Are Democrats Avoiding Reality, or Concealing It?
by Chuck Richardson
www.dissidentvoice.org
August 2, 2004



 

Living in a free speech zone can sometimes be brutal, especially when there are no guidelines for discussion or, worse, the wrong parameters. When the wrong rules are in play, what isn’t said is always more important than what is said. And, of course, what is said is dangerously irrelevant and/or wrong.

For instance, consider the recently completed Democratic National Convention in Boston. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict wasn’t mentioned in either nominee’s acceptance speech; nor was NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, the IMF, the FTAA or corporate personhood. The word torture was never uttered, and not one speaker said anything about the possible postponement of this November’s election because of the terrorist threat.

On the contrary, Vice Presidential nominee Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, had this message for terrorists: “We will destroy you!” And his boss, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, surrounded by swift boat comrades while he reported for duty, described the threat in ominous terms, saying that the terrorists were unlike any enemy America has ever faced (he’s right, of course, they have no army, navy, air force or country).

To his credit, Kerry pledged to maintain civil freedoms during the current “war,” but protestors outside were forced to gather in barbed wire enforced pens that were euphemistically called “free speech zones.” You can count that as another disgrace that was never mentioned during the weeklong corporate-sponsored TV commercial.

The most telling omission of fundamental reality, however, was the failure to speak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That’s because Kerry supports President Bush’s pro-Israeli wall for peace. These folks subscribe, with no sense of irony, to the “poetic” notion [sic] that fences make good neighbors.

But even if Kerry and Edwards had spoke on this issue, again what would be left unsaid would be the most important element for Americans.

The omitted fact would be that Israel, despite all the terror it’s had to deal with, has never considered canceling an election. What’s worse for the Republicrats, the more terror Israelis face the more elections they seem to have.

Does terror affect their elections? You bet. But if a society is unjust and wields disproportionate political economic power, it will face the most effective and necessary means of resistance. The “enemy” will meet our might -- the inertia of the military-petroleum-complex’s American-UK-Israeli alliance -- by any means necessary.

How the majority of voters within the alliance respond to terror dictates the nature of what will happen. In a democracy, the people always get what they deserve, and that’s as it should be. Israelis are reaping what they’ve sewn. You elect corrupt provocateurs who have war crimes in their past because you’re afraid, and more things get blown up as a result. When minorities are terrified of majorities, and find themselves cornered, they fight back or perish. Elite sponsored terror breeds terrorism within threatened groups. Duh.

Which brings us to the final and most relevant point of all. If our intent is, like Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his hard-line predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu, to “destroy” the terrorists, we will truly be facing a generations long conflict.

In Israel, a clear choice has always been provided between the party of peace – Labor -- and the party of war -- Likud. Unfortunately, in the U.S. we’re only being offered Likud and Likud-lite. Zionism and manifest destiny are sibling concepts.

The dark secret is that terrorism only works against democratic societies, as the psyche of the people is capable of shifting official policy. However, corporate (i.e.: fascist) regimes use terrorism to strengthen their hold over their people and promote only those values that enhance their own political economic status.

To defeat terrorism, a democracy must either surrender its freedom, or use its core LIBERAL values and genius for universal self-expression to generate a more just world, eliminating the need for terrorism.

We can’t win by destroying our enemies unless we’re willing to continue being terrorists ourselves.

That’s the reality Democrats are avoiding in order to get elected, or concealing because they really know that they’ve sold out.

Pain, death and destruction are on the way, and Democrats are offering no hope for an alternative future.

It’s time for we the people to face reality and stop selling ourselves out to the highest bidder. Otherwise, we’re just fat, addicted slaves enabling the whore of Babylon.

Peace.

Chuck Richardson  is editor of www.niagarabuzz.com. An experienced poet, journalist, newspaper columnist, produced playwright and award-winning literary critic, he has just published his first book, Memos from Apartment 5, available now from Page Free Press. His writing has appeared on ZNet, The Smirking Chimp, Buffalo Report, Buffalo Alt Press, Graphic Truth, corporations-suck.com and JuryFury.com, among others. He can be reached at Richardson@niagarabuzz.com.

Other Articles by Chuck Richardson

* You Are What Consumes You
* Can Dr. Frankenstein “Secure” this November’s Election?
* Fahrenheit 9/11: An Authoritarian View of American Fascism
 

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