A Commentary by Doug Draper
“So how’s that hopey, changey thing working for ya?”
Well, apparently not too well for most American, at least those (less than half of the country’s the eligible voters) who cared enough to go out to polls and vote in mid-term elections this November 2.
A majority of those who went to the polls were determined to kill any further march toward “socialism” or “fascism” – code words for any further attempt for progressive, dare anyone say “liberal” change in energy, education, environmental protection and other areas under the administration of President Barack Obama.
Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate, and originator of that ‘hopey-changey ‘ line, was one of the big winners this November 2 as a majority of the seats in the U.S. Congress were taken over by Republicans, including those marching to the drums of a Tea Party hell bent on ‘taking their country back’ from a president who not only has a strange name and is black, but who may be a Muslim and may not even be a bona fide American citizens, in the tea baggers’ view.
Eighteen months of circulating doctored birth certificates on the internet, suggesting Obama was born in Nigeria or some other ‘strange place’ (and possibly shipped over to the U.S. later to one day run for president and take over the White House), and of carrying around posters of Obama doctored up with a Hitler moustache or some minstrel make-up from more racist times a century ago, has obviously taken a toll. This November 3, a day after the election, a humbled Obama hosted a press conference and took his licks.
One of the posters frequently displayed at tea bagger gatherings - of the president!!! Isn't that nice.
Unfortunately, for those Americans and for those of us in Canada and the rest of the world who two years ago embraced Obama’s call for change, that now means compromising with Republicans, including hard right-wingers like Palin and her Tea Party ilk, who believe that climate change is some kind of ‘Commie plot’, and that any kind of Medicare or other government-funded care for people who need health care, assistance to go to college or to keep their farms or homes from going under water, etc., is tantamount to fascism, socialism or communism.
On the other hand, continually throwing money at the Pentagon and military-industrial complex is okay for these tea baggers, and so is deregulating Wall Street, the oil industry and other major corporations to continue out-sourcing as many jobs as possible to the cheapest kind of sweat shops in the most under-developed regions of the world.
These mid-term elections on November 2 marked the beginning of the end of the time for Obama to do anything progressive to catch up to China on renewable energy technology or to restore his country as a strong manufacturer of products, rather than one that just buys them from sweat shops in other regions of the world. And to the extent our American neighbours fall down on energy and manufacturing, and on so many other fronts that sustain a healthy, middle-class economy, so does Canada to the extent that our economic fortunes are so intimately linked.
Palin for president. Hey, she's a celebrity in America and she can win!
Others in the media – especially what little is left of a “liberal media” in North America – may laugh at any prospect of Palin being a serious candidate for president. But I believe the time is ripe in a United States that a critical mass of the populace may care more about celebrity and about siphoning up whatever crap Palin pushes out on Fox News, Twitter and any other friendly venue to get her elected.
For citizens in her country and Canada, where we share each other’s ups and downs, God help us!
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
This is real scary. In a country that made Ronald Reagan president and Arnold Schwarzenegger governor, I guess anything is possible.
These are dark times we live in.
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I don’t think anyone could have expressed my feelings any better than Doug did in this commentary. That “hopey-changey” line just about made me hurl when I first heard it. It is something one would expect from a 12 year old but that does seem to be the average mental age of those that support this clown. She thinks dinosaurs cavorted with pioneers in buckskins.To her science, common sense and other such things are just silly inconveniences.
History DOES repeat itself but few Americans know their own history let alone that of the world at large. I suggest they read “A people’s history of the US” by Howard Zinn. It isn’t the sanitized version presented in their schools (complete with bugles, flags and bullshit) but rather history as told by the people who lived it, rich and poor, in their own words. US history has always been one of unbridled expansionism and runaway capitalism to the benefit of few and the detriment of many. Lincoln the great emancipator – BS. Washington the father of the nation who could not tell a lie -BS. Hoover sending Eisenhower, Patton and MacArthur to put down a march on the capital by WW1 veterans who desparately needed to cash in veterans’ benefit money owed them early because of the depression. Americans hate Mexicans sneaking across their borders but fail to realize they are returning to states formerly belonging to and forcefully taken from Mexico. This current ridiculous scenario playing out in the US is just another repetition of what has happened over and over in the past – the few wealthy play everyone against each other as a diversion while they clean up – divide and conquer. It is not the fault of the average citizen but they are not now being told, nor have they ever been told the truth.
How on earth do they expect benefits without paying taxes? Warren Buffet, a billionaire, states he pays less in taxes than his secretaries. Sounds fair to me. I have nothing against the average American, only against their lack of knowledge. Canada and it’s citizens aren’t that far behind – just a little less extreme.
With all of these inequities flying around maybe the US should have taken Benjamin Franklin’s advice. He suggested the turkey as the national bird. Perhaps that would be more appropriate.
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I walked in the door last night, from the airport, to learn the results of the elections around the country. We had just flown in from Seattle – – my husband and I spent the weekend in Washington DC, attending the Jon Stewart rally – – we were on such an incredible high, having just stood on the National Mall with 215,000 other “sane” people – – only to learn that the country, for the next 2 years, at least, is basically hosed. More gridlock. Time for Barack Obama to grow the spine needed to enact real change. I visited the shrines to the country’s past great leaders – – Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, and etched on the walls of each of those temples are very prophetic words about what will become of this country if we don’t take care of our most vulnerable, if we’re not tolerant of differences. How very sad for all of us today.
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Stewart and Colbert are the only factual news sources currently available in the US and they actually have the audacity to reveal the truth. Hope you had a great time with the “sane” ones.
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Good commentary. Spot on.
A new book by Chris Hedges ‘The Death of the Liberal class’ is coming to a librry and bookstore near you. He was interviewed on CBC Radio 1 earlier this week, and his points were striking, and very alarming.
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Nice article, Doug, but here’s hoping you’re wrong!
The only saving grace if Palin were actually elected president?
A real estate boom like Canada has never seen before, as Americans en masse line up to buy property up here.
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This is scary. I wish voters would someday realize the connection between tax cuts and increased out of pocket costs. I read an article about the transformation of Detroit from what it was before they elected a Mayor and Council that appear to be similar to Rob Ford in Toronto with nothing on their platform but to decrease taxes and push a law and order agenda. Detroit has turned from a very middle class city state to one in which a large part of it has literally been gutted, where there is very little money to pay to even keep the street lights on, for example. People are killing each other. Lots of disease. Lots of ghettos, over a 50% unemployment rate in parts. All I can say is that the tea baggers want to turn the whole country of the U.S. into the eastern part of Detroit.
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After the wretched excess of the U.S. election campaign with its assassination of the truth for political gain, take time, also for Canadians, to read a thoughtful piece by Bill Moyers commenting of the plutocracy, the rule of the wealthy over the political process.
http://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766
The press trumpets that the “people have spoken”, and yes they have. They have said what has been said to them by a feckless and purchased media. He writes, “Voting is the beginning of civil virtue, not its end, and the focus of real power is elsewhere. Voters still “matter” of course, but only as raw material to be shaped by the actual form of political influence – money.” Good and insightful writing. What a novelty, and what the gladly misinformed easily dismiss as elitist.
As for Sarah Palin, I’m less worried about her success as a candidate. This will wear off, but, the more frightening outcome could be a further damaged economy and more misdirected rage channeled buy someone who is actually competent at give form and substance the tea party agenda.
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