Rummaging around in the national soul: Bush as logical consequence.

[EFerrari]

This is an expansion of a post to Rose Siding's thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x698474

We may not like to know this, but the Bush regime is the logical consequence of a two party system where one party is founded on racism. The Thugs became "winners" when they began actively courting racists.

As a consequence, the opposition party is always interacting with the very worst, the most base characteristics of American culture. They have to. Everything they have to plan for is in response to the Republican party's principle of oppression. Oppression, not social welfare, is in this way kept at the center of American political life. It is the invisible centerpiece.

And this means, harm to bodies. It becomes okay to kill people "over there" just as people are allowed to languish, suffer and die at home. "National security" becomes code for funneling the wealth of the nation to protect corporate interests. Technology stagnates because the goal is not progress but profit or control that enables profit. The life of the people is only as secure as the life of the most oppressed person in the nation -- and we all watched that Katrina footage if we were lucky enough not to be in it.

Among the more ugly consequences of this fun house is the effect on the left. We censor ourselves. We make excuses for our so called political leadership. We keep being dragged to the right and the right's PR campaign becomes our unthinking idealization. Before long, lefties believe they aren't spiritual enough, they don't have "values", they feel nervous about "national defense" -- any number of absurdities. There is no number of counter examples that can keep up with the pollution of the press, of the national conversation, with the deal we cut to feel good about being "Americans". The image becomes more real than the daily living of our liberal values. (Anyone remember when "liberal" meant "generous?) Don't bring up abortion, gay marriage, election theft or peace. Keep your powder dry.

It is fundamentally insane to found the welfare of a nation on the oppression of its people -- any of its people. And that's what we do here. Oppression is what we seem to be apologizing for. We apologize to Iraq for destroying them, to women for their degraded health care, to gay couples for the appalling disrespect of their relationships. To the ill for having no resources to access. To our own children for the dangerous uncertainty of their future.

There is no indignity, no atrocity that should surprise us, even though we are now in a constant state of shock because of the efficiency and frequency of the latest set of atrocities. When the organizing principle of your political system is oppression -- and oppression is an abstraction that describes pain to bodies, miserable lives, needless death and destruction -- it becomes insane to expect anything else but pain, misery, death or destruction.

This is the road we have gone down. Until we excise the politics of oppression from the heart of our political life, and in particular, racism in America, this is the road we will continue on. It will become a forced march and it will lead to a lot of terrible destruction, including our own. That is the predictable outcome of our present course.

Along the way, have you noticed, we most recoil when listening to Bush speak. Because his speech is the most immediate reminder of the betrayal of American goals -- not values but goals, those things we strive to become. It's so painful to listen to this corporate front man dirty the ideals that mean so much to us: family, community, prosperity, peace. I wonder how many of us switch off this unbearable mockery of the heart and soul of our country when we hear the sound of his voice.

We can, you know, counter the sound of our values being desecrated. We could begin by mending our own speech. We could begin by practicing vocabulary terms as learners of foreign languages do. Say "equal opportunity" until you get it right. Then, continue to "social welfare" -- go crazy and try out "liberal". Extra credit if you do it at the kitchen table and at work. When you feel ready, move on to "democracy". Show your work.