The tributes have been coming from all corners of the conquering world for the late Edward M. Kennedy. The oft-noted moniker is Liberal Lion, Champion for the working class, Health Care Reformer. Defender of Children. I do not know what this must mean when I look at my country and an institution like The Kennedys.
The political structure aside for a moment, the slashing of social services of every kind, education cuts (ironic in the face of rising teacher expectations), single-payer health system (hotly debated), rising war funding (no debate there) have to speak to our national morality, or lack thereof.
Because a parent who was shown to treat his/her family like this would be locked away by the police and an intervention by Child Protective Services. This should be enough, but I know it is not, to understand why that demonized concoction called Al Quaeda does not want the West in the Middle East and why it refuses to honor our "Way of Life."
In structural terms, the United States of America is the only Western democracy [sic] without a viable political party for the working class. Instead, we have the Democrats, and we have the Republicans, two parties, as the Obama campaign showed, are largely funded by the ruling elite of this country.
Oh, yes, and we have The Kennedys.
Democrat or Republican, what we are left with in the country is to wait for our ruling elite to decide to act before action is taken. If the ruling elite want the "Internationale" to replace our national anthem, we will see flurries of news stories and features on this leading up to a seamless "democratic" process of their flunkies voting for it.
I am afraid to say that is what the two-party machine is in the US: a computer program controlled by the ruling elite. Top-down structure. The downs carry the placards printed by the tops.
Kennedy was, of course, a Democrat. His family was as close to ruling class as the average American is allowed to know. More over, he came from a family the popular culture has bestowed by divine right political ability: so at 30 he becomes a US senator. This is really funny since more than a few of that generation admonished a civil justice system for affirmatively promoting women and racial minorities, and securing their access to higher education, but who were suspected of being "unqualified."
Not The Kennedys!
In this moral swamp, I found myself asking had we a broader political class - like Europe with its working class political parties, some in power, some not, some having identity crises - where would this Liberal Lion's allegiance lay. This is not a meaningless exercise: we must know, soberly, who our allies are and what our agenda as progressives is.
Kennedy is a mystery. I noted looking over photo spreads of his "life" how easily we can make someone like Kennedy appear on the "right" side of anything.
His late brother, Robert, for example, is the darling of the liberal left, but how does his rabid anticommunism, early and key support of Vietnam invasions, and his campaigns to assassinate Fidel Castro and sabotage the Cuban Revolution by coordinating subversion play? We hear nothing about that, do we?
The Kennedy glow is too bright.
Making Kennedy a Champion of the Working Class, a Liberal Lion has set our national bar very, very low. So even to get a bit above it still puts the US in a pretty pathetic place in regards to its Western neighbors. Yes, FOX news gets its dander up when we seem to inch toward that low-hanging fruit.
For more info: LA Times coverage * BBC coverage
The political structure aside for a moment, the slashing of social services of every kind, education cuts (ironic in the face of rising teacher expectations), single-payer health system (hotly debated), rising war funding (no debate there) have to speak to our national morality, or lack thereof.
Because a parent who was shown to treat his/her family like this would be locked away by the police and an intervention by Child Protective Services. This should be enough, but I know it is not, to understand why that demonized concoction called Al Quaeda does not want the West in the Middle East and why it refuses to honor our "Way of Life."
In structural terms, the United States of America is the only Western democracy [sic] without a viable political party for the working class. Instead, we have the Democrats, and we have the Republicans, two parties, as the Obama campaign showed, are largely funded by the ruling elite of this country.
Oh, yes, and we have The Kennedys.
Democrat or Republican, what we are left with in the country is to wait for our ruling elite to decide to act before action is taken. If the ruling elite want the "Internationale" to replace our national anthem, we will see flurries of news stories and features on this leading up to a seamless "democratic" process of their flunkies voting for it.
I am afraid to say that is what the two-party machine is in the US: a computer program controlled by the ruling elite. Top-down structure. The downs carry the placards printed by the tops.
Kennedy was, of course, a Democrat. His family was as close to ruling class as the average American is allowed to know. More over, he came from a family the popular culture has bestowed by divine right political ability: so at 30 he becomes a US senator. This is really funny since more than a few of that generation admonished a civil justice system for affirmatively promoting women and racial minorities, and securing their access to higher education, but who were suspected of being "unqualified."
Not The Kennedys!
In this moral swamp, I found myself asking had we a broader political class - like Europe with its working class political parties, some in power, some not, some having identity crises - where would this Liberal Lion's allegiance lay. This is not a meaningless exercise: we must know, soberly, who our allies are and what our agenda as progressives is.
Kennedy is a mystery. I noted looking over photo spreads of his "life" how easily we can make someone like Kennedy appear on the "right" side of anything.
His late brother, Robert, for example, is the darling of the liberal left, but how does his rabid anticommunism, early and key support of Vietnam invasions, and his campaigns to assassinate Fidel Castro and sabotage the Cuban Revolution by coordinating subversion play? We hear nothing about that, do we?
The Kennedy glow is too bright.
Making Kennedy a Champion of the Working Class, a Liberal Lion has set our national bar very, very low. So even to get a bit above it still puts the US in a pretty pathetic place in regards to its Western neighbors. Yes, FOX news gets its dander up when we seem to inch toward that low-hanging fruit.
For more info: LA Times coverage * BBC coverage
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