Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente represent the kind of politics we all need to see in our own countries
“I cant cast a vote but I will feel the consequences” therefore I need to speak my piece.
I read the other day that Toni Morrison will be voting for Obama. A couple of weeks ago it was Alice Walker writing what I described as “driveling bullshit.” and one more example of the mainstreaming of the progressives – Rosa Clemente has a more definitive list here. Obama talks about bringing “fundamental change” but the only fundamental change is his colour and when one looks more closely even his colour is not that fundamental afterall. Obama is intrinsically tied to the mainstream, pro-Zionist war mongering American superstructure. Though disappointing it is not so surprising that so many millions all over the world have been drawn in by Obama who panders to black and white notions of a “post racial” America and world. An imaginary world of convenience particularly for the millions of white people who will vote him into the White House.
These are not truths. Nor do I think it is an accident that the first Black president of the USA will be a Black man who is not historically tied to slavery and the Black American experience. Facts like these are what makes the Obama’s presidency so dangerous because the establishment will use his Blackness to press the notion of a post racial society, of a fairer society, a more just society – all of which are big white lies. He will be held up as a pure example of the lie that is called the American dream along with Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell at the expense of the people in most need. This is already happening as we watch the so called progressives launch a double edged sword of complicity by jumping on the cultist bandwagon of unquestioning worship along with the likes of Powell and Hitchins. Whilst on the other hand silencing the voices of two women of colour who represent the real fundamental change.
A couple of days ago I wrote about the need to put people, all people before profit – Obama will not even come near to meeting that need. What will Obama do for the DRC – will he be calling for the prosecution of corporations buying the “blood soaked” minerals? Obama supported the bail out of the Wall Street gamblers and thieves. He like all the other candidates and Western politicians conveniently avoid making any connection between the financial crisis, increasing global hunger and the trillions of dollars being spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We in the UK have already experienced new young “guns” in Tony Blair and look how that ended – 10 years of lies. Obama no more speaks the truth than the fraudulent New Labour of Tony Blair or Gordon Brown.
Real change comes from a much deeper set of transformational ideas about how we live and share this world with other people, with animals, wildlife and everything that makes up the ecology system which we are fast destroying. Amee Chew explains
The Green Party Presidential ticket of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente brings something special and unprecedented to U.S. politics. Not only are they the first all women-of-color ticket for President and Vice President with ballot access in most states. These women take racial justice seriously, and have made strides to put gender at the center of a progressive agenda. For these two, it’s more than skin deep.
They’re the Presidential ticket that talks about amnesty for undocumented workers, that opposes guest worker programs as riddled with abuses, because they believe a just immigration reform means addressing the trade and economic policies fueling poverty and migration. They’re the ticket that demands reparations in the form of federal investment in low-income families and communities of color, to end racial disparities in health, housing, education, and incarceration. They call for the right of return for Katrina survivors; an end to prisons for profit, to the War on Drugs. And they speak of reproductive justice – not just the right to abortion, but actual healthcare access; of freedom from coerced or uninformed medication and sterilization.
McKinney and Clemente do not expect to win on Tuesday. Building a movement takes time but it can and will be built along with movements in other parts of the world. Nonetheless I dont support Amee Chew’s suggestion to “support Obama vote McKinney. The time is always right – you cannot delay a struggle which has to begin sometime so why not now. To quote Che “To triumph one must fire the opening shot. And the moment for that has arrived” (My Campaign with Che – Inti Peredo)
In the words of McKinney herself: “We are in this to build a movement. We are willing to struggle for as long as it takes to have our values prevail in public policy.” She reminds us, “Voters in this country are scared into not voting their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations. But in Bolivia and Ecuador and Argentina and Chile and Nicaragua and Spain, and India and Cote d’Ivoire and Haiti, voters were not afraid to vote their hopes and dreams, and guess what. Their dreams came true. Ours can, too.”
The way this campaign has been played out and the failure of the mainstream and progressive media in the US to give any space to McKinney & Clemente is disgraceful. Yet their omission of two women of colour at the expense of the cult like adulation of a man of colour is telling and here lies the truth. This is not about democracy and allowing people to make a choice based on all the candidates not just the chosen two (or four if you want to include their comically stupid side kicks).
The defining moment in American politics is yet to come – a vote for a new political movement as envisaged by McKinney & Clemente will ensure the foundations of this moment begin in the next few days.
Links:
Marians Blog
Freedom Rider
Kameelah Writes
La Alma de Fuego…
Global Women’s Strike
Abahlali – We are the third force
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Norm Chomsky
Technorati: Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente US ElectionsBarack Obama
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This was made by my comrades, after while Rosa was at the RNC. We spent quite a bit of time with Rosa, and had an impact on her. We were planning a tour of Brazil, to speak to the Black Socialist Movement. She is running for office in New York instead.
I also like Nader. The difference is that McKinney broadens the discussion beyond “anticorporate.”
I will add the links soon. Blogrolling was hacked, and they are fixing it now. I made a list of blogs to add,
Regards.
Renegade Eyes last blog post..Venezuela: New Clashes Between Revolution and Counter-Revolution are Being Prepared
I’m voting for Nader-Gonzalez, but as a member of the Green Party, I obviously have great sympathy both for McKinney-Clemente and for what you’re saying in this essay. I think the ‘mainstreaming of progressives’ that you describe is instructive. It’s also why conservativism in the US has dominated for the last 30 years. Conservatives expect their candidates be conservative. Progressives will support any half-baked slightly left-of-center candidate no matter how much he runs away from the very positions progressives claim to care about.
Republicans who support militarism (Ron Paul, for example) don’t get close to being nominated. Do Democratic voters who claim to be pro-peace hold their candidates to the same standard? No. They rally four square before John Kerry who supported the Iraq Aggression. They go crazy for Obama who supports a withdrawal from Iraq so he can escalate Afghanistan and bomb Pakistan! I’m not talking about generic Democratic voters, but one who swear up and down they are anti-war. So are they really anti-war or anti-this-particular-war-in-Mesopatamia?
Republicans who mildly question corporatism (Huckabee, for example) don’t get nominated. Many Democrats claim to hate this corporate-government alliance but they fanatically rally behind the pro-corporate Obama, who’s taken almost 50 percent more from Wall St. than even the Republican McCain!
These well-intentioned but misguided liberals are so blinded by their hatred of Bush and the far right that they throw all their beliefs out the window on general election day. I understand Obama will be less of a disaster than McCain.
But I’ve heard well-intentioned, intelligent people swear up and down that Obama will be a transformational candidate.
On what basis?
Because he’ll offer a kinder, gentler form of neo-imperialism where international aggression and other forms bullying will be ‘multilateral’?
Because he gives nice speeches on generic, saccharine topics like unity?
What I want to know is unity toward what end?
Unity isn’t an end in itself.
The suffragettes were agents of disunity. So were Dr. King and his allies. So were abolitionists. So were activists for sane labor standards. So are gay rights’ activists.
Obama is the best candidate the Democrats have nominated in 25 years. And that’s exactly why the party is no longer of any value to progressives.
Brians last blog post..What plays well in Alabama doesn’t work in Vermont
McKinney and Clemente won’t be bring any change because they won’t be in power to do so; anything else that flows from there is irrelevant.
If they’re running to build a movement, that’s fine; but somebody is going to have to be president, and opposing the person that will lean in a better direction, therefore giving the election to someone who has not the slightest interest in trying; but will further deregulating, increasing the power of corporations, and continue devolving the power and wealth of the average citizen; makes little sense.
I haven’t seen Obama pander to a post racial notion, it’s others who’ve said that about his potential presidency. I wrote a piece about that which you may have read back in January. If Mckinney were elected president she’d be pointed to the same way as being proof we’re in a post-racial society, by those who want to push that ideal.
The main thing that will allow for fundamental change in America will be when the chains of the two-party systems are broken. That has to come from an across the board grassroots call of a wide swath of Americans demanding it;nnot from one group from one ideological bent (i.e. the green party). Individual third parties can keep getting on the ballots of the Two-party system’s elections as a pacification and appeasement jester of multi-party opportunity; but until people want to reach across ideology to create a movement of a critical mass of Americans to break up the Two-party system all together; it’ll be an irrelevant exercise in futility.
The time for CHANGE is NOW. 4 years from now we will be hearing the SAME BS as to WHY we can’t vote 3rd. This stranglehold needs to break and it needs to break NOW. McKinney ‘08, for all the RIGHT reasons.
Brian@ I agree with you that Obama is the best candidate the US has seen in a very long time – which in itself is damn sad and tells me a lot about what values are valued in the US.
But one ought to be able to make critiicsms without the constant refrain that he is the only option – he might well be but he is still accountable and there are many many questions that need to be answered. I dont hear his supporters asking anything!
Yobachi @ Of course someone has to be President and if you read this piece I state that Mckinney is not aiming to be that person at this moment. Voting for Mckinney is not a vote for McCain – that is always the mantra against voting for 3rd party candidates and one reason why they can never get the votes they need to make a difference. If you read Amee’s piece she advocates voting to get McKinney’s 5% by voting for her in the states where Obama has an overwhelming majority. Nonetheless I don’t accept your point that a vote for her is one for McCain.
By largely ignoring race and it’s impact on the country right now – he is pandering to the idea that America has / is moving to a post racial society.
I agree with you on the two party system – but if people cannot vote for the 3rd party for fear of giving the Presidency to the wrong person then it will never happen which speaks to my earlier point. Building a grassroots movement is exactly what McKinney / Clemente are trying to do and up to other ideological positions to do the same. You cannot criticse McKinney on for doing that just because you do not agree with her party’s ideology.
Sorry but I dont understand your final sentence?
Sokari, he hasn’t ignored race; he just hasn’t addressed it in the ways that the ideologues who are satisfied with running a losing campaign want him to. He’s running for president, not to make a point. McKinney is doing that.
Secondly, again, you can push your particular third party all day and it will go NO WHERE in a two-party system.
Your statement that [it's] “up to other ideological positions to do the same”, demonstrates that there is more of an interest of pushing one ideology, then having a multi-party system where everyone can play. I’m confident that the two party system is not going to allow a third party to join the game. Get to your five percent, and the two partys will make new rules to block them out. The two party’s run the system (They have all but 1 of the 500+ law makers).
Creat a mass movement for a multi-party system, then the playing field is open for all. But here in lies why I don’t pay the Green Party much attention. It is just a self-interested party that’s just mad that they’re not the republicans or the democrats; not one that actually wants another system. They just want to be in charge of this same one.
Everyone here is free to vote as they will. I don’t begrude anyone who votes for McKinney, just as I’ve never excepted that Gore lost because of Nadar; nonetheless I vote with sober mind and have simply not been swayed by McKinney or the Green Party as to why I should vote for them.
Yobachi @ I have to disagree on the race issue – exactly my point – if you are running for president in America dont mention race cause white people and some black people dont want to be reminded of the R issue. I dont see that as healthy or constructive.
Of course I have an ideological position so do you as an Obama supporter, so do McCain supporters. We all have but that doesnt mean that I am less in support of a multi-party system. On the contrary as a minority point of view I have far more to gain from such a system than those with a mainstream vote.
A mass movement for a multi-party system is one thing and I would advocate that but this should not be confused with a mass movement for an ideological position.
I am disappointed you can make the statement about the Green Party being led by self interest etc etc. whilst Obama is pure lacking any self-interest and only working in the interest of humanity etc etc?
Your final sentence – agreed. You vote for who you believe to be right for you and your fellow citizens. I am not persuaded by Obama but then I AM persuaded by Morales, Aristide, Chavez and Castro so it’s not surprising Obama fails to impress me. Nonetheless I would love to be proved wrong and discover that he does shy away from warmongering, stand up to Zionsim, Wall St & Corporate greed, designate New Orleans a priority reconstruction zone for the PEOPLE and rebuild their homes by this time next year to name just a few.
Sokari: I didn’t say he was the best candidate the US has produced in a long time. I said he was the best candidate the Democrats have produced in a long time. An important distinction.
You are absolutely correct to chastise left-of-center American voters for asking nothing and expecting nothing of the candidate they vote for.
**
Yobachi: It’s condescending to say that Greens are ‘mad’ that they’re not Republicans or Democrats. I voluntarily chose to leave the Democrats to join the Greens. How can I be better about a decision I made of my own free will and could easily reverse if I was that bothered by it? To suggest that people join smaller parties out of some inferiority complex is pompous self-deception.
How exactly is the Green Party ’self-interested’? At least any more than any other party? Is that the purpose of a political party: for a group of similarly-minded people to advance a common agenda? As a member of the party, I acknowledge that the Greens have many flaws that hinder its efficacity. But I also feel it’s the only real hope we have of countering the corporate governance that’s hijacked American democracy.
Yobachi, you speak of support to ‘ creat[e] mass movement for a multi-party system.’ But how exactly does that happen? Does it miraculously appear out of thin air? It will never happen until large numbers of Americans perceive that smaller parties are viable in some way. And it won’t happen until smaller parties start getting more votes. In order for that to happen, it requires people like me and Sokari to vote for them even though we know they may not win this particular election because we’re hoping to build viability and influence for the future.
It is not a decision taken cavalierly or casually, contrary to your implication. I realize that voting for Nader may not make the change I want. But I KNOW that voting for Obama will not make the change I want. That’s my SOBER analysis.
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I have been voting for Presidents since 1976, always voting for the lesser of 2 evils. I voted for Cynthia this election. I voted early, in Florida. It felt SOOOO good to vote for someone that actually shares so many of the beliefs that I do. I am proud to be voting Green. The final decision to go Green was made when Obama, who is a Harvard trained constitutional lawyer, voted AGAINST the 4th amendment in the FISA vote. Shortly after that I saw a video of Cynthia in Congress going up against Donald Rumsfeld in a hearing. That was it, I looked up the Green party platform. It was like looking at a list of things I believe in.
I love when someone calls me a loser because I voted Green, or asks why I “waste” my vote. They usually aren’t prepared for my explanation.
Paul W.
Brian @ I am just amazed that we actually agree on something
Yobachi @ reading your comment again I have to say it is very disingenuous and by that I mean cynical and misinformed and not what I would have expected.
Wow, I let you have the last word, and you come back with another blast.
My comment was very intelligent, while you argued with red herrings that I was willing to let go.
Nontheless, I don’t have to argue with sour grapes. You can just call Obama, Mr. President.
Let’s just say I’m not surprised by this type of personal assailing by a Green Party supporter. It’s typical. Just like Obama said about Nadars blast of him; Green Party people tend to think that they’re the only ones who are right. And look, they got nothing tonight. Their stark partisanship isn’t selling.
Yobachis last blog post..Video Of Predident-Elect Obama’s Victory Speech (and McCain’s Consession)
Brain, I simply did not say that people in the Green party wish that they were in the Dem or Rep parties, because of course anyone can go join them. I said the party is mad that it doesn’t have those party’s position.
This discussion, starting with the post itself (claiming that all Obama support is the result of “cultist bandwagon of unquestioning worship”), is rank with the notion that the rest of us are some how dumb and delusional because we don’t join up with your party as the mechanism for changing things; or believe in your way as the way. That’s the condescension!
I said everyone can vote for who they want to. I didn’t call anyone “fanatical” and delusional like you all do; just because they feel another approach to the same end is right.
In short answer to your question, as I noted already, the political system is a two party system. Simply voting for other parties for the presidency trying to get a 5% that the two partys have delegated, with no legislative base; and with the fact that the legislature can change the rules whenever they get ready to block a rising party; is not realistic to me.
I cannot at this moment disertate in detail the mechanism of creating a multi party system, but it will only come when there is an across the board (or at least critical mass) movement that forces legislative rule changes that opens up the system, in my mind.
But keep telling us that we all simply “fanatically rally” behind who we choose to vote for, and that’s it – that every person who doesn’t vote your way is that simple. That approach has worked so well for three elections – opps, no it hasn’t; your party has decreased in support every election. Hmmm?
Yobachis last blog post..Video Of Predident-Elect Obama’s Victory Speech (and McCain’s Consession)
Yobachi @ I am am African woman and as such I do not have a problem with calling an African man Mr President of the US – People take political positions with what they believe – certainly its not personal- Again I find your tone disappointing and unnecessary in the circumstances. Discuss on issues this is not a football game!