A Footnote

I wasn’t kidding or exaggerating when I likened the propaganda tactics of McCain’s presidential campaign to something that would make Hitler proud.  FDR said something eerily similar regarding the republican party propaganda he stared down, as explained in a very interesting article by Nicolaus Mills:

For Roosevelt, the Republicans’ distortion of his record was not business as usual. He saw their made-up attacks on his policies and patriotism as hitting below the belt, and he treated the attacks on him as having no legitimate place in American life. “They have imported the propaganda technique invented by the dictators abroad. Remember, a number of years ago, there was a book, “Mein Kampf,” written by Hitler himself. The technique was all set out in Hitler’s book,” Roosevelt observed. “According to that technique, you should never use a small falsehood; always a big one, for its very fantastic nature would make it more credible — if only you keep repeating it over and over again.”

Why isn’t Obama Ahead by 20 Points?

Maybe, just maybe, this has something to do with it.

As I prepare for a return to the States after my long absence I feel rather ambivalent about what awaits me: an intense and under-handed character assassination campaign against Barack Obama, a monumental financial meltdown which I predicted over a year ago, and just the usual state of the States (as characterized by the article).  I’ve become very comfortable with my liberation from the latter.  In the middle of this I’m as poor as I’ve ever been and actually have to try and raise money from investors who might be considering their mattresses as the only safe place for their savings.  And now I return.  My timing is impeccable!

As I’ve told my parents and others, I will not live in America except on my own terms, those terms being the requirements of a truly free man.  In 21st century America is it only possible to live as a free man, as a free African-American man, as a rich man.  Otherwise, one is much too beholden, at least for my temperament,  to those who ultimately owe their position to subterfuge and the noose.  I will have no master.  So I will not stay, unless I am either on the road to riches or have arrived.  Furthermore, if Obama loses, regardless of my circumstance, I will be looking for another homeland to lay my head, at least on a part-time basis.  This too I have vowed, to my family and others.  I am sure that his defeat will mean the continuation of a long slow decline of a country that once held the greatest promise the world had yet seen.

Conversely, if Obama wins?  If he wins?  I’ve found myself curiously and deeply sucked into the outcome of this presidential campaign.  This is not due to Obama himself, I’ve never been a fan of the democractic party orthodoxy and he is nothing if not an orthodox democrat, but because what is at stake and what he represents.  Yes, as he so often seeks to remind us, Obama represents change for the better.  And hope.  As I promised my friend Cameron last night, if Obama wins, if he wins… I will dance in the street.

Know Thy Enemy

This post was taken from an email reply to my sister, Aliya, regarding her dissemination of damaging information about Sarah Palin, the GOP ’08 VP candidate.

i don’t even think it’s worth getting worked up about that lady, she is a joke, but the republican strategy is no joke at all and has worked quite successfully before.  this excellent article sums up one of the most critical reasons why http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-mckay/were-gonna-frickin-lose-t_b_124772.html.  the republican propaganda machine would have made hitler proud, and that’s not an exaggeration.

it’s definitely not time to panic or lose hope yet, but know who your dealing with and know their strategies.  there’s no way the race should be as close as is being reported (and I suspect it actually isn’t) but there does exist a very good chance that the representative of the american industrial oligarchs (mccain) will win with the same strategy they used to get their last representative (george w) in office.  these people are the descendants of the hamiltonian monarchist that jefferson believed would come to represent the biggest internal threat to the country.  they have no use for democracy except when it serves to keep them on top of the social hierarchy, which is why they are so comfortable with propaganda campaigns that are based on outright lies, character assasination, and just for good measure, voter suppression.  as with oligarchs everywhere they are more than willing to let the rest of the country go to hell in a hand basket as long as they can maintain their monopoly of capital.  i mention all this as a rather long winded way to say know thy enemy!

the stakes in this election are greater than at any time since the ascent of lincoln.  we all need to keep that in mind, no matter what distractions- like a gun-toting, christian absolutist, no-nothing from alaska as vp pick- the conservative propaganda machine trots out.

The Roots of Neo-Socialism: A Beginning

As an amateur political theorist (and actual sociologist according to the University of Illinois) I do a lot of reading and thinking about the nature of societies and our various political systems.  This has been supplemented in a very crucial way by a fair amount of international travel over the past couple of years.  My thoughts in this area are still evolving, but some foundational principles are beginning to emerge.  One such principal is that universal access to education, not any old education, but a world-class education from kindergarten to doctorate, is necessary for a free and just society.  I have been heartened by Obama’s call for a more limited, but still radical by modern American standards, policy of universal education.

The spark behind my decision to write about this now is an excellent article about one man’s attempt to revolutionize elementary and middle school education in a particularly downtrodden area of Harlem.  Note that the article is a post in a new education blog that I will be following and recommend based on the promise and premise of the reporting thus far.

In the article, the author states that “Canada [the man responsible for the Harlem project] wants, in essence, to create a European-style social democracy within Harlem.  In Europe people who hold such views are generally called “social democrats”, but I think neo-socialist sounds much cooler.  Expect to hear more from me, eventually much more, on this subject.