From time to time, I hand over the keys of the site to others. Today, a faithful reader and former guest poster has decided to get back into the blogging game with a two-part commentary on the 2008 election.

Guest poster I.C. Presumptive, the floor is yours...

Barack Obama in building his campaign for the presidency has centered it on educating the public. He has put forward an implied promise to make the people of this country sovereign, which they are not now. Were he to do so it would displace the corporations which are presently sovereign. He suggests justice would become the measure of public policy instead of profits. Of course, these are implied not stated policies for several reasons. One is because he cannot state them clearly and receive major campaign money with which to win.

Were he to speak so clearly he would frighten the wealthy classes and not just a few of the less wealthy. They would create as great and as marvelous a political panic as they have created an economic panic. That is what the McCain/Palin slurs and lies are all about—fear. It is a matter of creating the fear that the bailout or ‘Goldman Sachs socialism’ of Treasury Secretary Paulson which has been declared ‘indispensable’ might be demanded by the public at large.

The great pooh-bahs have declared such welfare urgent and absolutely necessary for the banks. Senator McCain has supported it is as such while denouncing with considerable sneer and ridicule Barack Obama’s idea of “spread the wealth around.” Sen. McCain implies such a diversion to other classes would be dastardly and ruinous to the body politic. Clearly, he is channeling President Herbert Hoover from the early days of the Great Depression.

The McCain value set is that Americans must be allowed to pile up wealth as they see fit, even mountains of wealth. Of course, all Americans will not be able to pile up such wealth, only a very few will and have. Everyone knows that. Why then McCain’s outrage? Sen. McCain says the ‘hard work’ of the wealthy is greatly deserved and should be praised as he conflates that work with all other Americans who actually work. He has not gone into how much hard work the bankers could possibly have performed to justify their $23 million to $90 million severance packages for ruining their corporations. Quite obviously it was less hard work than conniving and manipulating.

Then why is it that consideration and discussion of how the people of the United States might come to own the wealth of the country, wealth that they have created, frightens so many Americans to the core? That would be ‘socialism.’ One word brings panic. It must be a very powerful concept to frighten so many people. Thus Obama can only hint about sovereignty of the people and justice made predominant even though it doesn’t imply socialism at all. It does imply a change in power relations which is what all the gaseous wind of the political right is all about.

The John McCains of this world are terribly resentful that ‘it’ might and ‘he’ might. Just believing Obama might think about sovereignty of the people stupefies large sections of the public. No one knows whether he believes in such sovereignty and justice for the people or not, or believing in it would or could make it possible. And he couldn’t unless an aware and focused electorate would demand it after the election in more detail and purpose than they are frightened of it today. Yet he has been talking about such change for a very long time to audiences all over the country from at least 1991.

This non-speak and silence of our culture hides the shallowness, unreality and lack of functionality of our democracy. The very blandness of our speech, its omissions and fears, questions our touted freedom. It provides a revealing backdrop to the irony of our political system as it stands rigid against examining any new idea, any position which might lead us to our presumed but unfulfilled national destiny. Why is it considered so dangerous to think outside the collapsed system we now have in order to prosper and gain real freedom? Even progressive candidates cannot talk about what is basically wrong and the people find it difficult to accept explanations for improvements because they have been so grievously lied to in the past. Those who control the system have made it politically expedient to stop discussion well back from the edge of reality. They must foreclose clarity and make discussion impossible in order to maintain control.

In this way the Republican Party has reacted in horror to Obama’s unusual and popular candidacy claiming ‘class warfare’ at the slightest suggestion of even a minimal leveling of the economic table we all sit at. That is why we see John McCain in his most pompous role of Lord Protector of America channeling Oliver Cromwell, the mastermind of wealth protection in 17^th century England . Cromwell’s opposition at the time was known by the opprobrium ‘Levellers.’ They didn’t believe in leveling at all, of course, being largely artisans merely asking for redress of grotesque differences of wealth brought on by exploitation. Not really so much different from today. Perhaps that is why Sen. McCain attempted in the last debate to impugn and re-characterize Obama’s proposed taxes on the wealthy by ridiculing his “spread the wealth around” phrase as though it was some kind of smutty excrement.

The McCain campaign has gone even further turning loose the Sarah Palins of this world. John McCain on the David Letterman’s show praised her as a marvel of political presence and character. That is quite a contrast to the junkyard dog she emulates behind her beatific smile. If the image dominates and cloaks the message it is meant to.

Americans have been raised on images rather than thought and logic. Thus a pretty woman may speak platitudes of patriotism and praise for ‘this wonderful country’ while the men and women who are destroying its wonders and its wealth stand right behind her or next to her. “Gosh darn” she says in her pleasant charm, “I just love this country,” as she advances the political smut of racism and terrorist fear mongering that undermines it. Just last week she began a new tact claiming some parts of the country are true patriots, other parts left undefined but suspect. That is a very strange position when you and your running mate, are attempting to be chief executive officers of all the people.

I.C. Presumptive