Why I Reject Obama and the Democratic Party
1.
I wrote to a friend about our global predicament. He replied, “We are history’s bitch.” I don’t know if he is right, but I do know that I am dreading the Nov. 6 election like no other in my lifetime. No matter who wins, the losers will cry foul. Then it will get ugly.
2.
The most important issue we face is ecocide – our planetary ecological crisis, which by now is not one, but many that ebb and flow into each other – the cause of which is capitalism. Not this or that president, not this or that policy, not too little regulation, but the whole system. We know, too, that the most serious of these problems is global warming, and yet Mitt Romney and Barack Obama could not bring themselves to even say the words in any of their "debates." They are incapable of confronting (or even mentioning) this crisis, because both cling to the fantasy that the social and ecological disasters inflicted on humanity and the planet by industrial capitalism and the fossil fuel economy to which it is inextricably linked can be solved or mitigated with more capitalism. By growing it, as if it's a fantastical beanstalk capable of climbing past the stars into infinity.
3.
Infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is impossible. This statement is fraught with historical baggage and political implications. It is not, however, an expression of opinion. It’s math. It’s physics. It’s geography. It’s chemistry. It’s reality, stupid. Modern capitalism has existed for roughly 200 years or so – a fraction of the time that human beings have walked the earth. Apologists for capitalism and/or American exceptionalism would have us believe that it is the natural way of things, that it is literally embedded in our DNA and will last forever. It isn’t and it won’t. The only quality that previous civilizations have in common is that they were either conquered or they collapsed. We are not immune.
4.
What should we say about a society in which the vast majority of people speak, behave and vote as if infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is possible? Is such a society insane? Or just monumentally stupid? Or is it an amalgam of both, for which there is no word in English?
5.
It is vitally, desperately important that we imagine another way to live and work on our planet. While reasonable people may have different ideas about how to do this, I know that a necessary first step is to unequivocally reject any electoral “choice” that does not allow for that possibility. Barack Obama does not allow for that possibility and is, in fact, hostile to it, so I will not vote for him. Understand: I am not disappointed in the travesty of his first term; that would imply I expected a different outcome. I didn’t vote for him in 2008 either. And I am not interested in a debate over whether Romney would be worse (which he obviously would be, though not by as much as most liberals might think) because that's the debate the 1 percent wants the 99 percent to have. It's the one they need.
6.
In Aaron Sorkin’s play “A Few Good Men,” when the psychotic Col. Jessup thunders from the witness stand that, deep down, we want people like him guarding America’s walls, that we “need” him on that wall to separate U.S. from Them, he’s not lying, and he's not even wrong. He’s telling the truth about the very nature of capitalism, which subordinates the needs of human beings and the health of our planet to the relentless, insatiable drive for profit. So this is what we do every four years: We pick someone to stand on the wall. That’s a choice I am not interested in. If you are a Jew in Auschwitz in 1943 and given an opportunity to vote for one of two Nazis to run the facility, does it really matter who you vote for? Does it matter if you vote?
7.
I have always been interested in words and language. Politically speaking, I'm not sure what to call myself anymore. I will revisit this topic some other day. In the meantime, call me whatever you like.
8.
In psychology, the term “cognitive dissonance” refers to a state of simultaneously holding two or more conflicting ideas, beliefs or values. It is not possible to understand political economy today, particularly in the United States, unless you understand this. It explains why partisans condemn the lies told by one candidate while ignoring the lies (more often than not, the same lies) of another. It explains the tsunami of hypocrisy and contradiction one finds in the demented politics of the Tea Party. It explains the letters from my local Democratic party that call Obama “our great president” and "our dear president," even though he's embraced and even expanded the most reactionary policies of the Bush administration, which no Democrat I know of ever called “great” or "dear."
9.
If you’re a grassroots activist or volunteer on the front lines of this election by leafleting, blogging, tweeting, phone banking or planting yard signs for Obama or Romney, you are wasting your time. You are being played for a fool. If you're a parent, you're not doing your children any favors. You are on the wrong side of history. You’re treading water in a pool that’s being drained.
10.
If you have played the “Lesser of Two Evils” game every presidential election since you were old enough to vote, I have a question: How is that working for you? How much longer do you intend to play? What will last longer -- your patience for the “Lesser of Two Evils” game, or: salmon, Arctic ice, fossil fuel, the Ogallala aquifer, the Alberta oil sands, the mountaintops of Appalachia, our topsoil, the Amazon rainforest and the roughly ten percent of large fish that remain in the world’s oceans? This list could be a lot longer, but I'm running out of time.
We’re all running out of time.
1.
I wrote to a friend about our global predicament. He replied, “We are history’s bitch.” I don’t know if he is right, but I do know that I am dreading the Nov. 6 election like no other in my lifetime. No matter who wins, the losers will cry foul. Then it will get ugly.
2.
The most important issue we face is ecocide – our planetary ecological crisis, which by now is not one, but many that ebb and flow into each other – the cause of which is capitalism. Not this or that president, not this or that policy, not too little regulation, but the whole system. We know, too, that the most serious of these problems is global warming, and yet Mitt Romney and Barack Obama could not bring themselves to even say the words in any of their "debates." They are incapable of confronting (or even mentioning) this crisis, because both cling to the fantasy that the social and ecological disasters inflicted on humanity and the planet by industrial capitalism and the fossil fuel economy to which it is inextricably linked can be solved or mitigated with more capitalism. By growing it, as if it's a fantastical beanstalk capable of climbing past the stars into infinity.
3.
Infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is impossible. This statement is fraught with historical baggage and political implications. It is not, however, an expression of opinion. It’s math. It’s physics. It’s geography. It’s chemistry. It’s reality, stupid. Modern capitalism has existed for roughly 200 years or so – a fraction of the time that human beings have walked the earth. Apologists for capitalism and/or American exceptionalism would have us believe that it is the natural way of things, that it is literally embedded in our DNA and will last forever. It isn’t and it won’t. The only quality that previous civilizations have in common is that they were either conquered or they collapsed. We are not immune.
4.
What should we say about a society in which the vast majority of people speak, behave and vote as if infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is possible? Is such a society insane? Or just monumentally stupid? Or is it an amalgam of both, for which there is no word in English?
5.
It is vitally, desperately important that we imagine another way to live and work on our planet. While reasonable people may have different ideas about how to do this, I know that a necessary first step is to unequivocally reject any electoral “choice” that does not allow for that possibility. Barack Obama does not allow for that possibility and is, in fact, hostile to it, so I will not vote for him. Understand: I am not disappointed in the travesty of his first term; that would imply I expected a different outcome. I didn’t vote for him in 2008 either. And I am not interested in a debate over whether Romney would be worse (which he obviously would be, though not by as much as most liberals might think) because that's the debate the 1 percent wants the 99 percent to have. It's the one they need.
6.
In Aaron Sorkin’s play “A Few Good Men,” when the psychotic Col. Jessup thunders from the witness stand that, deep down, we want people like him guarding America’s walls, that we “need” him on that wall to separate U.S. from Them, he’s not lying, and he's not even wrong. He’s telling the truth about the very nature of capitalism, which subordinates the needs of human beings and the health of our planet to the relentless, insatiable drive for profit. So this is what we do every four years: We pick someone to stand on the wall. That’s a choice I am not interested in. If you are a Jew in Auschwitz in 1943 and given an opportunity to vote for one of two Nazis to run the facility, does it really matter who you vote for? Does it matter if you vote?
7.
I have always been interested in words and language. Politically speaking, I'm not sure what to call myself anymore. I will revisit this topic some other day. In the meantime, call me whatever you like.
8.
In psychology, the term “cognitive dissonance” refers to a state of simultaneously holding two or more conflicting ideas, beliefs or values. It is not possible to understand political economy today, particularly in the United States, unless you understand this. It explains why partisans condemn the lies told by one candidate while ignoring the lies (more often than not, the same lies) of another. It explains the tsunami of hypocrisy and contradiction one finds in the demented politics of the Tea Party. It explains the letters from my local Democratic party that call Obama “our great president” and "our dear president," even though he's embraced and even expanded the most reactionary policies of the Bush administration, which no Democrat I know of ever called “great” or "dear."
9.
If you’re a grassroots activist or volunteer on the front lines of this election by leafleting, blogging, tweeting, phone banking or planting yard signs for Obama or Romney, you are wasting your time. You are being played for a fool. If you're a parent, you're not doing your children any favors. You are on the wrong side of history. You’re treading water in a pool that’s being drained.
10.
If you have played the “Lesser of Two Evils” game every presidential election since you were old enough to vote, I have a question: How is that working for you? How much longer do you intend to play? What will last longer -- your patience for the “Lesser of Two Evils” game, or: salmon, Arctic ice, fossil fuel, the Ogallala aquifer, the Alberta oil sands, the mountaintops of Appalachia, our topsoil, the Amazon rainforest and the roughly ten percent of large fish that remain in the world’s oceans? This list could be a lot longer, but I'm running out of time.
We’re all running out of time.
Originally published on my blog on November 2, 2013. At the time, I dedicated it to Bradley Manning. Today, I would include Edward Snowden.
