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Alea jacta est! Tuesday evening October 7, 2008 After tonight's "debate" I went down to my car and tore off all my Obama stickers. Tomorrow I will take my remaining voter call sheets with the voter contact phone numbers and return them to my local Obama headquarters. The only thing I will not be able to do, that cannot be undone, is to take back my vote for Obama which I already cast (in absentia) in order that I could devote the whole of Election Day to poll work. I had the highest hopes for this debate tonight. I fully expected the final nail to be inserted into the McCain Straight Talk Coffin Express. I patiently listened to what I rapidly came to realize was a wimp-ass debate conducted before a hundred plus "town hall" audience of admittedly the dumbest people in Amerika. They said as much. Isn't anyone who, up to now, would call themselves "undecided" have to have their intelligence and perhaps their sanity questioned? I should know. I have talked to literally hundreds of them in connection with my phone bank work for Barack Obama here in mid Missouri. Believe me, the "undecided voter" in this election is, to a man (or woman), as dumb as the proverbial sack of hammers. For the benefit of viewers of the TV tabloids, I probably should get the comments on style out of the way first. After all style is all anyone cares about anyway. I thought McCain deported himself extremely well. He was even able on more than a couple of occasions draw blood with some devastating jabs at Obama. Never mind that they were lies – not that any of the sacks of hammers noticed. They sat like so many square yards of wall paper, blank-eyed and emotionless. Were they afraid to show agreement or dissent? Were they shown the tasers as part of the explanation of the ground rules for participation? This debate was so much of the same ol' same ol' material rehashed from the last debate that I had to check my DVD recorder to make sure it had not switched to play instead of record. My first discomfort (I like to call it my cognitive dissonance) came when Obama let McCain prate on and on about how he would strike down special interests, pork and earmarks from bills in Washington, that he has always fought such behavior and will continue to do so. While Obama did modestly mention how McCain has been the long-standing champion of the type of deregulation that got us into the present mess, he, for the second time, refused to even suggest that McCain has also been the champion of the special interests and never met a lobbyist he didn't love. Is there some sort of procedural agreement that forbids Obama from even mentioning by name or inference the seven (at my last count) special interest lobbyists at the top of McCain's campaign committee? Of course neither candidate mentioned the horrendous Wall Street bail out bill which they both signed that had over a billion dollars worth of so much pork that Lieberman actually had to get a special dispensation from his Rabbi to even read it. OK. I let that pass, after all I am voting for the lesser of two evils here – "evil" being the operative word. Instead of delivering the expected coup de grass, on this tired old warhorse, whose only remaining hold on life and sanity is his rage, which he clings to like a Titanic survivor, Obama continued to play the resolute nice guy. We all know how nice guys finish in Amerikan politics. Next came the need to "win the war in Afghanistan." Neither candidate seemed to give much credence to the British Brig. Mark Carleton-Smith's comment that the war was unwinnable. The Afghans handed the Russians their asses on a plate and they are doing the same to us. Both candidates fell all over each other with claims of how they could "win the war in Afghanistan" – a country where our only strategy seems to be to create as much atrocity and collateral damage as possible and keep the poppy harvest thriving, one way or another. Of course neither of our two evil candidates: little evil one, Obama or big evil one, McCain seems to give a crap for the people of Iraq or Afghanistan, the overwhelming majority of whom want us gone, dead or alive, ASAP. Obama even had the gall to imply that the seven billion Iraqi surplus (he keeps repeating the fraudulently inflated figure) somehow is something the Iraqis owe us, instead of the nearly trillion we should be repaying them in reparations for the illegal rape of their land and the murder and displacement of millions. Oh yes, while I'm at it, the claim that the surge that McCain boasts about and Obama reluctantly acquiesces on, has more to do with a successful program of US inspired ethnic cleansing than with any troop build up. Of course we have to take the military's word for the success of this surge, as reporters still cannot go out of their rooms without an armed battalion of military bodyguards. Both agreed the economy will NOT get any worse. Well, McCain said "depends." Both these guys are so stupid they cannot even tell the difference between a crystal-ball and a eight-ball. Things are going to get so much worse that you cannot imagine - especially with the bogus Wall Street bail out both men signed. And again neither man has the courage to tell the Amerikan people the truth: that we will have to make sacrifices that, even in the sorry state we are now in, will be nearly unimaginable. I am so tired of hearing them both say the problem can be fixed - although on this point I am almost willing to forgive them both. The Amerikan people have been treated like spoiled 12 year-olds – told they can have it all and fuck all the rest of the people on earth. What candidate besides Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney would have the courage to tell these spoiled brats otherwise? And while I am speaking of the alternative candidates… I had something I can only call a dark epiphany that struck about the time the evil ones were debating the energy issue and both were proclaiming with various degrees of enthusiasm the virtues of clean (sic) coal and nuclear power. I suddenly had the nauseating feeling that I had been hoodwinked into an illusion so monstrous, so foul that it was like waking up in a sewer. Perhaps fans of the Matrix will prefer their metaphor. These debates are really, at the heart of the matter, complete frauds. The candidates, the parties, the media and indeed you and I who consent to watch these slick charades are all willful participants in a conspiracy to guarantee that no significant change will ever be able to take place in this country whether Obama or McCain immerges as the winner. I mentioned in my review of the first presidential debate that I wished Ralph Nader had been there so that some real issues relating to health care, energy, government corruption, Palestine and national security might actually be intelligently discussed. Instead we have to have the kind of pap both these candidates engaged in tonight. And the biggest scandal of all is that the Democratic Party and Obama himself, our great white hope, completely supports and endorses this fraud on the Amerikan people. OK, OK. I kept repeating my mantra with even greater intensity and focus: "Lesser of two evils." "Lesser of two evils." - and through mounting tears, "Lesser of two evils!" I should have turned off the TV at that point and ceased my recording. That would have been wise. I am not wise. Neither do I take my tenuous hold on sanity very seriously. And so I kept watching like a soap opera addict. The issue then turned to Iran and Israel. Once again both contenders for Whore In Chief fell over each other in what was, to date, perhaps the most shameless display of Zionism I have yet to see. Of course I do realize that only a suicide would dare to even run for dogcatcher in this country without an unflinching advocacy of the Palestinian Holocaust. I have been down this road before and was prepared to even slog through this pro-Israel crap with my grudging support for Obama undeterred. An then I heard those nine terrible words that were, for me, the snapping of the last straw, the final, last straw, the one that finally sent me raging through the house, tossing things, breaking plates, screaming, and waking my poor old neighbors who aren't even registered to vote. I stormed downstairs and tore my Obama stickers off my car. What caused this total psychotic breakdown? It was over an issue that I had finally convinced myself Obama had laid to rest. The issue that initially tipped me in his favor was his reluctant, grudging admission that he would not nuke Iran. Tonight I heard him repudiate that admission and say that he would use nuclear weapons on the nation of Iran. Of course he used code. But all sane people knew what he meant and the full implications of his words were clear. I am much calmer now. Typing this has dissipated my desire to go downtown and start throwing rocks through the Post Office window. In the post-rage fatigue caused by the adrenalin draining from my system I feel like a man whose dog has been flattened by a tractor trailer. I thought I finally had everything figured out. I had forgotten the lesson that Sartre and Camus taught me back in the fifties: that one never has things figured out. All solutions (particularly political solutions) at best involve atrocious moral compromises and at worst complete frauds and self-delusions. A couple of things should be added to this piece in the form of sort of a running footnote. Warning: some of the material may actually become quite distasteful for those of modest political sensibilities. First of all I want to acknowledge those friends of mine who are supporters of Ralph Nader, Ron Paul and Cynthia McKinney - that they finally have had the last laugh. I have been so dumb for so long. I hope I might be permitted to ask their forgiveness. Let me continue with a clarification of the most important issue of this essay. The statement that precipitated my near psychotic episode was (quote Obama) "We will never take military options off the table." Those who heard the debate will remember that he was referring to our attacking Iran. To any of you out there naive enough not to know the history of this expression will need to understand that this catchphrase is a euphemism for the use of tactical nuclear weapons (the infamous "bunker busters") required to take out the Iranian subterranean uranium processing plants. It has been pretty definitively established that the nuclear option is the only viable one in attacking Iran and the only one with any real force in negotiations. Both the Pentagon and Iran know that any conventional military attack would be futile. Obama's use of this phrase in this context can only be understood as completely irresponsible. It is the equivalent of a promise to threaten war crimes if elected president. The reason it is particularly galling for me is, I have had some experience attempting to get our public figures (including Obama) to abandon the use of this language. Up until the incident where Kucinich virtually held a gun to Obama's head during the Democrat debates, he steadfastly refused to take any position pro or con concerning nuclear warfare. His office resolutely dodged any and all attempts to get him to take a stand on what should have been an indisputable moral issue. Obama's position on nuclear war is bad enough but it also represents something even more disturbing: his complete lack of moral courage when confronted with tough, controversial, unpopular choices. His reversing of his position on nuclear war has, for me, as of tonight, become the deal breaker. I am putting his supporters on notice that attempting to weasel out of this issue will be unsuccessful. The only use of this "all options are on the table" language I will accept is one that contains an immediate promise that these military options will never involve the use of nuclear weapons. To those who will say that it is somehow understood, that no democratic nation would be barbaric enough to actually use these weapons, I would point out that this consideration has not gotten through to McCain, Tel Aviv or the White House. One of the big concerns between now and November 4th is the possibility that, if McCain begins to fall sufficiently behind Obama in the polls, beyond the remedy of vote fraud, Bush may actually instigate a crisis with Iran and launch a nuclear strike – either from our or the Israeli bases. Not only is Obama contributing to a deteriorated, morally degenerated position, he is also giving the green light to Bush&Co to possibly commit the unthinkable. You know if Bush nukes Iran, Obama will have no choice but to support him. The final consequence of his admission at tonight's debate is that I can never support or vote for someone who could conscience the use of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately it is too late for me to take back my absentee vote, even though it was obtained under false pretenses. Where I go from here is anyone's guess. I am convinced now that America has finally lost its Democracy, if it ever had it. I am even reconciled at this point to a McCain presidency – excuse me, a Palin presidency. The country gets the rulers it deserves. And the gods should know by now that a country as misbegotten and lost as Amerika deserves all the evil that can be inflicted upon it – both from within and without. I am even tempted to hasten it on its decline by hopping on the Straight Talk Express and working for John McCain. It's just that the thought of sweating, cheek to jowl, with these Repug characters out of a George Grosz nightmare makes me even sicker at heart than I am now. To my many detractors who would assert that the sins of Amerika are no better or no worse than any other nation, I can only promise that I will not continue to speak ill of Amerika. I will not speak of it at all. Peace?
Not in our time.
 Robert Boldt an editor of MWC News, is a freelance film/video producer living in Jefferson City, Missouri. He is active in local politics, worked on the Howard Dean and John Kerry campaigns and is a cofounder of The White Rose Collective. Articles by Bob Boldt at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/bob-boldt |
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