Clash of Cultures

Obama, is he a sexist? He did do the remark about the putting lipstick on a pig! Do u really believe this? He’s not prepared? He was never president. Oh really? Is this the problem? He wants to tax the rich? Oh really, tax all people? Is this the problem? He is black, not the typical black who can trace his ancestry back to a slave. But is that the issue? And there is the “drill, baby, drill”! Yes, that really solves our problems? Do u really believe this? The Wall Street is corrupt! Greedy CEOs, hah, we found them, we know how to fix the problem of financial collapse! More government! No new taxes, the tax payers just were burdened by new taxes! Who needs new taxes? Really? Who really needs Democrats for tax increases! And security, terrorism? Can we ignore that? Obama will not fight thoroughly the fight, really? Do you believe this?
No, really not. We are too intelligent to see pseudo issues as issues. But……
But what’s the problem? Really? I’m not an economist, and no need to be one to know, that there is no easy solution to the current financial crisis. My friend, the economist helps me understand, that market is far more complicated then to always be blamed or praised for its results. And oil prices will not go down because we drill more and more. Demand and pure speculation have driven the prices high. Why blame the oil companies for wanting to make more profit? Housing crisis? We all wanted the quick buck, some more than others.
I know that sounds like one more liberal comment, but I will make it anyway:
Here is why I think McCain and Palin should not become the leaders of this nation:
1. He is too old and frail. This is no disrespect, it’s just a fact.
2. He was a staunch supporter of a deregulation he helped establish, and that many economists blame as one cause, among other causes, for the current breakdown of the financial market. He has offered no new policy; no one probably has a silver bullet available anyway. But why would McCain be the better one to help fix the problem? No new taxes? Really? What if we don’t bail out? Again, some economists say it has become a necessary step, not ideal, but necessary. Bail outs are tax increases! Wholesale tax increases. If I’m wrong, please correct me. The bottom-line is that society has to shoulder the common burden. But would it not be just that burden is distributed as is the wealth? Greed and speculation are not the only motives for profit chasing, but they are facts of life. Most capitalist, small and large, know that they need others to survive. And they do act responsibly. Most people have agreed with the system of free market because it is the best of the possible worlds. But can’t it be adjusted? Reformed? Limited? Controlled? Balanced? By itself, and by the government that responsibly acts on behalf of the tax payers, all of them, not just some?
3. He wants to continue an already lost war to the victorious end. Oh, really? How do you win a war that’s already lost? How do you win an insurgent and guerilla war anyway? You can’t. You are a winner if you don’t lose. And losing is the end of that war if you don’t stop it right now. Some wars need not be fought to the end to be victorious. Again, as the old wisdom says, it’s easy to start any war, but difficult to end it. The Iraq war is not an exception. Only the failed strategy has to change.
4. To win, McCain has to sell out to the religious right. He has done already so by picking a religious fundamentalist as his running mate. Mrs. Palin represents that tendency in American history that was always present but never dominant in the modern political arena. She doesn’t even have the pseudo modern outlook of the new cons who at least want to shape a new world. She does not understand the world because she had only hers. She is convinced that nothing is wrong with that world. She just wants to bless the rest of us with it. Our political leaders in Washington send the soldiers to Iraq knowing that they do God’s work, she said two months before her nomination. Really? Do you believe this? I think she does believe it! Do you really want her as vice president, or worse as possibly the president of the militarily strongest government of the world? Really? A woman who says that she can see Russia from her Alaskan state on some days, no joke by the way, and gives that as a testimony for her foreign policy qualification, could soon make decisions that will be shaping the world of tomorrow. Do you really want that? Really?

The alternative is not ideal. Many points against it are being made, factual ones and assumed ones. But at least we do have an alternative in this real clash of cultures!
What makes these American elections a truly historic one is the possibility of the country to make her worse conservative and reactionary step backward if McCain/Palin are elected. It’s historic also because it could show the world that this country has the potential to change and to make progress towards a new direction. Big political changes have always stemmed from bold visions. That’s why they were belittled by some witnesses as too idealistic and unrealistic. By any standard, the American founding fathers were idealists and unrealistic, but their vision has kept this American dream alive, despite so many nightmares in the history of the nation.
These American elections are a clash of cultures. It’s clash between a culture of “ we don’t need the world” vs. a culture of “the world is one world”. It’s a clash of culture of raising fear of everything different and alien with the culture of acceptance of difference and divergence as enriching. It’s a clash of culture between “I’m proud to be proud” and the culture of “I’m proud because I made the world a better place”. It’s a clash of culture between “I give a damn about what anyone else thinks” with the culture of “it matters to listen and respect each other”. It’s a clash between the culture of “I’m proud of my ignorance because I am powerful” and the culture of “knowledge and wisdom are liberating and universal”. It’s a clash between a culture of “I matter because I am an American” and a culture of “Americans matter to the world because they feel and act responsible for the humanity at large”. It’s a clash between a culture of “either my way or highway” and the culture of “let’s find and cultivate the common ways of humaniy”. It’s a clash of culture between “terrorism is what I define it to be and fight” and the culture of “all humanity has to come together to fight terror, hunger, poverty, global warming and natural disasters”. It’s a class between a culture of “country first!” and the culture of “humanity first!” It’s a clash between the culture of “drill, baby, drill! And fight wars for oil” and the culture of “find and cultivate new alternative energies and make them available to the whole world to a fair price and fight global warming with global effort”.
It’s a clash between McCain/Palin culture and the culture of Obama/Biden.