Share

Are We Ready for Change?

by: Marc Ash, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

photo
The Eternal Flame: John F. Kennedy's grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC.

    Ever wonder why your health care provider doesn't care? Of course, if you're one of the over forty million Americans, many of whom are working, who cannot afford health care at all, then you're not even qualified to ask.

    Ever wonder why, if there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, we went there to begin with? Why we're still there? Why 4,153 US Soldiers are dead and tens of thousands maimed for life? Why hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead?

    Are you hearing a lot of talk about candidates connecting with "working Americans"? Who's going to be in charge of connecting with Americans who aren't working? Do you think unemployed Americans can't decide this election?

    Which candidate will bring about change? That's easy, Obama. McCain has been a good Republican soldier every step of the way. Obama is at least looking for a new way. There's no guarantee he'll find it, but he has set out to forge a new path. Washington is Washington so don't expect miracles, but Obama is itching to break with the past eight years, that much is certain. McCain had many chances over the past eight years to stand up to George W. Bush & Co., he chose instead to back them every step of the way. It is what it looks like.

    The big question mark here is the American public. How far have we come in terms of political maturity? Or to put it more bluntly, are we ready to vote for our own best interests yet? The Republicans have had legendary success convincing voters that highly emotional values-based arguments should be their guide in the voting booth, not health care, war and peace, or the economy. As a result, health care in the US is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy, we're at war for oil - again, and the US economy is flat-out collapsing.

    Richard Nixon was the first Republican to abandon issues and go with emotions. His plans for the country would never have garnered enough support at the polls to get him elected. He needed a diversion, he shaped his campaign around hatred, radicals and liberals. In the end that's what the country got from Nixon, radical hatred of liberals. But we also got seven more years of Vietnam, J. Edgar Hoover in our closets and a war on FDR's new deal that continues today.

    Far from rejecting the Republican dirty tricks playbook, the McCain campaign wants to make voter distraction as American as apple pie. They're not denying that they would avoid talking about the issues, Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, in fact was blunt: "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

    So then, are you looking for a composite view, or are you ready for change?

    A lot of people say they want change, but change is scary. People get set in their ways and it's sometimes tough to get them to consider anything new. It might be instructive to bear in mind that the presidency of George W. Bush is the most radical in US history. So much so in fact that it has produced a form of anarchy in the US and worldwide. That, however, was not the change the American voters saw coming during the 2000 presidential campaign, we were too busy focusing on family values.

    Change for the better begins with demanding it. The voter axiom, that we get what we demand, is as true today as it ever was. The country is suffering for reasons. Decisions have been made, and those decisions form the basis for our predicament. In a democracy voting is a right, but with that right comes responsibilities. Reading is fundamental, if you are going to know how a problem has come to exist you must educate yourself. That will not happen on the television. John McCain's record is as plain as Barack Obama's, and certainly not difficult to research.

    Change - for the better - is always at hand. We get what we demand.

  

»


You can send comments to Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash at: director@truthout.org.

Comments

This is a moderated forum.  It may take a little while for comments to go live. Be civil and on-topic, don't threaten or advocate violence, please keep it under 300 words. Thanks for participating.

Even from a conservative

Even from a conservative point of view is seems quite obvious that Obama should win in a landslide. Yet he won't (or at least not overwhelmingly) (unfortunately). Of course there is some vote-rigging, but even those who (like me) believe 2000 and 2004 were stolen elections, it's never more than a couple hundred thousand votes difference. This means that the country (or at least the voters) are quite evenly split between the 2 parties. So why are about 50% of us so eager to keep the Republicans in the White House, against our collective interest? I guess that's because we get the politicians (and the media) that reflects us closely. I always wonder when people criticize politicians: who elects these clowns? Thus we deserve Bush & co. What does that say about us? That we are either brainwashed or braindead. It is no coincidence that the democratic congress has not (really) moved to impeach Bush & Cheney. When we do get democrats, we get those we deserve. We need to get up on our feet again, but as Obama implied, leaders can be there to facilitate and catalyze but the basic work will be done by "we the people" or won't get done at all.

Please, don't confuse us

Please, don't confuse us with facts or issues. Well, we are morons and we demand a jingoistic semi-senile cryto-fascist and his unqualified religious fanatic running mate. And the party of liars, crooks, torturers, manipulators, demonizers and racists. Now excuse me I have to go to sleep for another four years.

Marc Ash said "A lot of

Marc Ash said "A lot of people say they want change, but change is scary. People get set in their ways and it's sometimes tough to get them to consider anything new" I think the problem goes much deeper than simple "fear of change". Many people do not want to ADMIT that the policies of the past 8 years have been a disaster because that would require admitting that THEY were wrong and that THEIR beliefs and priorities are screwed up. When your very identity is tied up in maintaining the status quo, there is a huge amount of inertia acting to oppose change.

What the people that are

What the people that are considering on voting for McCain/Palin, don't realize is the change they are going to get is a National Economic Depression if their sham team wins. All the indicators are there if one just looks. Unemploymwnt up GNP down, the stock market worth abut 1/2 of what it was 18 months ago, new bank failures, etc. As it stands right now I see us standing on the brink of financial collapse, and McCain/Palin are just waiting to push us over the edge. Maybe some of these "right to lifers" might prefer working and receiving a paycheck as opposed to selling apples on the street corner. All that "right to life" crap is going to get them, is a further swelling of the welfare rolls, or are unwed mothers and their babies to be kicked off welfare and left to starve to death? I guess it is preferable for the "right to lifers" to let babies die after they are born. This country is at the biggest turning point since the decision to enter Wold War II. Whether to elect the team of Obama/Biden that can pull us from the financial morass Bush has put us in, or to elect the pair bent on our destruction.

30 years of republican

30 years of republican financial deregulation and see what you get. They got rich and you got a crippled country. Mission Accomplished! Welcome to servitude.

Inertia has its own momentum.

Inertia has its own momentum.

Agreed that voting for a

Agreed that voting for a change would mean to many Republicans an admission of previous fault on their part. Unfortunately, as a group, it is very clear that introspection and humility are not their strong points.....

if all the right to lifers

if all the right to lifers would adopt two children and give them a good life for 18 years their convictions would be supported. But they don't and they won't. They talk the talk but have no intention of walking the walk. These people do not need to determine public policy or the future of our country the rest of us do. Vote in November for a future on the issues not hipe.

I agree with the brain

I agree with the brain washed diagnosis, but not brain dead...it's soul dead. These people appear to be bereft of the soulful qualities of empathy and compassion ( just consider the murder of women and children that we are perpetrating in this illegal war), justice and freedom, truth and reconciliation; these are qualities that make us human, soulful. These are the qualities that are tragically missing in the republican platform. Also, the American people have been the recipients of the most sophisticated psychological warfare to date...a lot was learnt from the Nazi's in this regard and this science has been greatly refined and employed since then. What the citizens of this country truly need is a serious education in the basics of modern psychology and it's use in politics and warfare so that we can become conscious of the pervasive use of this science to manipulate the minds of the electorate....brainwashing, to use a common term. People will be shocked at what has been and is being used against them once they wake up , through some basic education. We will realize that we have been the victims of war...psychological war. There have been approximately 200 books published on the subject of psychological warfare....find a good one and read it , then you will begin to understand what's happened to a vast number, if not all, of American's minds...and soul.

'right2life' is a luxury of

'right2life' is a luxury of a [fairly] economically sound territory. that may soon change. remember a great-grandmother who had had 11 children, and only 3 lived to adulthood.along with the old saying 'a tooth lost for every child borne', now is this really what americans want to accept with no contraception and choice. make no mistake, because this is what we are going back to.

From where I'm sitting, BO's

From where I'm sitting, BO's incessant "change" chant is every bit as much a play to the emotions as anything the Repubs have ever done. Most of the problems the US is facing -- depletion of its manufacturing base, spending money it doesn’t have, overselling of the “American Dream,” ~30 million illegal immigrants -- are systemic, with roots extending back through periods of both Dem and Repub rule. Obama, should he become POTUS, will prove to be every bit the establishment figure that Bush has been. Hey, with the US’s economic outlook getting grimmer by the day, maybe liberals should hope McCain gets in, and then let him take the blame for the carnage over the next four (or eight) years.

A few more WHYS are

A few more WHYS are important to mention. Why is it OK for an Administration to LIE us into a WAR that has resulted in the death of over million human beings...Why is OK that our Government condones the TORTURE of human beings and openly SPYS on its citizens...Why do people still believe the myth that the Republican Party is about hard work and no free rides when the last 8 years has been nothing more than a Corporate War & Welfare Orgy...Why are steel frame buildings suddenly collapsing at FREE FALL SPEED...and on and on. Please note that I have no respect for either the Party and firmly believe that there is something seriously wrong with us, as demonstrated through our inability to react to these outrageous events.

A national tragedy if voters

A national tragedy if voters opt to go with a president who admits that economics is not his strong suit, and would look to the likes of a destroyer like "mortgage crisis" Phil Gramm for advice. Make no mistake, this long time chum hasn't been either chastised or abandoned by Mc Cain, but rather, as the only economist in his close acquaintance, is a logical choice for his Secretary of the Treasury.

I'm fanatically frantic for

I'm fanatically frantic for change. If McCain wins, I am going to go to my secret hideout in the boonies, dig a bomb-shelter, and not listen to or read about any news for the next four years. Obama is our last chance. If Obama wins, the new dialogue will be about "inherited from the Bush administration" The Republic-ants will try to make hay out of "Obama's great depression", that they caused. Will the economy hold up until January 20th?

Unfortunately racism still

Unfortunately racism still plays a large role in who get elected and Nixon was the author of the "Southern strategy" capitalizing on the Democrats support, largely through Lyndon Johnson's courage and convictions, of the civil rights movement. Palin was a way to get the votes of the "religious right" to which the Republican Party continues to pander. It is composed of white closet racists who would support white Jews over dark skinned Christian Palestinians. The pseudo-Christian right wingers are happy to provide a Bible based reason for not voting for a black man and instead for a white woman and a man who is clearly a "southerner" in his orientation. Arizona is in many ways a southern state with the most repressive laws and law enforcement practices when it comes to people of color. McCain is a man of the people if you are talking about rich white people.

I have news for those in

I have news for those in America who are afraid of CHANGE! The only constant in life is just that - CHANGE and in this case it cannot start soon enough. The "let them eat cake" (apparently never really said by Marie Antoinette) applies here - change MUST occur or otherwise America will sink into the status of lost super-powers. Actually, it already is there, the most weapons or dealing in them do not a super-power make!!!!!!!!!!

“Anonymous 19:27” is

“Anonymous 19:27” is alarmed at the prospect of the US “sink[ing] into the status of lost super-powers.” Is that a such bad thing? Or is it his (not so hidden) desire to see this country’s military machine used to whip the world into a shape that better suits him? “Anonymous 18:44” talks about a “Bible based reason for not voting for a black man.” What would that be? Christianity is nothing if not a universalist religion. Christians are more than represented among those working to flood this country with the Third World, and I’m not just talking about liberal Christians. As for Arizona being “repressive” toward “people of color” -- by which I assume he means illegal immigrants -- that unfortunate state is bearing more than its share of the burden of open borders. Surprisingly, though, it still identifies many of its Hispanic offenders as ”white.” Such repression!

No. We, as a nation, are not

No. We, as a nation, are not prepared for any kind of meaningful change. We're frightened, confused, easily distracted, and still far too close to our ultra-conservative, puritanical roots. A discouraging assessment? I guess, but it's also a realistic one.

Sorry to say this, but most

Sorry to say this, but most Americans are politically (and pathetically) adolescent. They vote for a president the same way they get crushes on a movie star. The Republicans know this and play into it every time, and it will continue to work until the people lose everything they have and will be forced to grow up. Don't they know yet that Bush,"the guy they'd be comfortable having a beer with" fed them the kool-aid?

You should get this column

You should get this column out into the mainstream press. You are asking the right questions. Maybe enough independents will pay attention. Two or three states will decide things, unless people start abandoning Republicans in droves because of the economic collapse.

You're preaching to the

You're preaching to the Progressive choir. Truth Out readers are not swing voters. I believe that real change can be threatening. People sense that massive change looms and may want to deny it. Change is neither lazy or cushy. The question is this: How do we create confidence in change? How do we effectively convince the electorate that progress is a win-win phenomenon? How do we convince people that Obama isn't, unlike a long train of past presidents, a lying crook?

The American people are lazy

The American people are lazy and change takes work. Sadly, I also believe that American citizens don't really care. We're sheep and want to be lead down the road that's easiest to tread. As long as we are entertained, fed and can drive a gas hog, we are happy, because we believe we deserve all this more then anyone else in the world. And whoever can keep that status quo will win. Well, we will reap what we sew.