[Peace-discuss] The Kennedys' fake liberalism, then and now

[Jenifer Cartwright]

I, too, tho't John's question was reasonable, and I appreciated yr response, Mort, both the information and the tone. Thanks. 
 --Jenifer
"Morton K. Brussel" <brussel at uiuc.edu> wrote: John, maybe I overdid it.

Mine was a specific and quick reaction to Obama's remarks regarding  
Israel's response to the Palestinians in GAZA and elsewhere and, more  
generally, my disgust at Obama's triangulations relative to our wars,  
military budgets, domestic matters such as health insurance, who gets  
on the Supreme Court, etc. , etc..

I think we do have in this country a profound governmental and  
informational structural problem, illustrated by a lack of choice in  
candidates for national  offices, inability to project diverse voices  
in the mass media to our masses, and illustrative of a failure of our  
(and perhaps others') democracy. It is an interesting question as to  
whom "we" can look to politically  to carry the progressive message  
of non-imperialism, peace and justice, forward.

How does one get over the all pervasive American exceptionalism, the  
idea as Chomsky says that "We own the World", not to speak of Illini- 
ism? The problem of the "other".

I have appreciated your remarks.

Mort

On Jan 30, 2008, at 10:54 PM, John W. wrote:

> At 01:54 PM 1/30/2008, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>
>> 

>> Those crimes are being celebrated again, and Mike Taibbi points  
>> out one contemporary parallel:
>>
>>     http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/12502
>>
>> 
>>
>>     There's no denying the clear difference in the
>>     two campaign styles. In Barack Obama versus Hillary Clinton,  
>> we've
>>     basically got Kennedy-Nixon redux, and I mean that in the most  
>> negative
>>     possible sense for both of them -- a pair of superficial,  
>> posturing
>>     conservatives selling highly similar political packages using  
>> different
>>     emotional strategies. Obama is selling free trade and employer- 
>> based
>>     health care and an unclear Iraqi exit strategy using looks,  
>> charisma
>>     and optimism, while Hillary is selling much the same using  
>> hard, cold
>>     reality, "prose not poetry," managerial competence over "vision."
>>
>> 
>>
>> But it's much worse than that.  --CGE
>
>
> And I have every confidence that you, Carl, the sentinel in the  
> watchtower, will burn the midnight oil to keep us all abreast of  
> just PRECISELY how MUCH WORSE it is.
>
> I struggle to compose a question to which (a) I don't already know  
> the answer, and (b) I WANT to know the answer.  Let's try this one:
>
> Carl, since Barack Obama is "odious" and (may I quote you, Mort?)  
> revolting, repulsive, repellent, repugnant, disgusting, offensive,  
> objectionable, vile, foul, abhorrent, loathsome, nauseating,  
> sickening, hateful, detestable, execrable, abominable, monstrous,  
> appalling, reprehensible, deplorable, insufferable, intolerable,  
> despicable, contemptible, unspeakable, atrocious, awful, terrible,  
> dreadful, frightful, obnoxious, unsavory, unpalatable, unpleasant,  
> disagreeable, nasty, noisome, distasteful; informal ghastly,  
> horrible, horrid, gross, godawful; beastly;
>
> and since JFK and his administration were "vicious" and (may I  
> presume to borrow your words again, Mort?) revolting, repulsive,  
> repellent, repugnant, disgusting, offensive, objectionable, vile,  
> foul, abhorrent, loathsome, nauseating, sickening, hateful,  
> detestable, execrable, abominable, monstrous, appalling,  
> reprehensible, deplorable, insufferable, intolerable, despicable,  
> contemptible, unspeakable, atrocious, awful, terrible, dreadful,  
> frightful, obnoxious, unsavory, unpalatable, unpleasant,  
> disagreeable, nasty, noisome, distasteful; informal ghastly,  
> horrible, horrid, gross, godawful; beastly;
>
> and since apparently EVERY AMERICAN PRESIDENT WHO HAS EVER SERVED  
> THROUGHOUT HISTORY has been grossly deficient in any sort of  
> redeeming qualities whatsoever...presumably because, I don't know,  
> power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, or something  
> along those lines...
>
> ...WHY ON EARTH do we even bother to TALK about these things?  Why  
> do YOU bother to inform us, day after day and week after week and  
> month after month and year after year, of all the gruesome details  
> of the myriad ways in which our (supposedly) elected politicians  
> are viciously betraying us? Are you just wanting to depress us?  Is  
> THAT the whole point of this exercise?  I'd really like to  
> understand, should we dare to hope for "the triumph of hope over  
> experience" (which is why you say you vote, even though you tell  
> the rest of us NOT to vote), what exactly it is that we might dare  
> to hope for.
>
> John Wason
>
>
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