Tuesday, March 4, 2008

WE ARE AT THE DIRTY END OF THE FIELD

We wanted to believe that it wouldn't get funky, but we all knew what Michelle Obama meant when she talked about being proud of her country. As we looked at all of the smiling faces of the pundits grinning with glee because once again they had bamboozled the public with lies, innuendos and half truths. Once again they had demonstrated their total lack of integrity. There was Wolf Blitzer, AIPAC 's fox in the hen house, and Howard Fineman smirking because the temple had once again delivered the voice from the gutter and making it appear that it was all above board. Then there was the shuffling, grinning, buck dancing Eugene Robinson being objective and devoid of any connection to the reality of the thievery.

We knew that as Ruby Dee had said "they ain't going to give us anything, it’s like a poison, that's soaked in the ground" It isn't just the racism but the need to prevail at all cost, the ultimate zero sum game where the losers are the people. No they aren't going to give us nothing and the desperation of those who would destroy this world rather than share it draws the final line in the sand and it calls us to witness. This election is and has never been about the Presidency of America for the Bushes and the Clintons have destroyed whatever credibility that America had as a moral authority. This election is part of a global realignment dictated not only by the changes in the global political economy but also by" the fierce urgency of now ". Decoupling is not just a political and economic process but it is also a moral and philosophical challenge.

The Clinton campaign had openly moved to the dirty end of the field where winning was the only thing that mattered. In complicity with certain Jewish organization they had played the anti-Semitic card by linking Obama to Farrakhan through the minister of his church. They had first used this tactic before the Nevada primary attempting to alert the Jewish population of Nevada which is the fastest growing Jewish population in the country. Richard Cohen , the Washington Post writer was the point man with CNN'S Wolf Blitzer, the former Press Secretary of AIPAC , playing the same role on television. Senator Clinton was quick to ask Senator Obama to "denounce and reject" Minister Farrakhan, but she did not distance herself from the implication that because Rev. Jeremiah Wright was a friend of Farrakhan, and according to them Farrakhan was an anti-Semite so was Obama, nor did she decry the photo of Obama in African clothing which tried to suggest that Obama was both a Muslim and perhaps a terrorist.

The problem with this strategy is that it my play well among the bigots and the narrow minded but it is certainly not in the long or short term foreign policy interest of the United States. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Arabs/Muslims control most of the oil in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. Insulting them is certainly not a wise foreign policy strategy.Secondly playing the race card or the anti-Semitic card does not play well when one considers that the major players at the global table are all non white nations or people of color with the exception of Russia which under Yeltsin saw their country plundered by some Jewish businessmen many whom had dual Israeli and British passports.(see The Decline OF RUSSIA IN THE AGE OF GANGSTER CAPITALISM BY PAUL KLEBINOV).Conservative columnist, Christopher Caldwell with whom I seldom agree gets it right when he says, "Obama wants to be US president; Clinton wants to capture the government for her faction.” Like any good prostitute she'll get in the back seat of any car as long as it's going her way.