[Peace-discuss] Bill Blum's thoughts

[Brussel Morton K.]

A provocative extract: You can read the whole thing at:  http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer70.html
--mkb

…
It's part of America's ideology to pretend that it doesn't have any  
ideology.

Oh, a woman nominated to be a Supreme Court justice. A woman whose  
parents are from Puerto Rico. A Latina! A Latina Supreme Court  
justice! Oh, hooray for America!

Who cares? Clarence Thomas is a Supreme Court justice. He's black.  
He's as hopelessly reactionary as they come. No one should give a damn  
that Sonia Sotomayor is a woman with a Latin American background. All  
that counts is her politics. Her ideology. Her positions on important  
social and political issues. Yes, I know, we're talking about the Law,  
the Majesty of the Law, judges who are scholars, impartial scholars,  
who study the fine points and the history of a law, experts on the  
Constitution of the United States, not swayed by today's partisan  
squabbles but take the long view, looking at precedent, considering  
what precedent may be set for the future.

Don't believe it. That may be true in the infrequent Supreme Court  
case where no ideological question at all is raised. Otherwise the  
judges are all biased human beings, appointed by a biased president,  
confirmed by biased members of the Senate.

Patrick Martin recently observed on the World Socialist Web Site: "For  
the past 12 years ... under two Democratic presidents and one  
Republican, the post of US Secretary of State has been occupied by, in  
succession, a white woman, a black man, a black woman, and a white  
woman."10 And they all loved the empire. When the empire called for  
it, they bombed, invaded, and killed; they overthrew, occupied,  
tortured, and lied; and swore allegiance to Israel and the corporations.

And now we have a black president. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, or  
Stokely Carmichael he's not. His policies and his appointments have  
all fallen in that area that runs from ever so slightly to the left of  
center to clear conservative and imperialist on the right. He's more  
loath to being identified as, or collaborating with, progressives than  
with right-wingers. Team Obama sees the left as an eccentric old aunt  
who keeps showing up at family functions, making everyone  
uncomfortable and wishing she'd just go away.

America, and the world, have to grow up. Forget color. Forget  
ethnicity. Forget gender. Forget sexual orientation. Forget even the  
class the person comes from. Look at the class they serve. And  
understand that the person wouldn't be in the position they are, or be  
nominated for the position, if there was any serious question about  
their loyalty to the capitalist ethic or American world domination.

It also matters not whether the president is comically inarticulate or  
whether he speaks in complete grammatical sentences. Keep your eye on  
the policies.
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