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Change People NEED To Believe

By Timothy V. Gatto

30 July, 2008
Countercurrents.org

Adolf Hitler amazes me in one sense. Here he was, a brown-eyed, dark haired little man, and he convinced a large number of people that the he represented the “Aryan Race” of supposedly tall, blond haired, blue-eyed people. Nice trick. The thing about what Hitler said, and what the reality consisted of, was that people wanted to believe him. I see this desire reflected in the candidacy of Senator Obama.

When I see this “modern left” embrace Barack Obama I seem to always ask myself the same question over and over again, how can the same people that were so disgusted, and who felt so much moral outrage over the policies and duplicity of George W. Bush and company, turn a blind eye when Obama demonstrates some of the same behavior? This turn of events has truly been an eye-opener for me. Since 2001, I have read many op-ed pieces, and have written a number of them myself, that reflect moral disgust with this administration. Bush has claimed the moral high ground on many issues while he simultaneously engaged in behavior that was contradictory to the reality of the situation.

The critics of this administration have rightly called out Bush and his minions, and have expressed not only dismay, but disgust with allegations of torture, misleading the American people, and using force in place of diplomacy. The Democrats and others have opposed these behaviors. They have castigated these people while pointing out how truly and utterly contemptible and hypocritical they are. As an example, Bush decries Iran’s support of Hezbollah in Lebanon and extremists in Iraq, while at the same time U.S. Special Forces and Iranian subversive groups cross into Iran and carry out missions in support of “regime change”. Usually, every facet of Neo-Con duplicity is not overlooked when the administration’s opponents illustrate the extent of their manipulations. I have no problem with this, in fact, to effectively counter the far-right’s skewed agenda, the more lies that see the light of day, the more effective the attempts to stop them are.

I mention this because I want to illustrate just how good the Democrats are at exposing and uncovering the lies and hypocrisy of the administration. In fact, years of digging through facts to get at the real story have become the norm when it comes to this executive branch. We all understand that we cannot take anything that comes out of the White House at face value. This has been proven time and time again, so you would assume it would be second nature to distrust the administration and their spokespeople. It would also be very easy to believe that the pattern of distrust would also carry over from Bush to McCain and to Obama.

Apparently this is not the case, and I’m wondering why. I cannot believe that the political pundits, all of the reporters and even the general population, can suffer through the lies and deceit of the last eight years and instantaneously regain all the trust and confidence that has been lost and automatically regain their faith seemingly overnight. The last few months of this presidential race has seen the Democratic candidate, since he became the presumptive nominee, change his policy in midstream, but the rhetoric coming from the campaign hasn’t changed.

The earnestness and the honesty of Obama’s supporters and the hope for change they possess is written about and discussed with the same fervor and honesty that the disgust with the Bush administration was talked and written about. I’ve seen many souls laid bare in their support of Obama. These same people wrote just as passionately about the crimes committed by Bush and his followers. What has me scratching my head in wonder is the total lack of objectivity from them when Senator Barack Obama says one thing and does another.

I have never seen anything that even approaches what I have seen over the past few months. Integral areas of Obama’s philosophy have changed dramatically and not a word is uttered by a majority of his supporters. His plans for the military and our continued involvement in the Middle-East have drawn hardly a whisper, even though our military involvement in Iraq resulted in volumes of scathing indictments against Bush from the left. Obama’s plan to move the war from one country to another are greeted with silence from people that months ago were decrying our unilateral and imperialistic military policies. The same demographic that decried the “Global War on Terror” seems to have accepted our need to continue the offensive.

Those that warned us about the shredding of the Constitution and the dismantling of so many civil liberties that we enjoyed pre-911 don’t issue a challenge to Senator Obama to restore them. Many who based their objections on laws like the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that effectively eliminated habeas corpus for terrorists or “suspected” terrorists, even after passionately speaking out or writing about it, seem to be quite ok with letting a sleeping dog lie. Those that were disgusted with the percentage of our budget that went towards military spending seem quite content with Barack’s plans to add a couple of divisions to the Army. Those people that spoke out against the military industrial complex and corporate contributions’ to the Republicans that threatened to eclipse individual citizen’s power over their government don’t bring it up now that corporate money and influence are finding safe haven in Democratic coffers.

The latest polls taken are finding that the economy is now the big issue, and we are at the verge of economic meltdown. The core Democratic issues like stopping deregulation of business, ending government bail-outs of banks and financial institutions and strengthening unions no longer seem to be issues. In fact, so many issues that were front and center of political discussions just a few months ago have taken a back-seat to the necessity of defeating the Republicans in November. Policies which were once thought to be conservative policies and values are now accepted by the Democratic Party.

The most intriguing facet of this entire race in my mind is that the Democrats seem to have no trouble accepting ideas that just a few months ago were shameful, almost criminal in nature. I guess it is more important to look at who is espousing ideas, rather than of the ideas themselves.

I’m starting to understand how Hitler got away with getting people to go against their nature. The truth is that if you want to believe in something bad enough, no amount of logic can stop you. I’m not saying that Obama is another Hitler, not at all. I’m just pointing out that people will believe what they desperately want and need to believe in.

[email protected]

www.liberalpro.blogspot.com



 


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