davydog

A recent broadcast of Barbara Bernstein’s Locus Focus talk radio program on KBOO, Portland’s community radio broadcaster, featured journalist Norman Solomon who talked about his experience as one of Barack Obama’s delegates at the 2008 Democratic National convention (DNC) in Denver. Solomon’s main argument, near as I could figure out, centered on his belief in the absolute necessity that Americans elect Obama President in November. He took particular aim at those so completely disenchanted with the Democratic Party, or the political establishment as a whole, that they despair anything good coming from either. A common view from this despairing perspective is that there’s really no substantial difference between Democrats or Republicans, and the barriers to mounting an effective challenge to either party through a competing party seem all but impenetrable. Solomon appeared to harbor similar doubts about the viability of any independent political party, and urged “progressives” to work within the established party he perceives as most closely aligned with “progressive ideals.”

Admittedly, there actually is a “dime’s worth of difference” between Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats’ steep slide into the abyss of cowardice, betrayal and spiritual death ceaselessly plunges the party towards new depths. By contrast, the Republican party has managed to goose-step its way into lock-step allegiance with the Antichrist. A Democratic victory in November may indeed usher in a kinder and gentler version of Pentagon-enforced American global hegemony, while one can reasonably expect a Republican win to quickly complete the ongoing annihilation of the United States Constitution, a strategy the current administration continues to pursue with remarkable zeal. Either path leads to more destruction, misery and death, even if one potentially takes us there more quickly than the other. An obvious question arises: Why willingly traverse either one?

“Okay Mr. Smarty Pants,” you might ask, “then what’s your solution.” Obviously I lack one, but might humbly ask why we continue to cling to any delusional hope that a political savior will come along and make our problems go away. Shouldn’t historical evidence and our own experiences prompt us to deposit that hopeless notion into its final resting place? Clearly Barack Obama is a brilliant political actor who, despite winning the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Presidency, appears to still possess at least some semblance of his actual soul. That someone of his caliber has managed this achievement within the confines of a decrepit, soul-destroying political process is just short of miraculous. After Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech, delivered in the wake of the media-manufactured “controversy” over his church’s former pastor, I felt compelled to gush my unapologetic approval and contribute $25 to his campaign. I’d never before witnessed such heartfelt honesty from a major American politician. That Obama managed this feat from the center of such treacherous political theater was even more astounding.

In recent months enthusiasm from some of Obama’s more ardent supporters has begun to cool as his public rhetoric shifted noticeably towards placating people more animated by corporate, military and financial concerns. Obama’s utterances on the war in Iraq, the potential for increased conflict with Iran, the supposed “need” to increase the U.S. military bootprint in Afghanistan, and similar issues often sound more distressingly “un-progressive” with each passing day. His utterly uninspiring choice in running mates also did little to abate the mounting qualms of many from Obama’s more “progressive” quarters. The question is obvious: Did you really expect this to go any other way?

Any large society makes certain collective choices. For instance, when the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., at the height of the Vietnam War, warned Americans how a “nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” Americans chose to embrace spiritual death even more fervently than before. Despite the “oil shocks” of the 1970s, Americans chose to accelerate our extravagant excesses in energy use. We chose to build ever-larger houses, perched on top of our most precious farm tracts, situated in evermore soulless subdivisions that have metastasized throughout our continental exurbia. We choose to careen from McMansion to shopping mall and to office and to megachurch in oversized monster trucks, often called “SUVs” or “sports utility vehicles.” We choose to stare into large screen monitors pumping out the vile programming that obliterates our minds as we stuff our bodies with the poisons that beckon from supermarket aisles or is passed to us through fast food drive-thru windows. And we’ve fully abdicated our duty to create a government of the people, by the people, and for the people that is concerned solely with the people’s interests.

What politician could possibly save us from all these demonic choices?