Posted inPolitics: National

Not like Ike

The nut baggers are right. Socialism has come to America. It is here, now. The government owns the "commanding heights" of this economy, as is the case in classic socialist doctrine. Citizens of this American socialism get free medical care, housing, food, clothing, even travel. They have abundant educational opportunities, including college. It promises and actually delivers both diversity and social mobility. It also has elements of fascism, just as the nut baggers have warned in their rallies attended by hundreds: The socialism has a heavy corporate component, with giant companies moving in lockstep with the regime's demands yet also holding strong political sway within the regime. In exchange for its benefits, members of the society give up certain freedoms — yet they keep joining enthusiastically.

I'm writing about the military, of course, and not just to show the absurdity of the nut baggers' claims. In a nation where six people are chasing every job, where college is increasingly out of reach, the only advanced nation in the world where people go without health insurance — in today's America, the military is often the only option open. It made news last month when a man who couldn't get insurance joined the Army so his cancer-stricken wife could get help. (When I Googled "joined Army to get health care," the second and third hits out of 53 million were Army recruiting sites). Military recruiters have more than met their targets — ones raised for the Army — since the economic meltdown. Even with the danger of war, many Americans just don't see another way.

Elements of this have long happened. There's the classic case of the directionless kid from high school who joins the military — sometimes under a parent or even judge's threat — and becomes an adult. I went to high school with young men who joined up, served honorably and succeeded as civilians — I doubt most of them ever would have chosen the military as a first option. And we honor their service. But the Great Disruption's first act — the crash and its resulting unemployment, combined with two wars seemingly without end — is creating something new. New and unsettling.

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Posted inPolitics: National

A fear blankets the land

For the past two years, I’ve heard people say something new. Something new and troubling and chilling. They say in conversations, "For the first time in my life, I’m afraid for our country."

For the most part these aren’t partisans or even particularly political people. They are intelligent, engaged, worldly, successful in their own fields and, usually, of a certain age. Old enough to remember the nation that America once was, not so long ago. They read. They’re not talking about government terror alerts or that taxes might go up on the richest 1 percent of Americans. The statement comes up without prompting or coaching, and the words are almost always the same: "For the first time in my life, I’m afraid for our country."

In Republican John Sidney McCain III’s "home town" of Phoenix last week, I talked to people who are so upset about this election, they can hardly do their work. So upset that enough Americans will be misled by the Fox News echo chamber, passively being fed propaganda — won’t vote, under any circumstances, for a black man. Again, I hear this not from Obama campaign ops, but just intelligent people who have been paying attention.

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Posted inPolitics: National

‘Support the troops.’ What does that mean?

One of the most fascinating changes in my lifetime has been the militarization of America. It’s not just the rise of the national security state with the Cold War, extended vastly by the so-called war on terror. It’s not just the Military-Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned against, where profits drive policy, often to disastrous ends. It’s not even the necessary burdens of being a superpower, or, if we’re not careful, an imperial power.

It’s the whole "support the troops" religion that has grown up. In fact, Americans were historically suspicious of a large standing army. Support the troops? Newly commissioned, young U.S. Grant was heckled and ridiculed when he came home from West Point. It made him forever shy away from gaudy uniforms. World War II was fought by citizen-soldiers who wanted to get the job done and come home. Architects of the post-war world sought collective security with diplomacy and strength. Americans had been oppressed by a king with hired troops. They knew from ancient history that permanently militarized republics eventually became centralized tyrannies.

Do we even think about these things as we "support the troops"?

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