Stop choosing choice-less “lesser of two evils”

Grounds for establishing and maintaining in the public space support for diversity of political views, beyond partisans, beyond tribes to substantive, capable, truth-telling public-issues contenders  —

Beyond “Lesser of two-Evils”

North Portico White House USA Britannica image

Edited excerpt with comment by Carolyn Bennett

From Alexander Cockburn’s August 19 opinion piece, “The Real Obama” — Cockburn is also author of Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils.

Flawed governance USA

Cockburn’s recitation of current reality leading into the 2012 campaign season highlights further evidence for uprooting an entrenched, corrupt status quo in U.S. systems of government and politics, tribal allegiances and patronage, electoral processes, parties and partisans and an ever-present array of shadowy, covert and in-the-face “partners.”

In 2008, Cockburn writes, “liberals and most leftists were deeply in love with [U.S. President Barack] Obama. They genuinely believed the promissory notes about a better America that he strewed along the campaign trail and has since welshed [reneged] on at a rate of well over 90 percent.…”

Although from a White House “news-leak point of view,” Cockburn says, the president presides over “the tightest ship in living memory …  where it counts, he  is not in control. Republicans regarded as certifiably insane by more Americans than disapprove of the president’s performance face down the president and he  leaps to do their bidding — even as they kick him in the teeth for not doing more.”

An ‘appeaser’ — the president pulls his forelock “to [shows respect for perceived ‘betters’ in] Wall Street, the defense industry, the oil companies, Monsanto, the agriculture industry, Israel. … and when the dust of battle rises, [the president] cuts and runs.”

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Lacking imagination and guts, Leftists hang on to choice-less, regressive‘lesser-of-two-evils’

“There are plenty of Obama loyalists out there,” Cockburn concludes. Some leftists are still forlornly trying “to make a case for the man and [they] will stay true to the end; but if they vote for him next year, it won’t be for any positive reason — like what sent them delightedly to the polls in 2008: searching for hope. They will gesture to Governor Rick Perry or some other Republican challenger and fall back on the ‘lesser of two evils’ argument.”

We do not, however, have to settle for a choice-less “lesser of two evils.” Not only for our sake, the sake of the United States, but for the sake of our country’s relations with the world’s peoples and with respect for their cultures, we can and we must uproot and progress beyond the entrenched criminally regressive, medieval practices of Washington Wizards and wannabees and their partners.

Sources and notes

“The Real Obama” (Opinion, Alexander Cockburn, Creators dot com), August 19, 2011, http://www.creators.com/opinion/alexander-cockburn.html

Alexander Cockburn also made some insightful remarks about media this week in conversation with Doug Henwood on “Behind the News” aired over Pacifica’s KPFA radio and KPFA online.

Behind the News with Doug Henwood, for August 27, 2011 - 10:00 a.m. [KPFA 94.1 AM],

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/72789,

http://www.kpfa.org/programgrid

Tugs forelock

Saying a person “tugs his/her forelock” to other persons or entities is to criticize the person for showing “too much respect” to that other or “being unnecessarily worried about their opinions.”   

People often used to pull their forelocks to show respect for other people of a higher class than they were, mainly British expression

A forelock is a piece of hair that falls over or grows out of the forehead (noun, plural “forelocks”), http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-cobuild/tug/touch%20one's%20forelock

Britannica: forelock (n, 1589): a lock of hair growing from the front of the head

Alexander Cockburn

A writer among writers, broadcasters and print journalists, Alexander Claud Cockburn (koʊbərn/ koh-bərn) was born in Scotland, raised in Ireland and, since 2009, has been a citizen of the United States. He is a political journalist and media critic. He has written for a variety of U.S. news outlets including The Village Voice and The Nation magazine and is currently a co-editor of CounterPunch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cockburn

Books by Cockburn include: Corruptions of Empire; Death of Liberal America; The Democrats in End Time: The True and Terrible Story of How the Dems Blew It and What Comes After; Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils (co-author Jeffrey St. Clair); Encounters with the Sphinx : Journey of a Radical in Changing Times; Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press; Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia (co-author Jeffrey St. Clair) http://www.bookfinder.com/author/alexander-cockburn/

Sunday News updates from Obama’s theaters and regions of aggression and occupation — Press TV reports

AFRICA

SOMALIA — At least 67 people have died and more than 560 others have been hospitalized due to starvation and cholera in famine-stricken Somalia

LIBYA  — Prominent political analyst, author and historian Webster Tarpley said in an interview today with Press TV that NATO forces have teamed up with the terrorist group al-Qaeda to rebuild Libya after the departure of Col. Muammar Qaddafi. Tarpley said the new rebel commander of Tripoli “is a top al-Qaeda leader who has worked for the Afghanis and fought against the United States.”

AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN —A newly established political front in Afghanistan strongly rejects the notion of establishing permanent U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. Reportedly comprised of people from “all walks of life,” Afghanistan’s Unity Front today declared its existence and said that the permanent presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan runs counter to the country’s independence and national pride.

In Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan today two NATO oil tankers were set light.

In a cross-border attack on Pakistan’s northwestern district of Chitral yesterday, at least 25 Pakistani paramilitary troops died and several others were wounded.

Today in southern Afghanistan, at least four civilians died and others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded. Attacks in the south of Afghanistan have also reportedly killed two members of U.S.-led NATO. A foreign reconstruction site has also come under attack in the provincial capital of Zabul Province in the south of Afghanistan.

IRAQ — Fourteen people died Friday in bomb blasts against security forces across Iraq. Scores were reportedly injured.

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Wednesday in a new rise of violence, at least 11 people died and more were injured in the western provinces of Anbar and Diyala governorate in Iraq’s east.

U.S. ANTI-ISLAM — a shocking new report released Friday by the Center for American Progress reveals that seven foundations and wealthy donors have been behind the 10-year campaign to spread Islamophobia in the United States. The 130-page report by CAP identified foundations that have provided more than $42 million to key individuals and organizations that between 2001 and 2009 spearheaded the nationwide effort.

Among the organizations funding anti-Islam experts who promote Islamophobia are: “Donors Capital Fund [the single biggest contributor paying $18 million to the Clarion Fund which, during the 2008 election, distributed 30 million anti-Muslim DVDs through local newspapers]; Richard Melton Scaife foundations; Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; Newton D. & Rochelle F. Becker foundations and charitable trust; Russell Berrie Foundation; Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund; Fairbrook Foundation.”

Some of the funded experts spreading information through conservative organizations, politicians and news channels: “Frank Gaffney at the Center for Security Policy, David Yerushalmi at the Society of Americans for National Existence, Daniel Pipes at Middle East Forum, Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Stop Islamization of America, Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.”

http://www.presstv.ir/

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Humanity without fear in domestic, foreign relations—U.S. Rep. Ellison

Editing, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett
A politics of generosity 

“You take a tiny minority of extremists and try to make them emblematic of 1.3 billion people, and you expand the number of people whom you fear and don’t like and are potential enemies of yours, and you shrink the number of people who could be on your side.…


“There are Muslims in places like Jordan and Afghanistan and Pakistan and all over this world—American Muslims. There are 6,000 [Muslims] in the United States armed forces. They are serving their country. Many millions more are seeing patients every day, representing people in court, looking after their kids right here in the good old USA.…


“Let’s unpack your fear, unpack your worry so we can get down to some real humanity.”

U.S. Member of Congress Keith Ellison spoke today on the Democracy Now program with Amy Goodman. This is more of what he had to say on anti-Islam feelings and actions, U.S. foreign policy and CIA drone attacks, and U.S. progressives.

Islamophobia—Anti-Islam in United States

I do hope that this spike in Islamophobic ideas can cause us to really think about prejudice, acceptance, belonging, who’s in, who’s out, what is our national commitment to inclusion and generosity.

[America] is a country that underwent a civil war over who belonged and then went through a momentous civil rights movement, again, over who belonged.

Let’s pull on our experience and rediscover the fact that we shouldn’t have any second-class citizens in America. I think if we don’t get together we run certain risks.

U.S. foreign policy: Yemen
The White House considering armed CIA drones against militants in Yemen (as CIA’s Pakistan campaign), to strike in sovereign territory without approval from the government of Yemen.

I’m concerned about that policy. I am concerned about it because I have endeavored to try to study terrorist ideology and these people don’t expect to defeat the United States with these bombs and stuff.

They want to provoke a reaction, which they then can use to whip up—use as a communications tool against the United States.

These terrorist groups are hoping to agitate the United States or the larger military power to come back at them; and then, when civilians die, they say, ‘See what the U.S. did. We’re the ones to help you; the U.S. is not.’

I think it’s important to bear in mind what their strategic objectives are and not allow ourselves to be tricked into their game plan.

I think that what we may do is go slower here. Think through the implications of it. Think through the legalities of it and really try to come up with a real counterterrorism strategy designed to undermine these people. I am concerned about [White House policy in Yemen] and really, really have reservations.

U.S. CIA Drones on Yemen as Pakistan/Afghanistan
[Killing by remote control]

… The whole idea of the drone program is something I think we need to have a real dialogue about; talk about asymmetric warfare. This is the ultimate in being able to strike but not be struck back against. Whenever that is the paradigm, you wonder whether or not your threshold for decision making gets lowered.

…How many casualties are acceptable?
How much evidence do we need before you do a targeted assassination?
What are the due process implications?
Are victims to be compensated?

… There is a whole range of important questions that I don’t think we’re answering or even asking. … I can tell you that the United States used to be a very popular country in Pakistan. Our popularity there has plummeted. I don’t think it’s a good idea to repeat that scenario in Yemen. I do believe there’s got to be better ways to do this.

The fact is we need to strengthen diplomatic relations.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. Yemen is a country where some transnational terrorists can … run around without a lot of scrutiny because the Yemeni government is so weak. There are many things we should do before we launch into — we basically become — a military presence in Yemen.

We would be [a military presence] if we have military wherewithal, hardware, personnel, there, and are engaged in fighting. Then we are militarily in Yemen without the Congress ever saying a word about it.

The reason Congress is not really focusing [on Yemen] is because there are no body bags to worry about; nobody’s son or daughter is going to come back—and, of course, we don’t want that— but that then relieves us of the responsibility to really make the tough decisions. There are a number of issues.

U.S. assassinations

When you do this assassination, you essentially give him what he wants, martyrdom. Anwar al-Awlaki is not scared to get killed. He is somebody who has delusional, fantastic, crazy dreams of being some kind of a martyr.

Why reward him with that? The last thing Anwar al-Awlaki wants to be called is a common criminal, which is what I think he is. I would rather us pursue a strategy of arresting him and putting him on trial — not allowing him to claim himself a victim.

To “Progressives”

What if progressives in 1950 had said: ‘you know what; this civil rights stuff is hard. We haven’t seen the progress we were looking for so we’re going to abandon the effort.’ Please, don’t do that. Stick, stay, and remember that this movement is not about a personality, a president— or even an election.

It’s about restoring dignity to working and middle-class Americans

Eliminating poverty
Upholding civil and human rights
Inclusion for everybody.
It’s about a politics of generosity.

Sources and notes


Congressman Keith Ellison has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007. His House Committee Assignments are Financial Services and Foreign Affairs. Before coming to the U.S. Congress, he served in the Minnesota State House (2003 — 2007); he practiced law in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1990-2006). He holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Economics from Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan) and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Minnesota Law School.


“U.S. Representative Keith Ellison on Tea Party Anti-Muslim Bigotry, U.S.-backed Assassinations in Yemen, and the Firing of Juan Williams,” November 1, 2010,
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/1/muslim_congressman_keith_ellison_on_tea


Anwar al-Awlaki of Yemeni descent was born April 22, 1971 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He holds dual United States and Yemen citizenship. Anwar al-Awlaki is an Islamic lecturer, spiritual leader, and former imam who has purportedly inspired Islamic terrorists against the West; and, according to U.S. government officials, he has also become ‘operational’ as a senior talent recruiter, motivator, and participant in planning and training ‘for al-Qaeda and all of its franchises’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki]




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Bennett's books available at New York independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY] Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY] Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY] Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]