As the US Congressional elections loom, the pessimism I’ve been feeling about a Democratic win finds an echo in this comment at Gary Younge’s US election piece in the Guardian today:
I personally hope the republicans win. None of the us political parties are interested in doing what is right, just what is most profitable for themselves and their rich sponsers. The only real difference is in levels of arrogance, the republicans don’t care what the rest of the world thinks of their rapacious, world destroying greed and the democrats have enough intelligence to realise that playing their game a little more tactically makes it easier to do what ever they please. I think that for the good of this planet and its human population (of which the usa population makes up a measly 5%)we all see the usa for what it really is and the best people to demonstrate this is the immoral scum called the republican party. Let them take full responsbility for their global misadventures and selfish greedy policies.
You have to admit (s)he has a point – when you take a closer look at the people a Democratic vote will put in Congress, and consider where that party’s major funding stream comes from, it slowly starts to sink in that even if they win by a landslide, a Dem victory will mean very little to us in the rest of the world.
Take Nancy Pelosi for instance, the self-described ‘ultimate security mom’, who’ll likely be Speaker of the House, Diebold willing. Already she’s said she won’t push for impeachment for Bush.
And can anyone tell me where, if anywhere, she’s committed herself to repealing any of draconian wingnut legislation like the Patriot Act? What about the Military Commissions Act, that overturned habeas corpus and which overides the US constitution, allowing a President to torture or disappear any individual, anywhere in the world, in flagrant defiance of every known international law?
Her words on this issue are as mealy-mouthed as it gets:
?Democrats voted overwhelmingly to go to war in Afghanistan so that those responsible for the 9/11 attacks would be brought to justice. More than five years later, because of the failure of the Bush Administration to devise a legal process that could withstand the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, not a single person who planned the attacks has been tried and convicted.
?That record of failure is unlikely to be improved by the military commissions bill President Bush signed today. Legal challenges to the bill may result in convictions being overturned, punishments being set aside, and justice being further delayed. In addition, because the bill allows the President to interpret the Geneva Conventions through executive order, it invites other countries to do the same, thereby weakening the international legal standards that have protected our troops for decades.
?Democrats want terrorists who kill Americans tried, convicted, and punished through a constitutionally sound process that will be upheld on appeal. That goal will not be achieved by the bill President Bush signed into law today.?
Do you see the word torture anywhere there? Where in that blob of pablum did she actually say anything about torture, or illegality, or unconstitutional power grabs? She may have implied it, but only very slightly and obliquely. That press release was the PR equivalent of spitting into a hurricane.
And speaking of which, what about global warming? Has she promised to even push the US’ signing up to Kyoto ? Hell, no.
No, Pelosi supports the Safe Climate Act , a pathetic bandaid of a bill which relies on the free market to police itself and if passed would merely freeze US emissions at their current level. Well, woop-de-bloody-doo. Way to save the planet Democrats.
Those emissions levels got us to this point in the first place so keeping them the same is hardly progress. The Democrats and Pelosi act as though global warming is something way, way off in the future and that they can somehow preserve the current American way of life frozen in time, so all those industries whose PACs help fund their campaigns can blithely carry on polluting as before and no-one has to actually, you know, do anything or suffer at all.
And then there’s the issue of Israel and and its lobbyists within the Democratic party. On that topic for Democrats the position is eyes closed, mouths shut, hands out. Ms Pelosi herself pledged the party’s unwavering support and commitment to Israel even as they were bombing Lebanese civilians with white phosphorous, cluster bombs and worse.
I sure as hell don’t want the Republicans to win but the Democrats are not exactly the cavalry coming to the rescue, as some American liberal bloggers seem to fervently believe. Even those aware of the paucity of Democratic positions are taking the Polly Toynbee voting stance – hold your nose and vote Dem anyway. Anything for a change.
As much as I’d like to see a woman in such a high political office as Speaker (and she seems perfectly competent to do the job) and glad as I am that at least the Democrats are mostly honest, I still can’t forget that they’re just as in hock to the corporations and the lobbyists as the Republicans are. Even the netroots types will become so, after a short spell inside the beltway. It’s the whole system that’s fucked.
Looked at from a non-USAnian perspective this election’s really just a cosmetic exercise. Nothing will really change. The architects of the war, the PNAC types, the crooks, the war-profiteers, the torturers and all Bushco’s other minions will walk away unscathed – because we can’t have America’s self-image besmirched publicly now, can we? The tortured themselves will likely be discreetly paid off, or dumped and ignored. and people will still be dying by their hundreds in Iraq every day. There is no automagically happy ending the day after the election.
One hopeful thought (though it’s a bit of a faint hope, that I’m basing on the principle that it’s always darkest before the dawn) is that if the Republicans win this time, according to the poll-numbers it’ll likely have been by using nefarious means. There is so much pentup anxiety and anger about the government that has had no real outlet so far- and if the election is stolen again it may just be the spark that fires real reform in the US.
Emphasis on the may.
Read more: US Politics, Congressional Election, Nancy Pelosi
