Is Who Becomes the Next President All That Matters?
By Danny Schechter
Created May 14 2008 - 10:19am
BERLIN, MAY 13, 2008: I know. I know. How this is the most im****tant
election in history, and why the next occupant of the White House will not
only be answering the red phone at 3 AM but possibly be saving these not
always United States from the decline that even TIME Magazine has
announced
the country is facing.
Yet, as I travel outside the country, I can't help but feel, or is it
fear,
that this logic leaves out some rather im****tant considerations.
Like the fact that the US cannot unilaterally impose its will on the world
anymore as our dollar falls and our credibility falls with it. Even a
strategy of negotiation as opposed to confrontation is not a recipe for
success because in a multi-polar world, other countries and power blocs
like
the Russians, the Chinese, the EU, The Persian Gulf and OPEC have their
own
interests. They will listen to our proposals but may reject them if they
are
at variance with their own needs.
We just don't have the power to impose our will even as we still suffer
from
"the USA is number one" syndrome and think that we can kick ass and take
names if anyone stands in our way.
Whoever becomes President may not have the power he or she assumes goes
with
the office. (In fact, after the fact, in their memoirs, most presidents
complain they often felt powerless, besieged by lobbyists, party factions
and reticent bureaucrats at every turn. They see themselves constrained by
institutional obstacles at every turn.)
In many ways, Mao was right, the occupant of the oval office is a paper
tiger.
In this new world, if we want others to do our bidding, we can't threaten
to
obliterate them or strut around like Mighty Mouse when so many in the
world
see us as the Mouse that Roared.
So many of our problems today are global and shared by others.
Globalization
has assured that. We are all impacted by global threats like climate
change,
escalating food prices, world hunger, endemic poverty, and pandemic
disease
that the White House can't wave a magic wand to cure. Sadly, most
Americans
are not educated about these issues and the press downplays them.
Even when we cause problems, like the mortgage collapse, markets worldwide
feel the pain in an internationally entangled financial system where we
are
dependent on monies from China. Meanwhile, others invest in the US to keep
their own profits up and compete with our companies on our home ground.
Sure, we are militarily powerful but apparently not powerful or smart
enough
to subdue Iraq or Afghanistan after five years. Our warriors on terror
have
yet to capture Bin Laden or even neutralize the Taliban. The truth is the
Democratic candidates don't think they can tell the military what to do
and
so have withdrawal plans that will take years. That's the reality.
The military industrial complex often has a mind of its own.
And so does Wall Street, which won't take marching orders from any
president. Both Clinton and Bush turned to Goldman Sachs to run the
Treasury, and it's not clear if their former execs were ambassadors to The
Street or from The Street. Financial power trumps political power in a
country dominated by a cor****ate system.
Who can impose an excess profits tax on Big Oil? Who will dare?
In fact, look at the credit crisis. It started with the mortgage meltdown
of
August 2007. At least one million families have lost their homes. Another
two and half million are threatened. The New York Times re****ts that even
their storage spaces are now being auctioned off because many folks can't
afford the monthly charges. The ONION jokes that a family burned their
stimulus check because they can't afford heat. Sometimes fiction like this
gets to the heart of faction.
Times' business columnist Gretchen Morgenson notes that in all these
months
of obvious economic calamity, NOTHING meaningful has been done by our
government to help people in need, writing, "as the great American credit
crash continues to reverberate, we still have nothing that resembles an
intelligent and comprehensive plan for dealing with mass foreclosures and
the economic consequences associated with the debacle."
Why? There is a ideological clash of course. That's obvious. An
administration that has foreclosed on the American Dream cares as much
about
our homeowners as it did about the victims of Katrina.
But beyond that, they don't know what to do; they have no "fix." There may
not be one. We are dealing not with a political debate but a structural
crisis of American capitalism in an era of waning Empire. We can throw
money
at these problems as we probably should, but they are all intricate and
subject to pressure politics. When the Senate run by Democrats tried to
bring relief to distressed homeowners, their final bill was shameful with
more giveaways to home builders and lenders than mortgagees.
So, let's temper our expectations about what the candidate of our choice
can
actually get doneo a system of many checks but very little balance. The
Presidency is a bully pulpit. The President can lead but Congress need not
follow. Sure, change is needed, and badly, but the changes being proposed
-
like a summertime tax break at the pump won't do much about the deeper
energy crisis. Many of the proposals being debated are tinkering with
deeply
flawed policies. They aim to bail the water out of the Titanic while it is
sinking
Unfortunately, our scandal obsessed "Gotcha" media is useless in
explaining
or investigating these deeper problems. Its focus is only on the horse
race.
Cable news is increasingly a pundit-heavy distraction machine, where
opinionizing has replaced re****ting, and, yes, still a Weapon of Mass
Deception as one film I made years ago argued.
Please think about this, and what's not being covered. Sorry to rain on
the
parade as the primaries roll on and the excitement builds like in a s****ts
event.
Who is the next President matters, matters deeply, but is that all that
matters?
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues.
I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an op****tunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are
at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
|
