I tend to save my harshest rantings for the forces in our country which are anti-democratic. And that is what the Bush contingent is. They've proven over and over that they see the Constitution as a mere obstacle to doing whatever they want with the overwhelming power of the presidency. Nevermind, of course, that the presidency was not supposed to be a position of such power. The president's sole oath is to protect and defend the Constitution. Bush has not only neglected to do that, he has all but shredded the document he is supposed to protect.
I don't wish to call myself "free" while living in a nation that spies on its citizens and reserves the right to detain them indefinitely without charge. This election is, on the surface, about economic issues and foreign policy issues. Those things are immensely important. But I will shortly be venturing out to cast a vote for Obama only in part because I believe his approaches to these matters is far more measured and likely to be successful than those of McCain. The main reason for my vote will be the bigger picture of American freedoms. The right wing uses the word "freedom" so lightly and so vaguely that it has ceased to hold much specific meaning. It's not a platitude, though. It's a clearly defined set of Constitutional safeguards, and they are in extreme danger, partially in ruins already. I don't know how well Obama will handle those issues, but it seems clear that he understands them and will likely undo much of the damage Bush has done to them. I'm voting for what I hope.
Contrast Obama with McCain, and the difference is certainly there. Contrast Obama with Palin, and you understand what's really at stake here. Palin possesses the worst traits of George W. Bush, but she is, terrifyingly enough, less intellectually curious, less intelligent, and less informed. She would be the most frightening holder of the office of president we have ever had, and after George Bush, that's saying a whole lot. We could not weather a Palin presidency and remain a superpower, let alone a beacon of hope or anything else.
John Dean, former White House counsel to Nixon, has done a beautiful job of defining the bigger-issue problem we face in the new authoritarian right Bush has brought to full flower. The whole article is worth a read, but here's some of the most important part, based on the long-term work of a social scientist:
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In my book Conservatives Without Conscience, I set forth the traits of authoritarian leaders and followers, which have been distilled from a half-century of empirical research, during which thousands of people have voluntarily been interviewed by social scientists. The touch points in these somewhat-overlapping lists of character traits provide a clear picture of the characters of both John McCain and Sarah Palin.
McCain, especially, fits perfectly as an authoritarian leader. Such leaders possess most, if not all, of these traits:
- dominating
- opposes equality
- desirous of personal power
- amoral
- intimidating and bullying
- faintly hedonistic
- vengeful
- pitiless
- exploitive
- manipulative
- dishonest
- cheats to win
- highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, homophobic)
- mean-spirited
- militant
- nationalistic
- tells others what they want to hear
- takes advantage of "suckers"
- specializes in creating false images to sell self
- may or may not be religious
- usually politically and economically conservative/Republican
Incidentally, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney also can be described by these well-defined and typical traits — which is why a McCain presidency is so likely to be nearly identical to a Bush presidency.
Clearly, Sarah Palin also has some qualities typical of authoritarian leaders, not to mention almost all of the traits found among authoritarian followers. Specifically, such followers can be described as follows:
- submissive to authority
- aggressive on behalf of authority
- highly conventional in their behavior
- highly religious
- possessing moderate to little education
- trusting of untrustworthy authorities
- prejudiced (particularly against homosexuals and followers of religions other than their own)
- mean-spirited
- narrow-minded
- intolerant
- bullying
- zealous
- dogmatic
- uncritical toward chosen authority
- hypocritical
- inconsistent and contradictory
- prone to panic easily
- highly self-righteous
- moralistic
- strict disciplinarians
- severely punitive
- demanding loyalty and returning it
- possessing little self-awareness
- usually politically and economically conservative/Republican
The leading authority on right-wing authoritarianism, a man who devoted his career to developing hard empirical data about these people and their beliefs, is Robert Altemeyer. Altemeyer, a social scientist based in Canada, flushed out these typical character traits in decades of testing.
Altemeyer believes about 25 percent of the adult population in the United States is solidly authoritarian (with that group mostly composed of followers, and a small percentage of potential leaders). It is in these ranks of some 70 million that we find the core of the McCain/Palin supporters. They are people who are, in Altemeyer's words, are "so self-righteous, so ill-informed, and so dogmatic that nothing you can say or do will change their minds."
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This mindset is the real danger to our country, as the last eight years have illustrated.
Get out and vote, folks! It matters.
ADDITIONAL: I would like to invite my favorite blog barnacles to go crazy responding in the comment section below, preferably until at least 8:01 p.m. tonight. To them I say, "I know you are, but what am I?"
Enjoy!
11/4/08
Whither wingnuttery?
What a ride this one will be. There are many possible outcomes, it seems to me. By far the largest possibility seems to be a clearly defined Obama win of small or large proportion. That is certainly to be wished.
Not because Barack Obama is perfect, but because he seems to understand actual small d democracy. And, despite the diversions of rightwingers, that's what's really at stake here. That's why my favorite rightwing nujob statement of the campaign season was the claim, "Americans aren't ready to give up their freedom yet." The last eight years argue otherwise, what with domestic spying, warrantless wiretapping, and a full-out assault on habeas corpus, the very cornerstone of Western democracy dating back to the Magna Carta. Somehow, in the rightwing mind, those things don't equal giving up freedom. But changing a tax bracket from 35% to 39.6%? We might as well sign over the country to Karl Marx!
The best possible outcome of this election would be a repudiation of that rollback of our Constitutional freedoms, what should by all means be our birthright as Americans, and a return to governing instead of ruling. We'll always have the nutjob contingent, full of fear, half-digested nationalism, and ill-considered aggression. But the era of politicians willing to take advantage of fear will eventually give way to something nobler for a while, unless we destroy ourselves too thoroughly first.
When the fine day arrives, maybe even tomorrow, when we embrace our Enlightenment heritage instead of reactive abandonment of it, I will on some small level miss such fervent displays of wingnuttery as this:
And this poor little girl, who's probably going to end up as a field organizer for a Democratic campaign in 15-20 years for reasons of pure revenge against her parents:
11/03/08
"I just like a cup of tea, so I might not be able to devote meself full-time to the old racism."
I was almost right when I predicted:
"between now and Monday, Nov. 3, somebody will find a way to use footage of dancing Africans in an anti-Obama ad. Somebody who isn't directly affiliated with McCain, perhaps a "shadowy" 527 group."
Yesterday, our winner used a still photo of Kenyans, so that wasn't quite dead-on. And it wasn't a 527, but it was somebody who, well, isn't directly affiliated with McCain: Fox News. Be sure to read the text, which, when translated from Fox speak, means "scary dark people will take over America," with a dash of polygamy thrown in.
Men and women dance and sing the praises of a sacrificial rock shrine called Kit Mikayi ("First Wife") 20 miles from Kisumu, Kenya. A dozen worshippers have come to make sacrifices for Barack Obama at the shrine, its attendant said. (Travis Kavulla)
(The headline, by the way, is from one of the best-ever episodes of the finest thing to ever hit Irish television, Father Ted.)
11/03/08
