Could the re-election of Bush actually be good for the rest of the world?

[Guest guest]

Could the re-election of Bush actually be good for the rest of the world?

Nov 3 2004

By David Elfstrom

 

 

Last night I had disappointing that GW Bush had won a decisive victory.

Waking up at 5:50 am I rushed over to the computer to check out the news,

hoping it was all a bad dream.

 

Upon reading the lead article at Economist.com, I found out very quickly

that the nightmare is real - the popular vote of all closed polls showing a

3% lead, about 3 million votes. There's no way Kerry will win in Ohio at

this point, even with every vote counted. It's cold comfort that the Nader

vote is too small to be accused of stealing critical votes from Kerry.

 

 

There is a rationalization of GW Bush's victory that is somewhat cruel, but

you might find it interesting. Ken Wiwa wrote in Saturday's Globe and Mail

that a Bush re-election will serve his global interest. He writes:

 

" I've always d to the notion that an empire is at its most

vulnerable at the height of its power. ... Another four years of Bush flu

may be tough medicine. But it might, just might, weaken his country and

make the rest of us stronger. "

 

 

Similarly, on the news discussion site Kuro5hin.org, staunch Michael Moore

supporter Barry Stottle writes:

 

" In short, whoever wins the next election, I am painfully confident that

things (meaning terrorism generally and particularly attacks against

American - and British - interests) are going to get a lot worse rather

than better. If that were to happen under a Democrat president, the

Republicans, with the help of the supine American media, will be able to

blame them and return to power for another attempt at re-imposing their

repressive puritanism on America and the rest of the world. "

 

" We need it to become very VERY clear, not just to the world but to

republican voters in particular - even to Fox News - exactly who is

responsible for the mess we are going to be in by, say, 2008. We need,

above all for ... its authors and its supporters to be thoroughly exposed,

revealed and reviled for the dangerously naive simplistic apologists for

imperialism that they really are. We need to have and to see their approach

to world affairs as thoroughly discredited as fascism was by the Second

World War. We need the American voters to understand that they cannot

create a world in their image and nor can they operate in isolation from

the rest of the world. "

 

 

While this aggressive rationalization allows the rest of the world to

smugly sit back and give the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves

over the next four years, there are a some serious problems with the

re-election of Bush.

 

In rebuttal, " Mason " , who identifies as a Democrat says that he can't just

sit back and watch because of the people who will die from the Republican

policies:

 

" Bush has done so much damage that sitting back with a tub of fried chicken

and watching him flail about in his fantasy world for 4 more years would

certainly be the easier option, but we just can't ignore the real people

who get hurt and killed by it. "

 

" In many ways you fail to understand the state of perpetual blindness that

many Americans live in. A Bush re-election would completely reinforce the

cognitive dissonance that has allowed about half our electorate to believe

demonstrably false things for extended periods of time. The best solution

is to try and snap people back to reason as quickly as possible; the

longer they spend inhabiting a fantasy world the more they buy into the

lies it is based upon. "

 

" I have no illusions about how rough the next 4 years will be... Eight

years of Bush would be twice as damaging as four "

 

 

One positive but selfish outcome for the rest of the world is a better

exchange rate against the US Dollar as the U.S. federal debt becomes an

unimaginable burden from tax cutting and increased war spending.

 

The European Union will become stronger as Europe rallies to become a

balancing power in the world against the unilateral actions of the United

States. Every year George Orwell's novel " 1984 " becomes more and more real.

 

The environment will suffer, not just from the lack of Kyoto, but from the

Bush Administration's continued relentless attack on the environment.

 

The rest of the world does feel the pain that the 54 million Kerry voters

must feel. Some Democrats have said they can't stand to see Bush's face any

more. We agree.

 

As the saying goes, when you're given lemons, make lemonade. Starting now,

do everything you can to bury the neo-conservatives' damaging policies in

2008. Please don't give up. You must help your fellow Americans. Help Bush

voters overcome their cognitive dissonance.

 

David Elfstrom

Toronto, Canada

[Guest guest]

The kind of suffering that Bush has caused and will cause the US and

the rest of the world is nothing to be taken lightly. I don't think

you do, but some of the people you quote do. I see no difference

between what they are saying and what Nader said about things having

to get a whole lot worse before they get better. The problem with

this kind of thinking is that it's a lot easier to climb out of a 10

foot hole than a 15 foot hole. Sometimes the hole gets so deep that

people can't climb out. The " let 'em dig a deeper hole so people

will really see what sh*ts they are " mentality also edges a little

too close to Bush's own " gonna kill Iraqis in order to liberate

them, gonna cut down trees in order to save them, etc. " mentality.

 

I think it's important to analyze how facism has arisen in the US.

And how it arose in Germany, in Italy, and in any country where

totalitarism has taken sway. Analyze it so that it can be stopped.

Analyze it so it can be prevented in the future.

 

Part of the problem is that the USA doesn't have a journalistic

media with integrity. All too often the US media is nothing more

than a propaganda, spin, and lie outlet for Bush, the Republican

Party, and corporations. Plus, any time the America media isn't as

properly worshipping of Bush and the Republicans as they think it

should be, any time the US media does tell the truth, right-wingers

yell, " Liberal media! Liberal media! " It's amazing how they are

allowed to dominate a media which they're always complaining is " too

liberal " .

 

The Nazis discovered that if one repeats a lie enough times, people

come to believe it. That lesson was not wasted on the GOP. Any time

any media in the US has the backbone and integrity, the Republicans

scream, " Leberal media! " as a way of discrediting the truth and

deflecting criticism of the GOP and corporations.

 

More and more Americans are starting to get their news from the

foreign media and from the alternative media. But far too many still

aren't willing to face that the American media for the most part is

not worthy of any trust, not worthy of any respect, not worthy of

being read, listened to, or watched. The American broadcast media in

particular has come to be dominated by what increasing numbers of

Americans are calling " media ho's " . Check out the mediawhoresonline

website. It bills itself as the site that set out to bring the media

to their knees but discovered they already are there.

 

I hope that people in other countries will fight tooth and nail to

keep their media honest and fair. Forget looking to the American

media for any kind of leadership or for even doing the right thing.

The American media abdicated their responsibility in being

democracy's watch dog a long time ago. They sold out for fame and

fortune and for easy jobs. And a complacent American public, lulled

by dangerous pride and being raised on a constant diet of being told

how free, fair, and great the US is, allowed it to happen. Please,

don't give an inch - not a millimeter - in a fight to keep your

media honest and fair. We did, and look what happened. We no longer

have the reality, we have only pretense.

 

There are other factors that allowed the rise of fascism in the US,

and I'll go into those if anyone is interested.

 

Healers of the body, mind, emotions, and spirit are going to be

needed more than ever in the days to come in order to deal with the

destruction that Bush and his neocon backers bring to people around

the world, including Americans.