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... are that corporations have taken control of what little passes for policy-making in the Bush administration, and because Bush encouraged them by putting so many corporate reps in important positions in government. After all, imperial and fascist tendencies have their origins in the desires of the elite to make even more money without regard for the consequences.
Kerry has no choice but to distance himself from corporate influence in order to prevent the government from operating pretty much as it has in the past two decades, independently of whatever he believes. If he believes that he can somehow be for the ordinary person and for corporate interests, too, he's already deluding himself. If he obtains office, there will be debts to be paid, just as almost every other politician has discovered in the past two or three decades.
Kerry believes he needs to be "strong on defense," but that invariably is code for "the military-industrial complex continues as usual." If the rest of world believes Kerry won't change the most fundamental of America's problems because he's beholden to the fat cats in our society, or to the Saudis, because they have oil, he won't change the situation internationally.
He has to say that imperialistic actions, such as "pre-emptive war," will bankrupt us, morally and literally, and he has to say that the US has been corrupted by false patriotism and imperial ambitions.
That he has to say that without alienating the fence-sitters is the political trick of the day. Can he do it? I don't know. If he can propose a workable plan to extricate the country from Iraq without prompting a protracted civil or religious war there, he'll get international support, and maybe enough domestic support to win. But, he can't continue to say that his vote to effectively allow Bush to wage war without oversight was misused by Bush. He has to say, flat-out, that he didn't anticipate the damage Bush would cause, that his vote was wrong, and that Congress must retake its Constitutional role regarding war-making powers.
He has to, in effect, before the election, begin to deny and disabuse the Presidential powers Bush has accreted to himself. Kerry has to say, specifically, that he will rescind all the executive orders which have given Bush too much power, that he will work to rescind the PATRIOT ACT and start over with Constitutional rights clearly in mind, that he will spend his first year undoing the damage Bush has created, domestically and internationally.
And yet, I don't think he will do any of those things. It's a sad fact of American life today that no one rises to the position of president without acquiring considerable baggage. Will I vote for him to get the Republican neo-cons out of office? Yes, of course. But, I won't think the problem solved simply because a conservative Democrat is running things.
The rest of the world will think that way, too.
Cheers.
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