[Peace] Re: [Peace-discuss] Obama finks on FISA (& even Hillary doesn't)

[Stuart Levy]

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 11:15:31AM -0500, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Don't you see though that it doesn't make much difference?  Worse yet, the 
> presidential campaign is a distraction from real politics, and that's what 
> it's meant to be.

Al Kagan is right -- this has turned into a discussion,
so please continue it on peace-discuss rather than on the peace list.

> If the populace (or rather that minority in the chattering classes) is 
> distracted by Obama v. McCain, the USG can continue with its policies 
> without any interference from what liberal journalist Walter Lippmann (d. 
> 1974) called "ignorant and meddlesome outsiders" whose "function" is to be 
> only "interested spectators of action," periodically selecting members of 
> the leadership class in elections, then returning to their private 
> concerns.  (Lippmann, founder of The New Republic magazine, argued that 
> "the public must be put in its place," so that the "responsible men" may 
> rule without interference; the herd of citizens must be governed by “a 
> specialized class whose interests reach beyond the locality.")
>
> And those policies will remain essentially the same -- that is, the USG 
> will continue to kill roughly the same sorts of people -- regardless which 
> man becomes president.  Do you really think that the killing would have 
> been much different if Kerry had become president in 2005?  Or Gore in 
> 2001? (Gore pressed Clinton to attack Serbia; the Neocons, representing one 
> end of the narrow USG policy spectrum, were originally Democrats.)  --CGE
>
> --"If they can get you asking the wrong questions [viz., McCain or Obama?], 
> they don't have to worry about answers." --Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's 
> Rainbow
>
> --"The people can vote for whoever they want: I control the nominations." 
> --William M. Tweed (Boss Tweed), head of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party 
> political machine in 19th-century New York