|
|
|
SYNCHRONICITY - THE EXORCISM LAUNCHES (This column began as an email replying to Dr. Steve Jonas who is enjoying his well-earned holiday in the mist-covered mountains of Japan.) Hi. Great idea to do a piece on the Gunpowder Plot. I look forward to having my memory on it refreshed! I will shortly be doing a piece on Japan/Georgite comparisons which will include brief descriptions of the faked `Kwantung Railway Incident` of 1931 that the Japanese fascists used as an excuse to invade Manchuria and the faked `Marco Polo Bridge Incident’ that they used as an excuse to invade China proper. Fascinating stuff. Also will have a brief analysis about why and how the Occupation worked here with why and how it will not work in Iraq. All the best, Steve Synchronicity Even though you are half a world away, I was just thinking about you only moments before returning to my computer and finding this welcome email promising more impeccable insights into history and our place in it. I had just been watching the excellent BBC coverage of the Democratic National Convention. This was Day Two - and it was absolutely brilliant. The Exorcism Has Begun The Democratic National Convention is the best scripted and the most choreographed in the history of our Party. Held in Boston, it featured a commanding podium with a huge backdrop of a digital screen that projected a continuous stream of fascinating epiphanies: countless testimonials from Firemen who endorsed John Kerry (the Firemen’s unions are politically powerful, as you know); a stream of quotations from our historic leaders from FDR and JFK to Cesar Chavez and Barbara Jordan and a curious but increasingly staccato peppering of Registered Republicans who were appalled by Bush’s extremism and who are supporting Kerry-Edwards. Against this backdrop, the process of exorcism unfolded in four days of powerful incantations. Day One Had Focused On The Past. Led off by Al Gore, followed by Hillary who introduced both Jimmy Carter and Clinton, Day One was a brilliant success. Gore set the tone reminding the world that he had won the election but lost the presidency. Using his elegantly quietest tone, Carter criticized Bush and the follies of his presidency. Ted Kennedy delivered a scathing attack on Bush for the mismanagement of the war in Iraq, but Clinton delivered one of the best and most damaging assaults on Bush's America yet. I really should have copied you in on an earlier email containing Sidney Blumenthal's eloquent praise for Clinton's massive attack on the president and his failed policies. That said, Day One was easily eclipsed by Day Two. Howard Dean got the loudest, longest and most heart-warming reception yet. He delivered a brilliant speech, but I noticed that he lost both his cadence and his volume at the end, when he launched into his, "You have the power! You have the power!" refrain. He was actually overwhelmed by the enormity of what he had done. He had stood up alone against the Bush administration when all of the other major candidates were whimpering and simpering about the president's need for war powers and the need for his war of aggression against a supine Iraq, but Dean had boldly objected, and he had said loudly and clearly, "No." Dean's voice trailed off and downward through his finale, and he was either overwhelmed by his own emotions or attempting to smother another scream. He was clearly forced to smother something else – any of his well-known and pointed criticisms of George Bush or his putrid war in Iraq. At that point, this began to have the look of a tightly choreographed and highly disciplined convention. At any rate, Dean energized the audience and prepared them to ascend to the next level. You will probably not be surprised that the next level was opened by Barack Obama. What a powerful and magnificent new face to see on the Democratic dais! Obama's sweeping story of his family - Kenyan father and Kansan mother - moved the audience to thrilling new heights. In the course of that elevation, Obama defined his vision of America. While Clinton had driven a stake into the heart of Bush's America, Obama raised the hopes of the world that another America is now being resurrected, and it is already moving decisively toward power. Reeling through a moving series of epiphanies: the father who lost his job who could not afford the $4,500 per month for drugs to keep his son alive; the gifted high school scholar with the will, the drive and the grades to go to college - but not the money - Obama destroyed the Bush-Cheney concept of a red America and a blue America, a black America and a white America, a ghettoized America riven by a labyrinth of pigeon holes and rabbit warrens that divide us into a patchwork of segregated and gated communities, and he revealed a shimmering image of the real America as a tapestry of culture integrated into the fabric of one great nation. Obama impelled the audience to new heights of ecstasy not seen and not felt since Cuomo's moving speech to the convention in 1984(?). A new star was definitely cast into the Democratic firmament. That said, Obama did not directly attack Bush or his outrageous war policies – a pattern was definitely emerging. This convention was about setting out the Democratic vision, and would not be dominated with the deconstruction of the Bush Era. That task had been addressed by the former presidents and Ted Kennedy, and would be addressed by John Kerry himself. After Obama’s eloquent flourish, who could follow? Ron Reagan could, and he did. Eschewing every reference to partisanship, Ron Reagan launched into a mesmerizing accolade for stem cell research. The man can speak, and his genes as well as his successful career in television prepared him for this moment in front of the eyes of the world. Before hearing him, I was only aware of some of the advantages of stem cell research, but his description of its medical applications was virtually amazing. It may lead to breakthroughs in diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, cancer and Parkinsons, as you well know. Reagan ended his essay with a dig at those who would use scientific advancement and stem cell research as a divisive issue for selfishly short-sighted political purposes, and that message was heard and felt all around the world as well as America, I daresay. In effect, Ron Reagan charged that the Bush administration is actually attempting to prevent medical progress from taking place, and in that process they are condemning the sick, the lame and the terminally ill to premature deaths and lifetimes of disease with shattering disabilities. Reagan is now known to be publishing a 4,100 word article in the next edition of Esquire to damn Bush’s policies, and I am sure that you will want to read a copy. From this level, how to follow? Who could follow? Teresa Heinz Kerry, that is whom. As you well know, she has had quite a few critics during this campaign. She was a registered Republican until sometime last year. She has been described by the Rove machine as outspoken, arrogant, aloof and potentially dangerous. There was a brief introductory film - apparently by Shrum - and it was excellent, plucking all the right heartstrings. Her younger son introduced her, and Chris Heinz is a very impressive young man. Thirty something and patrician, he represents the best of the American aristocracy with its indelible and instantly identifiable birthmark - noblesse oblige. His was a highly personal introduction of his mother, as it should have been. He humanized her and opened the gates for her to reinvent herself and her image from the tabloid vampire of the Murdochs. She did so, and she did so with overwhelming credibility. This was the moment that the world had been waiting for, yet we had not known it. It was at this point that the case for a new day in the history of America / 2004 seemed to explode into the collective consciousness. The string of critical news stories about Teresa Heinz Kerry had clearly been driven by Rove-Murdoch. There was nothing in them, for they were now revealed as gross distortions of reality. Teresa Heinz Kerry deserves her place at the head of the table. She is utterly brilliant. Teresa Heinz Kerry's performance was more convincing than anything I have ever seen from the highly impressive Hillary Clinton, and it outshone Hillary’s Day One performance by a billion candlepower. I hate to compare Teresa only to other women, but that is what most commentators will do. She deserves to be compared to John Kerry himself. I regard her as his greatest asset. She is switched on. She is compassionate. She has made a legitimate career for herself and her sons as a philanthropist leading a philanthropic organization. She came from Mozambique, where her father was a medical doctor who worked under the shadow of repression during the dictatorship, and who did not obtain the right to vote until he was 73. She attended university in Johannesburg, where she demonstrated against apartheid. She became a translator, speaking five languages fluently. She addressed the audience in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and when she intoned those beautiful foreign syllables in her lilting accent she elevated the prospects for a new era of American patriotism to a realistic level of expectation - in my judgment - for the very first time. The following day, she was praised universally, and the Guardian said it best, calling her Kerry’s, “Heavy Hitter.” Day One had been devoted to the past. Day Two had been devoted to the future. Day Three Was Present Perfect. Day Three began with the present perfect, with the acceptance speech of John Edwards, and his invocation of what will happen under President Kerry. The most impressive and evocative oration of Day Three was delivered by Rev. Al Sharpton. Sharpton sharpened his razorlike talons on Bush and the Republicans with a scathing assault on their duplicity. He said that Afro-Americans had supported the Republicans after the Civil War, when they had been promised forty acres and a mule. “We never got the forty acres. We never got the mule. After Herbert Hoover, we got on this donkey to see how far it would take us. . . . Under the Democrats we got Civil Rights. Under the Democrats, we got Voting Rights. Under the Democrats, we got the right to organize. . . Our loyalty to the Democratic Party was bought with the blood of martyrs, and it is not for sale.” Sharpton ripped Bush and the Republicans to shreds more effectively than anybody has done to date. In doing so, he set the stage for John Edwards. Edwards delivered his visionary message of the two Americas; one of privilege and one of poverty. He spoke in his classic southern accent, and he spoke with a powerful and a cold determination. For me he finally struck home when he defined his personal vision of the two Americas. He said there was not a Hispanic America, not a Black America not an Asian America. He said that the problem of racial and ethnic discrimination was a major issue that should not be isolated within its respective racial and ethnic communities. Then he asked himself the rhetorical question, where should we be talking about this damaging divisiveness in America, he answered, “Ev-ery-where! Ev-ery-where! Ev-ery-where!” and the convention erupted in jubilation. Edwards had just ascended to the mantle of Clinton as champion of minority rights. From that defining moment, he transformed himself in the eyes of the world, and I thoroughly enjoyed his transformation. Neither did he attack Bush directly, nor did he criticize the war in Iraq in any direct way. He launched an attack against al-Qa’ida, vowing to destroy them which predictably drove the crowd wild just as you would expect. They were so starved of rhetorical red meat by the highly disciplined script of the convention that this relatively tiny morsel was eagerly inhaled with shouts of glee. Edwards has an easy fluency. He is a fine Southern orator, and I am proud of his message of racial equality. He is a strong asset to the ticket, and he will do the yeoman’s task of getting the ethnic vote out and delivering it to the polls. He provides an excellent counterpoint to Kerry’s prosecution of Bush-Cheney. Day Four Was The Class Of The Field. Day Four dawned in the present tense with Kerry’s family, his fast boat crew and Max Cleland setting the stage for the grand finale. Of all of these speakers, Max Cleland is clearly the class of the field. Sitting in his wheel chair, he told the story about his Vietnam experience. It was a revelation. As you know, he left three limbs in Vietnam at the infamous siege of Khe-Sanh. After recovery in a notorious Veterans hospital in Washington, Max was being wheeled in his new chair on the sidewalks near the Nixon White House when he hit a crack in the pavement spilling him out of the chair and onto the cold, hard and filthy concrete gutter. He said that he struggled to right himself from that humiliating incident, and in that moment of chaos, he realized that while he had lost a lot in Vietnam, he still had a lot. At that moment, his mind turned from self-pity to self-belief, and he decided to, “Do something with my life.” He brought Kerry onto the dais with uproarious shouts and cheers of approval. Kerry mounted the podium as the star attraction with the best convention in Democratic history behind him. He hit all the right notes. He intoned all the right things. He ripped into the creed of personal selfishness that is the driving force of the Bush administration. He devastated the misuse of the military. He abominated the imperialistic foreign policy of the pompous cowboy dictator. He lacerated Bush by promising the military that he would never ask them to fight an unjust war, nor would he send them into war without a plan to win the peace. He promised fundamental changes across a broad spectrum. He promised stem cell research to tumultuous cheers. He echoed Obama and Edwards by saying that he rejected the concept of a red America and a blue America, stating that he saw only one America: a red, white and blue America. He delivered his message with a dire conviction. For days before this appearance, his campaign had been playing down the media’s expectations of his speaking ability. As you know, Kerry is regarded as a methodical speaker, rather than an inspiring one. He has a methodical mind, the mind of a prosecutor, not the mind of an orator. Neither is Kerry a poet. He does not speak with the ease and graceful fluency of a Clinton, an Edwards, a Dean or a Sharpton. Kerry speaks from his head first, then his heart. He is a brave, but cautious man. He wants to get the guilty verdict, he does not want to win the headlines. While Clinton has the classical fluency of a seasoned Southern orator, and Edwards has the fire of conviction in his delivery, and Ted Kennedy is a fiery and brutally effective orator, and Sharpton is a mesmerizingly powerful speaker whose attacks are packed with devastating barrages of deadly punch lines, Kerry is none of those things. But, John Kerry has something that none of them have. He has presidential dignity, and he is almost alone in our lifetimes in having that mysterious quality in such copious proportions. On the podium, Kerry is not FDR. He is not JFK. He lacks Carter’s graceful fluency, and he is no Bill Clinton. But, he has a powerful and commanding conviction that elevates him to the level of supreme presidential dignitary in a way that nobody can deny. That his performance brought the house down goes without saying. That it began to move and to bounce the polls, we can have no serious doubt. Less than twelve hours later, a frightened Bush launched a hate-filled 12 minute negative video program on US television. More! Bush appeared on the stump in Missouri to denounce Kerry for his promise to raise taxes on America’s richest, and to denounce him as a political chameleon flip-flopping in time to the latest polls. Bush was at his level best, on Prozac or some other mood-enhancing neuroleptic drug according to the latest reports from Capitol Hill Blue, he is running scared, and he is running hard, and you know that he is running a deeply dirty campaign which will get worse over the next 100 days. I need not tell you that – from this point – we have less than 100 days to end the nightmare of the Bush-Cheney era. Anything can and probably will happen. There is as stark a contrast between the two opposing camps as at any time since 1932 or 1860. Our nation is riven by discord and the battle for our future will determine the course of history for decades if not centuries to come. America will either move ever more decisively toward the fascist imperialism of the Bush Era, or it will pull back from the edge of that ominous cliff. I feel as if our nation is being given one gigantic IQ test with an exam paper with only one question inscribed upon it, “Whom do you prefer for president, George Bush or John Kerry?” At this point, the outcome of that cosmic IQ test is seriously in doubt, but we have only just begun to fight. The exorcism of America’s perennial demons has finally begun. I know that you will stay keenly tuned into these events even though you are far away meandering through the forking pathways and climbing over the curving bridges while meditating in the Zen gardens of the floating world. Yours is the mind of American patriotism par excellence. You will know that the future is rapidly morphing into the present, and we still have an infinity of demons to exorcise before this saga reaches its climax on Mount Doom in Mordor this November - but the king is returning to Camelot, and he needs every hobbit, every dwarf, every elf and every wizard to clear away the illegitimate usurpers who have fouled and despoiled the promises and the ideals that the founding fathers enshrined within our constitutional democracy. Please, keep reminding us of our destiny and hurry back to help me launch this monumental exorcism.
Last Update: 03/23/2006 |
