My friends tell me to stay away from the political rants here, they tell me that they prefer my nihilistic laments. Perhaps I whine more eloquently than I pontificate, therefore let me take care as I wax political, just one more time.
Where are you? I am seeking the statesmen, the men and women who are leaders by virtue of their character, their ethics and their ability, not by virtue of their office. Where are the people of integrity and humanity, like Bill Bradley the ex-senator from New Jersey, or Tom Daschle the Senate minority leader? Where are the leaders who have a conscience, like Mario Cuomo, the former Governor of New York? And speaking of Governors with a conscience, where has George Ryan gone? Did he just save the lives of three-score death-row inmates, and decide to call it a career, retiring to the summer home and the history books? And dare I even mention as example here the name which inspires sprays of venom from at least half my friends—Bill Clinton. Sure he was a lecher. But he was also one of the most able politicians to occupy that office, and he was one of the most socially moral—not moral personally perhaps, but to the best of his ability he tried to do what was right for you and me. And what the hell is Jimmy Carter doing in South America? Has he abandoned us as hopeless already? I thought I was the only one who had given up hope of resisting fascism in America.
Where are you? Any of you who have influence and connections in government. Any of you who have experience in the manipulation of power. Any of you who have positioned yourselves to make a difference in this world, unlike me. Where are you as we march to war now for no good reason, but only because the monied elite wants the oil?
North Korea is not just rebuilding its nuclear arsenal because it was bored. Being paranoid communists, they are reacting to the bald-faced agression that the United States is exhibiting. Personally I often find wisdom hidden beneath the facade of paranoia, and this case is no different. North Korea is a fairly puny opponent for the US military. And even though Kim Jong Il has many very real and verifiable weapons of mass destruction, and will be an opponent, soon, the rhetoric from the White House continues to focus on the non-issue of how Saddam Hussein is threatening global security with his non-existant weapons of mass non-destruction. In an interview with the BBC today, US Under Secretary of State John Bolton said “The UN inspectors haven’t found much, but we know better.” Saddam has the oil. Bush baby would like to justify the military agression that will happen in a couple weeks, but it will happen, with or without justification.
You see, daddy Bush blew it. He should have taken over Iraq when he had the chance. I don’t know why he didn’t. Maybe he thought that if he left the tyrant in power, the monied elite would push him back into a second term as president and in return, he’d give them Iraq. George Bush, Sr. is a far better administrator of black-ops than he is a politician, and the powerful knew it. Nobody said much about it at the time, but former Secretary of State James Baker, quite remarkably, did not come back from his international diplomacy games to run the 1992 re-election campaign for Bush the elder, as many thought he would. And Baker was ostentatiously non-vocal in supporting a second term as president for George H. Bush. However, he did take charge of the Republican party’s legal team in Florida in the contest over the election of 2000—for Bush the younger. The affirmation sought a decade ago by daddy Bush comes, finally, to his son.
Wherever you are, my mythical statesman-rescuer, you cannot save America now. Maybe I should just leave. There is no clear reason to leave the richest, most powerful and most agressive nation on earth, but there is something uncomfortable in staying. I might do something rash—like run for office, and that’s a joke. So where should I go? You know, North Korea’s rockets cannot reach South America. Neither can Pakistan’s, or India’s, or China’s. If you see Jimmy, ask him if he’ll give me a lift to Venezuela next time he goes.