Thursday, August 28, 2003

Is America right wing?? I was taken aback yesterday, picking up my daughter at a friends house.  Her friends family is French, although they have lived in the U.S. over 20 years.  Her father, seeing my Dean button, said he didn’t see how Dean could win, with America being such a right wing country.  He then said he could tell me this because he knows my political views.   I immediately said it wasn’t.  He was very surprised.  And so was I.  His view is that America is its caricature—of uncaring people whose only concern is for themselves, who plunder resources from around the world, and believe they have god given rights to be treated better than any other people on earth.   It is the view that most of the American people are too stupid to understand their own boorishness and selfishness.  They are religious nuts who try to impose their own views on everyone else.   I was surprised at how much I objected to this characterization of Americans.  I feel Dean can win, not because the country is right wing, but because Americans are a decent, caring people who genuinely value their communities, and long to make them stronger.  I think they have been fed a steady diet of lies by Bush and his media pals.   Bush has bankrupted services most people count on, such as education and health care, and has made people less safe and secure.  Dean is right to say he is stronger on defense than Bush.   There is an America which believes in democracy, in equality, which came forward and massively supported the civil rights movement, and which can elect candidates that bring out the best in the country, instead of pandering to the worst.   As my daughter, who is totally concerned about globalization and the inequality of wealth in the world said after reading Dean’s speeches, “he really loves Americans.  I guess you have to do that to run for President.”   She’s right.  Dean, and his movement, do love Americans, and that is why I was so shocked at my reaction to my friends assumption that we live in a right wing hell hole.     The ones who really hate America are the totalitarians, like Ashcroft, Tom Delay, and Bush himself, who continually sacrifice real Americans to pay off private donors.  Who have turned the federal budget into a bankrupt casino, who want total control over government thought, and who value real Americans, including soldiers, farmers, office workers, nurses, only as props and cannon fodder for the wars and prisons they depend on.   Dean will win because in the end, he loves Americans much more than Bush does. 1:15:01 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2003 Toby Sackton. Last update: 9/27/2003; 4:51:45 PM.