The battle for America's soul - Palin vs. Obama

Jonathan Freedland's - thought piece in the Guardian, had a profound effect on me.

Articulate and I believe not partisan it (Freedland's piece) outlines how many of us in the West feel about the state of the Union. But this election sadly does not allow us to vote :-( As the result would be a landslide for a black man called Obama.

You fear for America with the hockey mum whose actually describes herself as an attack dog. Especially with her credentials

We know one of Palin's first acts as mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska was to ask the librarian the procedure for banning books. Oh, but that was a "rhetorical" question, says the McCain-Palin campaign. We know Palin is not telling the truth when she says she was against the notorious $400m "Bridge to Nowhere" project in Alaska - in fact, she campaigned for it - but she keeps repeating the claim anyway. She denounces the dipping of snouts in the Washington trough - but hired costly lobbyists to make sure Alaska got a bigger helping of federal dollars than any other state.

She claims to be a fiscal conservative, but left Wasilla saddled with debts it had never had before. She even seems to have claimed "per diem" allowances - taxpayers' money meant for out-of-town travel - when she was staying in her own house.

And Freedland skips the point that Palin believes women's bodies are not their own. Or that politics does not really matter or anything else in fact if...

we are not right with God

But surely the American constitution means everyone has a choice Ms Palin?

blogger Andrew Sullivan (writes Freedland) calls Palin a "Christianist" - seeking to politicise Christianity the way Islamists politicise Islam - could soon be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

And that's the point as we move into a world where the old order economically and therefore politically is evolving America, instead of being so utterly insular, must reflect on what role it wants to play in the world. But that too is a complete paradox. For most Americans they have no idea (sorry) of their importance on the global stage.

And as Jared Diamond points out in Guns Germs and Steel, civilisations do not last forever, ever.

McCain could be America's precipitous leader down that path

The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him (Obama) in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

 

Comments

[Harry Tirisos]

Hi Alan, thanks for the interesting piece and link to Jonathan Freedland's article. It is interesting to note that Palin received her 1st passport within the past 6 months. She has therefore not travelled anywhere of consequece in the world other than in the USA.

[Alan Moore]

Dear Harry,

Thanks for posting - it says it all really. And it looks like it going to get much worse. At this point who would want to be President of the USA? Though I still would balk at McCain driving America on the cliff with Palin as his cheerleader.

Kind regards

Alan