact that his vision for a non-violent, humanitarian America is precisely what we need. As for Barak and Hillary, eh. I am officially over Barak. I don't think he offers anything unique policy-wise. All of the lesser-known candidates had at least one moment each where they impressed me with their command of a particular issue. So, at least there is some intellect in the field this year. I particularly remember agreeing with that guy with the creepily white hair who made the point that the real threat of terrorism is the threat of nation-less enemies and that is another reason why diplomacy with existing nations is so important. That's fine. In fact, every candidate seemed much happier talking about Iraq and national defense than any other issue, especially the environment.

The next president has to take environmental issues seriously. They must be treated with the same urgency as the War of Terror has been treated heretofor. None of the candidates impressed me with anywhere near that kind of urgency. In fact, several of them took their time allotted to answer an environment question to talk some more about Iraq. None of them has any sense of the systemic changes that are required in America to combat both the problem of global warming, and impending energy scarcity. Some lame bill that requires a tiny increase in the amount of ethanol available in this country falls pathetically short of what's needed. How about reinvigorating car alternatives in this country like public transt in cities and rail travel nationwide? How about making suburban zoning illegal? Alas, I don't think it's going to happen. Furthermore, most of the progress that's been made on any important issue in the last fifty years has been locally generated. That said, I think I'll just ignore politics altogether this year in favor of seeing what I can do on my own, unless of course, the candidates keep cursing during the debates and otherwise entertaining me.