DIVIDED WE REMAIN
The American Election of 2004 and the Collision of Church and State
By Muhammad Nasser Bey
How could so many people be so stupid?
Some one once asked if you lived in the emerald city would you like to
ruled by the Tin man,( all brains and no heart) or the scare crow ( all
heart and no brain).
It appears that those Americans who live in the "red states" on the
election tote board would rather be governed by the scare crow, the hollow
man, head piece made of straw!
George bush won re-election on the votes of people more concerned with
their private notion of morality than with the burning issues of the
nation which in them selves represented a greater threat to morality than
gay marriage or a womenıs right to choose.
The ****ft in republican party lines suggests a ****ft in the perception of
the world many Americanıs now have.
The cower together in the republican party under a man who claims he will
make the world safe for them, this can not be done with out making the
world safe for all, a task that the USA cannot handle alone.
With 24 hour news and the Bush administrationıs constant drumbeat on "
terror at our door", itıs no wonder many Americans feel more unsafe. The
Administrations drum beat on terror was because they could not talk about
other issues like the environment or crime or the economy which they have
ignored.
Mr. Bush says he wants to continue to spread democracy around the world,
he would be wise to spread democracy here at home before attempting to
ex****t a half-finished product. In the mean time there is more machine-gun
diplomacy in Falluja and the assertion on wall St. that deficits do not
matter continues to take reassurance from the Bush re-election.
In one sense we have seen the exercise of the Machiavellian mantra of
divisive politics free from the very morality and devoid of the religious
values the candidate claimed to be working in the name of.
Worse, George bush became president of half the nation, that half being
mostly white, Christian, many evangelical and all together out of touch
with what is going on in the rest of the country much less the world.
While these mostly white Americans with their counter parts among some
Latinos and African Americans voted for intolerance dressed up to look
like moral struggle to save the nation from the gays and women seeking
choice. The "nation" being a stand-in for "the virtue of white womanhood"
which has been the cause of much moralizing at the end of a gun barrel in
America. In short the politics of guns, gays and god have duped half the
electorate into voting for someone who does not have their best interest
at heart.
Some African Americans who voted republican dismissed in doing so their
own history in favor of faith based gifts from the whitehouse. These
Negroes have not only cut their own throats but the rest of ours aswell.
Other issues infused with as much if not more moral energy went begging in
this election. Saving the environment, ending or at least under mining the
causes of poverty.
Ending cor****ate corruption and putting an end to the use of prisons as
slave labor camps for cor****ations and actually ensuring that the county
is safe from terrorism by adjusting our foreign polices collectively are
far more moral goals to pursue. While Kerry did address some of this he
stayed on message to middle America, little was said to or about the third
of nation that is still ill fed and ill housed.
The map says it all, the coasts, more urbane, open minded and progressive
which is where the nation experiences most of itıs
initial encounters with different societies , differing religions, new
ideas first went for Kerry. The interior of nation, the heart land if you
like of the nation, more insular, more self-absorbed, more likely to
embrace an out dated notion of rugged individualism, more prone to vote
along religious and racial lines went for bush with his plain, country
cornball manners, comforting bromides about how great a nation we are, how
well the economy is doing and promises to make America safe.
White women bought the safety issues, white men bought the tough on terror
line, all bought the religious angle it seems and there is from which the
republication gained their edge.
Human nature played a large role in the election, nearly half of all those
who voted, voted against what George bush stands for so there can be no
coming together as Kerry suggest, no healing.
Bush promised in his acceptance comments that he would do more for
America, make schools all they could be, improve social security and so
forth. He has done none of these things during the last four years, why
should anyone believe him now?
America has always been a nation where some group is deliberately left out
of the political process. In this case half the country is going to get
the shaft, maybe more as Bush keeps his promise to
continue wars in the middle east (to spread democracy of course) while
bankrupting the nation at home to heights unimagined by even the federal
Reserve Chairman.
The religious right was used, hood winked if you like by a man whoıs base
is the Rich and Super Rich. George Bush has used pulpit politics and a
false vision of morality to cover the crimes of not dealing with the
nations true problems.
Some Americans were seduced by what bush said, unlike Kerry
Bush played on emotions of fear, white fear mostly as indicated by the red
states on the tote board on election night. Some would say "red neck "
state where conservative, white values include a willful ignorance of the
facts and a fundamental difference in what people view as an appropriate
image of the leader they think America should have persist.
Some one like George Bush who does not think to deeply, claims to have a
deep faith and is willing to be tough on terror (with the bodies of other
peoples children) seems to be ok with too many Americans. While it is true
those who voted for George vote for him for differing reasons, everything
from his stance on terrorism to not liking Kerry, it remains clear now
that more people voted with their hearts than with their heads.
As long as this Sphengalli, this mesmerizer Bush and those who handle him
continues to delude those who want to be deluded he will have a free hand
to do his worst in the name of America.
One might argue that there is a group of people in the country, not all in
the center that the republicans do not know how to talk to, some call them
evangelicals, otherıs have less flattering names for them. One thing is
certain theirs is a narrow agenda that is not troubled by more pressing
issues as long as their personal breed of morality is addressed and
codified as law.
Furthermore, a nation where 13 percent of the population is
African-American but there is only one Black man in the senate and he is
half white should tell people that the nation is not being represented by
a population of law makers as diverse as the populations they represent.
It seems pointless at this juncture to point out the hazards of this kind
of electioneering going on every four years as those who vote their faith
are not likely to be reading about the abuses of the election process.
Around the world the results of the election have not been viewed as
positive.
It is widely understood that big money is used in America to maintain an
entrenched political class of white men who sup****t for the most part an
unending military buildup, cor****ate welfare, Israel and the exclusion of
a third party at the national level from participation in the electoral
process.
The liberal Daily Mirror asked, "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?"
Inside, several pages of coverage were headed "U.S. election disaster."
In Europe the Newspaper the Independent bore the front-page headline "Four
more years" on a black page with grim pictures including a hooded Iraqi
prisoner and an orange-clad detainee at Guantanamo Bay.
The left-leaning Guardian led its features section with a black page
bearing the tiny words, "Oh, God." Inside a story described how Bush's
victory "catapulted liberal Britain into collective depression."
Across Europe, many newspapers expressed dismay at the prospect of another
term for Bush, a president often regarded as inflexible and unilateralist.
"Oops they did it again," Germany's left-leaning Tageszeitung newspaper
said in a front-page. The cover of the Swiss newsmagazine Facts called
Bush's re-election "Europe's Nightmare." "Victory for the hothead: how far
will he go?" asked another Swiss weekly, L'Hebdo.
One can hope that something good will come out of the Bush administration,
it is unlikely that the government on itıs own will embrace the Kyoto
treaty on global warming or any of the other common sense notions of our
age. For that to happen will require a greater ground swell than that
which took place to give Senator Kerry his near-victory during this
election.
Neither George Bush or his father possess the will or the courage to lead
the nation forward out of oil dependence of out of the smug
self-centeredness now being peddled in our nations capital.
One thing is certain, the changes needed to make the vote of the American
people count must come from the voters them selves not those who are voted
into office. The electoral college must go and
People must elect the president directly.
In the future politicianıs nations wide who run for national office had
better consider the "power of the small mind" when they plan political
strategy.
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