What could bring down President McSmoothie as he leads the merry kingdom of the neo-Americans? by John Kusumi
(centrist)
Saturday, May 7, 2011
The time has come for me to give out nicknames. I've referred to the U.S. news media as "the Don't Worry Be Happy people." Many times, I feel that CNN could be replaced by an endless loop of Bobby McFarrin singing, Don't Worry Be Happy.
In the past week, we've seen the announced killing of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, and the emergence of "the Hip Hip Hooray people."
It's possible to make a Venn diagram, of two overlapping circles. One circle for the Don't Worry Be Happy people, and one circle for the Hip Hip Hooray people. They overlap, but only in part. The Venn diagram has now revealed three distinct segments of people.
One segment is Americans at street level, who gloat about the killing of Osama Bin Laden (OBL), claiming "victory." Many of these people appeared in a "spontaneous" flash mob on Sunday night upon the announcement of the raid and killing in Pakistan.
The middle segment is the overlap: Media people who say Hip Hip Hooray, and admire "the deft move" on the part of the President, whom they now proclaim to be unbeatable in 2012.
And for his part, the President moved into a victory lap of appearances and thank yous. To which I would say,
"Not so fast, McSmoothie." --As noted above, the time has come for me to give out nicknames, and the President of the Don't Worry Be Happy people and the Hip Hip Hooray people can now be given the nickname, McSmoothie.
The killing of OBL opens up so many issues that I predict that Barack Obama ("McSmoothie") will be impeached by the end of this year. The issues are so evident and numerous that they will have the entire country hashing over the related debate, just as was the case during the Watergate scandal of Richard Nixon. The clamor is already rising.
Before I touch upon the actual substance and merits of the clamor, I want to consider here the political environment. Not every American says "Don't Worry Be Happy" and/or "Hip Hip Hooray." There are other circles of Americans, such as paleo-conservatives, paleo-liberals, libertarians, green/progressives, and practical idealists (e.g., this quarter). In fact, recent times have also given us the tea party, the coffee party, and the bagel party. (Full disclosure: The bagel party remains my one-man effort. I promised some expansion for later. It will represent the politics of practical idealism.)
Returning to the Venn diagram as mentioned, the third segment is Media people who were more reserved and did not leap to say Hip Hip Hooray. The passage of time favors these more thoughtful, reflective people. There are rightly questions and concerns that are raised by the killing of OBL and this juncture in "the war on terror," or this juncture in America's downward tailspin.
Thinking about this, who would say 'Hip Hip Hooray' the loudest? --The answer is neo-conservatives (and those mesmerized by neo-conservatives), and the Obama administration. Who would be the quickest to join this chorus? --Neo-liberals.
And, who are the Don't Worry Be Happy people? --Predominantly, they are neo-liberals and neo-conservatives. The killing of OBL is the triumph of the neos.
And actually, neo-liberals and neo-conservatives don't mind each other all that much, because they share something in common: the prefix "neo."
For Americans in the home audience, neo basically means "sold out," and selling out is the principle which unites neo-liberals, neo-conservatives, and their stenographic flacks in the news media.
Neo-liberals actually abandoned liberal principles, and neo-conservatives actually abandoned conservative principles. Together they precipitated America's downward tailspin. One can also argue that 'neo-newsmen' abandoned 'newsman' principles.
This OBL killing raises some big questions, and neo-newsmen will say, "Don't Worry Be Happy," but the time is now for real Americans to push back at these neo Americans!
--Who are the real Americans? Well, as already mentioned, they include paleo-conservatives, paleo-liberals, libertarians, green/progressives, practical idealists, and those activist groups which consume tea, coffee, or bagels. (If you're coming out to an activist event, you can choose to bring tea or coffee. I'll bring the bagels.) In short, the real Americans are those in the home audience. You and me, basically.
The matters of substance at hand are so massively weighty that this article can only note the beginning of the debate. The beginning of the debate was well stated by Alyona Minkovski, with an excellent commentary that merits inclusion here uncut, verbatim, as follows:
=== (5/6/11) ===
Well, it's been quite a week. One that I think says alot about who we are as a country. On Sunday night, when President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, my initial reaction was, "How did it happen? Give us the details! Are we going to be shown any proof?"
And as we've watched the story change from one day to the other -- the accounts from the White House, investigations by the Pakistanis -- I get the sense that we may never know the full story. But that shouldn't stop us from searching for it. I think that it's important to question:
the honesty of this administration;
the legality of a targeted assassination;
to ask if capture was ever even an option that the White House gave these SEALs.
But tonight, I'd like to focus on something else. At the end of the day, Osama Bin Laden's death is about much more than just this one raid.
You see, he became a symbol for all the fear in this country that allowed for lies to be spread to push us into a state of constant war. He was used by the Bush administration to launch not one, but two wars. And I have yet to meet a single person that can tell me why we continue to have 100,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan -- if Bin Laden has been in Pakistan for years.
I don't buy the argument that we need to stay in Afghanistan so it can never become a safe haven for Al Qaeda ever again. What a load of crap that is! --Are you implying that we stay there forever?
And let's be real, Al Qaeda doesn't need Afghanistan. There are now offshoots of Al Qaeda around the world. Even more radical groups have sprung up.
And a lot of it is because of our policies. Because of our reaction to Osama Bin Laden. Instead of hunting this one man down -- capturing him, putting him on trial, really serving some justice -- we waged all out war. We waged all out war against terror.
But terror isn't a country. It's not an empire that threatens our existence. Terror is a crime. But because we didn't treat Osama Bin Laden like a criminal -- but instead like this gargantuan villain that had the power to change our entire country -- we elevated his status.
And now we have, in the last ten years, added indefinite detention and torture to our record as a country. We've thrown out due process, we've allowed the government to spy on us; grope us; increasingly encroach upon our civil liberties until there will soon be none left.
And, we've waged war on the Muslim world. Not only losing thousands of our own, but killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. Making us not the defender of freedom, but the global aggressor.
And none of that had to happen. That was a choice that the previous administration made, that this administration has continued. And it's something that not enough of us have spoken out against.
So, when I say that this week really said a lot about who we are as a country, I mean it. People singing; chanting; waving flags in the streets -- over a man's death. Pundits, politicians cheering on torture, as if getting this one man makes it okay and makes it moral. All the while ignoring that this one moment doesn't change anything. It doesn't take anything back. It doesn't stop our wars and the death and destruction that they bring.
So who are we? This is not what America used to be. But I do fear that this is the way that we're going to stay unless we take a look around. Unless we wake up from the dream that Osama Bin Laden's death has solved our problems, and now we can sit back and relax.
Now unfortunately, the work has only begun to force ourselves to change.
=== ===
In an earlier paragraph, I referred to America's downward tailspin. Minkovski well captured several prominent features of that tailspin -- and each one of them should be patently unacceptable and stand as a cause of controversy in its own right. She also notes the emergence of the Hip Hip Hooray people, and she's not taken in nor swept up by the euphoria.
The press of issues -- the many issues entailed, seen in, and raised by America's downward tailspin -- doesn't stop there. We should not have a criminal Federal Reserve; we should not have rigged elections; we should not have regulated interests writing the laws that regulate them; we should not have to pay the gambling debts of Wall Street; we should not have nine percent unemployment, and ruinous free trade de-industrializing America.
There is no law on the books that defines "crimes against the American worker." That there is no such definition is lucky for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. In a more just version of America, there would be that definition, and these three recent Presidents would be prosecuted due to their having gone there with globalization.
They have been neo-American neo-Presidents, dispensing with "the reality based community" and dispensing with jurisprudence that dates back to the Magna Carta. For the record, here at the Bagel Party, we support the reality based community and the right to due process of law including habeas corpus.
I believe that the reality based community is not the problem in America; rather, it is the solution in America. Get real! --is good advice.
It's time to reconsider the community based in la-la-land: Neo-liberals, neo-conservatives, and neo-newsmen. Those are basically three camps: The Clinton camp, the Bush camp, and the Media camp.
In each camp, no more than a few dozen people are the ring leaders. If we say five dozen, that means that each camp has some 60 people calling the shots. Add the three camps together, and it's less than 200 people running the show.
Now consider 200 individuals stacked against 308,000,000 Americans. The 200 people are the anti-reality community, while the 308,000,000 others ARE the reality in America.
We would all be better off if Navy SEAL operations could take out the 200 anti-reality neo-Americans. We could pull America out of its tailspin and have our country back!
At this time, I do not see any likelihood that the SEALs will ride over the hill like reinforcements. Nor would I want them to -- because, even those who stage manage the neo-freakshow are due, and should be accorded, basic human rights.
But, the bungled non-capture assassination of Osama Bin Laden has now presented us with the ultimate opportunity to demand change in U.S. foreign policy, and prosecution for those who caused America to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity -- including the impeachment of Barack Obama.
Experienced observers of American politics, by a thumbnail reckoning, may expect Dennis Kucinich to draft articles of impeachment for Barack Obama. Now, with a Republican-controlled House, it seems the perfect opportunity to actually advance that measure.
This may turn out to be like the Clinton impeachment -- it may be turned back in the Senate controlled by Democrats. However, the effort is worthwhile even if Obama escapes impeachment. It's a chance for Congress to stand for something, after too many years of merely rubber stamping the decline of America that was stage managed by the aforementioned anti-reality neo-Americans.
True Americans can have this debate; but our anti-reality, neo-American media, comprised of the Don't Worry Be Happy people, will try to belittle, deflect, or marginalize this debate. To the news media we can only say, "Thanks for the elevator music on the way down."
And I can add, "Hooray for Alyona Minkovski." She says things that all media ought to be saying -- and makes the rest appear gutless by comparison. (For the YouTube version of her commentary, go to: http://youtu.be/h9NRWzk3pMc )
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Posted By: Bill Gee
Date: May 26, 2011 11:13:32 AM
John,
Your use of your home-spun political lables has my head spinning! What exactly is a "neo" anything? It's like trying to pin down the concept of Post-Modernism (It's "Modern" but it serves no practical purpose except insofar that it serves a practical purpose!)
When I took a gander at your many other political articles over the past two years, I see you've spent some time with the "neo" concept, but you have to remember that whenever you write a new column you need to consider your new readers as well as those who have followed you from the beginning. I have to keep that in mind myself whenever I'm standing in front of a new class of students. Even though I've taught the class a hundred times before, for them, it's all new. Therefore, I have to keep my language use clear and simple while honing in on universal concepts and shared experiences. Otherwise you'll lose them and they'll stop reading.
