US Presidential Elections: Past Vs Future
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By Franklin Otorofani, Esquire
02.03.08
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The United
States of America (USA)—a nation that is indulgently and exuberantly referred to
by her ultra patriotic citizens as “God’s own country,” has witnessed several
historical epochs in her over 300 years of existence as a sovereign independent
nation not otherwise answerable to the British Monarchy as an imperial outpost
nestled in the Northern fringes of the so-called “New World.”
From colonial to civil war; civil war to civil rights; civil rights to WWI; WWI
to Korean War; Korean War to WWII; WWII to cold war; cold war to Operation
Desert Storm (OPS); OPS Iraqi war; Iraqi war to war on terror: war on terror to
what’s next?
The list is endless. The history of the United States is riddled with epochs.
The birth of the country itself is the very definition of an epoch, not only for
the young nation herself, but for all freedom loving peoples all over the world,
who were still struggling to shake off the yokes of colonial bondage. America’s
declaration of independence from Britain dealt a fatal blow to the hitherto
impregnable British Empire from which it has not recovered to today. The
Tsunamic political tidal wave generated by America’s Independence Declaration
under General George Washington and its ultimate consummation in the forging of
the new union of independent states into a Federation of thirteen original
states created reverberated all over the world, especially in British colonies
and dependencies.
It was the beginning of the end of the British Empire. The crumbling of the
British Empire, however, meant the shrinking of British power, and the
ascendancy of American power. Today, Britain, the once powerful colonial master,
lives in the long shadows of her once colonial servant and British Prime
Ministers now worship at Court of US Presidents in Washington, DC. The reader
must have heard Prime Minister, Tony Blair derogatorily referred to as President
Bush’s “lapdog.” It shows just how low and inconsequential Downing Street has
fallen in relation to Pennsylvania Avenue. When a parasitic and marauding empire
is suddenly cut off from her colonies and dependencies it is left with its own
shell. That is Britain of today—a once mighty empire reduced to a territorial
midget still fighting to keep her grip on Island that is on her way to
independence.
Sooner rather than later Britain will recoil into her hollow shell as her former
colonies and dependencies gradually overtake her just like the US. Hong Kong,
India, Canada, Australia, have all followed the US route to knock off Imperial
Britain. And the United States in particular has taken the place of Britain as
though she is the heir apparent to the British Imperial Crown.
Love or hate her, there is no denying the fact that the United States has become
a beacon of freedom and liberty to the rest of the world. While some may agonize
over her methodology in particular cases, which is more or less dictated
sometimes by political expediency and pragmatism, it cannot be gainsaid that, on
the whole, the United States has remained faithful to her founding ideals in
projecting and expanding, or at least, seeking to expand the frontiers of
freedom and liberty to all peoples and in all places. She might not have
succeeded in each and every single case, but at least, she tries to be true to
its founding ideals.
Never mind that the current White House Occupant-in-Chief has chipped away at
the legal and constitutional foundations of the freedom and liberty upon which
the country was built; all in the name war on terror. Never mind that the
country has been caught pants down hobnobbing with dictators and dictatorial
states and all over the world. There are trade offs in international relations
and any one state could push her foreign policy only so far. After all, states
are supposed to be independent entities in international law and the US cannot hope
to impose her own ideals on unwilling states. We are seeing the limits of such
approach in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The important thing to take away is that America has not abandoned her true
beginnings even if there are particular instances of deviation. How many
countries still remember their founding ideals 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years after
their independence not to talk of 300 years afterwards? Does Nigeria, my
country, for instance, still remember her founding ideals 47 years after
independence? Nigeria’s founding ideals are now in the past tense if anyone
remembers them whereas the United States actively keeps her founding ideals in
the present and future tenses and in the front burner of national discourse.
Today, quite regrettably, the ideals of egalitarianism, justice, and equity that
our founding fathers espoused at Nigeria’s independence, have been wantonly
replaced with an obnoxious corrosive broth of tribalism and self-serving
politics. Unlike the United States, Nigeria today has no driving force that
propels her to attain greater heights but lurches on blindly like a rudderless
ship lost at sea!
And if the reader thinks that this is an invalid assertion, I have a question:
Question # 1:
Has anybody heard of a Nigerian presidential candidate talking about the
attainment of the founding ideals of the Nigerian nation? Let’s be honest here.
No! right? They don’t talk about the nation’s founding ideals but about zoning
and oil revenue sharing formulas and that’s when they’re not hatching rigging
plots to undermine the integrity of the electoral process. Buhari, for instance,
devoted his entire campaign time to complaints and alarms about rigging with no
word about Nigeria’s place in the future among the comity of nations. And
certainly no word about the grand visions that animated our founding fathers to
wrestle independence from the British. All of that has been left behind to
politics of self for the self and by the self and nothing about the nation and
her place in the world.
On his part, Atiku made INEC his weeping boy throughout the campaign; again no
word about Nigeria’s future in the comity of nations; no grand visions; no
inspiration, but bile and politics of bitterness. Of the major candidates, only
Yar’Adua offered some semblance of vision on a consistent basis during the
electioneering campaigns while the rest of the pack was busy crying wolf. Never
mind that President Yar’Adua has not exactly matched words with action thus far.
That he talks about Vision 2020 at all is reassuring enough. It shows he is
thinking about it seriously enough to vocalize it ever so often in public.
Question #2:
How many Nigerians know about the founding ideals of the nation? How many of
them have heard from our leaders or someone else about the grand visions our
founding father had for the nation during their independence struggle? How many?
I didn’t see any hands up there, folks! Do I take it then that no one has heard
about the nation’s founding ideals? Oh, wait a minute! I see one hand up over
here and another one over there. One, two, three, four, and five! That’s it?
Just five hands up in a country of 150 million citizens? What a shame! Go read
the old national anthem! “One nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.”
Is anyone out there in the maddening crowd pursuing these ideals in Nigeria
today? Where is the peace? Where is the freedom? And where is the unity? Is
unity in the Federal Capital City, Abuja or where? And where is the freedom? Is
it in the police dungeons or in our overcrowded prisons? Peace? Where is that in
Nigeria? Is it in the Niger Delta creeks or in Kano or Kaduna where religious
fundamentalists unleash mayhem? Or is it up there in Plateau, Oyo, Ekiti or
River State? Where are these ideals being watered in Nigeria and who is
promoting them? The answer is no one!
On the contrary, the United States is constantly and unwaveringly driven by her
founding ideals. These founding ideals act as the ultimate elixir that animates,
reinvigorates, and renews the spirits of the citizens, leaders and followers
alike. We hear them when electoral candidates are debating publicly and/or
making campaign pitches all over the country. We hear them when public
commentators and television anchor men and women echo them, time and time again.
We hear them in talk-shows and in classrooms and feel them reverberating
throughout the length and breadth of the nation such that even the unborn child
in her mother’s womb already knows what America’s founding ideals are when it
hits the ground running to make the United States even greater amongst the
comity of nations. Oh, what a wonderful nation: a nation that continually
re-invents her like the molting reptile.
In other words, the United States draws inspiration from her past to create her
future. And to that end a presidential system of government is put in place to
renew her leadership periodically, which, since Watergate, has been abridged to
a maximum of two terms for a total of eight years for a sitting president. It
could be less but no more. This constitutional limitation ensures that a
constitutional monarchy. as in Britain or India, for example, is not
surreptitiously introduced through the back door in the republic.
National renewal dictates that the past is kept in the past and the focus on the
future as it beckons on the nation. This means that no matter how rosy the past
might have been a new leader must not be seen to overtly feel nostalgic about
the past produced by another past leader. Instead, the American society demands
that its new leadership must enact another glorious future rather than hacking
back to her glorious past. In other words, a presidential or gubernatorial
candidate in the United States must never be heard crying over spilt milk that
was produced in the past by a past leader. Rather, he should be heard telling
the people how he intends to produce better milk than the already spilt milk.
Americans are futuristic people who are always looking forward to a greater
future than the past or present one. A leader that offers them such a
promise—wholeheartedly—is their man or woman.
It is within this theoretical construct that I seek to examine the upcoming
presidential elections in the United States. At the moment the ongoing
primaries’ results have thinned down the unweldy hordes of presidential wannabes
to manageable proportions. Right now it looks pretty certain the field is clear
for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on a head to head collision for the
Democratic ticket and veteran Senator John McCain and former Massachussets
Governor Romney on the Republican side.
And the choices for both parties couldn’t be starker on several levels. John
McCain represents the past philosophically and ideologically at both personal
and partisan levels with a smattering of rattling idiosyncrasies which have
weakened his candidacy in his party base. However, that he is pro-choice and
pro-immigration—both of which are anathema to his Republican base, is no reason
not to dismiss Senator McCain as an establishment man. If anything his hawkish
approach to the war in Iraq and his general militaristic predisposition
effectively make him a die-in wool establishment politician whose election would
only push the United States on her present path to international pariah-hood.
Throughout his campaign stumps, Senator McCain has not offered any new
refreshing ideas or inspiration that are significantly different from the ones
being currently pursued by President George Bush.
Like President Bush all he offers to the American people is scare mongering and
how to defeat terror, just like ex-Mayor Guliani who has just crashed out of the
nomination process after making himself a one-issue candidate—911! Guliani’s
disastrous outing speaks to the American predilection to putting the past behind
them and embracing the future with both hands. New York Major Gulliani sought to
exploit the tragedy and ride on the back of the dead victims of 911 to the White
House. Americans rejected him as a phony balloon and promptly deflated it in no
time! He crashed with a big thud in the Florida primary into which basket he put
all his electoral eggs.
Senator McCain is Major Gulliani’s ideological soul-mate. It’s no wonder
therefore, that Gulliani promptly endorsed him after crashing out of the race. A
vote for McCain therefore, is a vote for the past but certainly not for the
future. While Americans who are scarred to their marrows by terror might
gravitate towards McCain because of his militaristic background and ideological
persuasion, any one who seriously wants to see a different America that would
play her leadership role and as the big dreamer, with grand ideas that would
radiate hope and joy throughout the globe, would certainly not waste his/her
vote on a backward looking traditional politician like Senator John McCain, his
sometimes maverick posturing notwithstanding.
The bottom-line is that McCain represents the status quo and no radical changes
can be expected from him to the extant policies of the Bush administration that
have brought so much pains and suffering not only to the world at large but to
the United States in particular. McCain in the White House would be more of the
same and that would be frightening prospects for the forward looking Americans.
Therefore, if the choice comes down to between McCain and Romney on the
Republican side, America should run with the more futuristic debonair Romney and
leave McCain in the political archive where he rightly belongs. He can be rest
assured no other candidate in the field will contest his archival position with
him with the exit of Fred Thompson.
On the Democratic side, the choice is even starker. To be sure both senators
Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton represent change in and of themselves, without
more. Hillary in the White House would be an epoch-making event in that she
would be the first woman President in the history of the United States—a trail
already blazed in Europe, Asia and Africa. Despite the preachments and
platitudes of her leaders about women empowerment, the United States is
fundamentally a chauvinistic patriarchal society; which has “Glass Ceiling” for
woman beyond which they would not go both in corporate and national leadership.
And it is such a shame and hypocritial for a country that preaches about gender
equality to others. There is still discrimination against women in the American
society at various levels, the apparent progress of women notwithstanding. Old
habits, they say, die hard and discrimination against women is live and well in
the US.
If this presidential election were all about gender empowerment, Hillary would
be the candidate to beat. Fortunately, the US presidential election is not about
women empowerment. It’s not about civil rights movement either. It’s about
America’s future role in the world; about how to inspire the present and next
generation of Americans to dream bigger dreams and lift her up from her present
state of inertia and political gridlock that has all but paralyzed this great
nation. In one word: It’s about CHANGE!
Change is the buzzword in the country at the moment. It’s not a surprise because
Americans are sick and tired about politics as usual in Washington, DC. They are
sick and tired of politics of division and gridlock in Capitol Hill. They’re
sick of lack of movement on a whole swathe of issues that are fundamental to
their wellbeing—social security, mortgage disaster, minimum wage, health
insurance, poverty, homelessness, joblessness, global warming and all the way to
the war in Iraq that has gobbled hundreds of billions of dollars with nothing to
show for it other than grim statistics of deaths and destruction and broken
limbs.
Why should anyone looking for change go for Hillary? Hillary and her husband,
President Bill Clinton, are parts and parcels of the legacies of bitterness and
divisions that have paralyzed the nation. In fact, Hillary Clinton has become a
metaphor for division in the country and the bad thing is that she knows it! If
anyone is looking for a new Washington the dumbest thing to do is look in the
direction of Hillary—the arch polarizer. The best formula to ensure total
political gridlock in Washington is to have both Clintons in the White House.
Americans would not forget in a hurry that the government was shut down during
President Clinton’s first term in office. Beyond that, however, Hillary Clinton
is a Washington insider whose vote for the war in Iraq is at least partially
responsible for the deaths and destructions in Iraq. And to add insult to injury
she has bluntly refused to apologize to her fellow Americans, as in fact, did
John Edwards and other democrats who also voted for the war in the heat of the
moment but later realized their mistakes and disavowed their votes.
When therefore, Hillary Clinton talks about being more experienced, she is
referring to her experience behind the Beltway politics. She has never held any
executive position in government. She was First Lady just like any other First
Lady before her. Yet she touts her ‘experience’ in the White House. What
experience are we really talking about here, folks? Experience in wheeling and
dealing with Washington lobbyists or contributing to the gridlock in Washington?
What really are the specifics of the ‘experience’ Hillary is touting on the
campaign trail that prepared her for the presidency from “day one?” Does it
include, for instance, attending to guests in the White House and setting the
dinner tables? Would that include also her board membership of the acutely
anti-labor and exploitative Walmart Corporation that wallows in cheap labor with
no healthcare benefits? Or for that matter, her disastrous health plan?
She cannot nor does she want to break away from the establishment—the corporate
lobbyists and entrenched political interests that have hijacked Washington
because that is her core constituency. A presidential candidate, who publicly
declared in a debate, that she would involve herself in pushing files in the
huge American bureaucracy rather than setting a grand agenda for the nation, is
not the visionary president America needs at this time of economic and political
woes.
Therefore, if change is the question, Hillary Clinton is the wrong answer!
Thus as between Obama and Clinton it’s a stark choice between the past and the
future. It’s a choice between visionary and transcendent leadership on the one
hand and a file pusher and bureaucrat in the White House on the other hand. It’s
a choice between an acutely divisive leader, very much like President Bush, and
a known team player as Barrack Obama with a track record of bringing people
together to achieve common goals. Obama has a transcendent agenda that goes well
beyond bread and butter issues. His message has resonated in the hearts of
Americans who long for another John Kennedy to inspire them to greater heights.
Is it any wonder that the very daughter of the JFK has publicly endorsed Barrack
Obama because “I have found that man in Barrack Obama!” who inspires America the
way my father did. In tow the Patriarch of the Kennedy family, Senator Ted
Kennedy followed suit to endorse Obama. A former Presidential candidate, Senator
Tom Bradley, had earlier endorsed Obama. Another former Presidential candidate,
Senator John Kerry, has endorsed Obama. And guess what: even former President
Jim Carter has publicly praised Obama, revealing that all but one member of his
children are ardent Obama supporters.
These are all white not black personalities. Obama’s appeal and message cut
across race and gender. In a way, an all white state of Iowa made Obama
otherwise his candidacy would have been history. Long before South Carolina were
Iowa and New Hampshire where Obama made history with white voters, women,
independents, and young voters. The huge war chest that has been raised by the
Obama Campaign ($32 million in the month of January alone) did not come from
Africa nor from African American community but from ordinary black, white,
latino folks in bits and pieces to his challenger a run for his/her money. Obama
has outraised any other presidential contender in this season. And more to it:
Obama has pulled into the mainstream huge numbers of voters who until now were
acutely apathetic to politics as usual. He is a huge asset to the Democratic
Party and the nation at large.
The above endorsements speak to his transcendental and inspiring message rather
than his color of skin and that is the most important thing. The endorsements
speak to change in Washington and the nation at large. They speak to a new
direction for the country both in domestic policies and international relations.
They speak to an America that would be at peace with the rest of the world
rather than being the hated war mongering nation that the Republicans have
condemned her to. They speak to a vision that would end the gridlock in
Washington and make the average American the center piece of every government
policy rather than war mongering that fritters away valuable resources that
could be deplored to make life better for millions of struggling American
families. They speak to a new America that dreams again.
They speak to a choice between the past and the future. Hillary represents the
past and Obama represents the future. The choice for Americans couldn’t be
starker. America must invest in her future and not in her past. She must
therefore renew herself by renewing her leadership. And there is no question
that a candidature of inspiration and renewal is the way to go. The nation is
pretty much settled on that. What is left is to practically translate that
national consensus into national action with no room for negative extraneous
consideration.
And this goes beyond Obama/Hillary, all the way to Obama/McCain. Obama vs McCain
offers even deeper contrast both in terms of age and inspiration. McCain carries
a baggage of the Vietnam War that colors his every action. He is a military man
through and through and carries bitterness in his heart that pops up every now
and then. His temperament has become an issue even in this campaign as it was
during his first tango with the current President. McCain in the White House
would be a worse danger to the world than the present incumbent. After President
Bush’s dangerous and expensive gambit in Iraq, America should say no to another
military adventurer in the White House. Americans are not looking to eat bullet
but bread! They are not looking to police the world but to attend to feed and
clothe their families and take care of their lives just like citizens of other
nations. McCain will put bullets on their dinning tables—Obama will put bread on
their dinning tables.
Obama is just warming up for America! It’s gonna be a long hard slug. But in the
end, history will deliver its verdict as it alone can. Though the night might be
cold and long, in the end it must give way to the day, for it is written: the
night must yield her place to the day at the appointed hour. It’s the law of
nature. It’s God’s law. The day is drawing nigh. I can feel its exhilaration in
the air!!! What about you?
Barrel on Barrack!! You have received the call of history and like the Biblical
Jonah, you are duty bound to answer it. The passion of your message depicts one
who has been touched by a higher power. Could you be the Moses of our time? Fear
no evil; the gods are with you in this historic but treacherous journey. If
Governor Arnold Schwartzeneger, a Greek immigrant, can do it in California Obama
can do it in Washington, DC. The White House is beckoning on Obama. Hillary!
Please do not stand in his way. Step aside for Obama just like Senator Edwards
did for both of you. He is a wise man, nudged by the hand of history. Edwards
saw the hand of history and wisely stepped aside. He was not stubborn. He left
to allow history have its way.
Dear Hillary! It is now your turn to harken to the prodding of history and step
aside for Obama because “ain’t no stoppin’ him now!” And ain’t no fairy tale
here either. This is for real, Hill.
History is knocking on the door and the door knob has been turned to swing it
open for him. Warning! Please Hillary, do not stand in the way! It could be the
costliest political mistake you ever made standing in the way of history with
Bill Clinton by your side acting as a road block. Both of you could be swept
aside by the tidal wave of the Tsunamic eruption that is about to hit the shores
of the America’s political landscape. It will sweep away political deadwoods in
Washington and all the entrenched negativities in the American body politic
because this is the period of renewal.
And to the American voter: Kindly accept this gratuitous advice: As you go to
the polls or caucus during the primaries on Super Tuesday, keep in mind that the
United States is larger than herself. She is bigger than the sum of and her
citizens. It’s not fortuitous that all the races are represented here in God’s
own country. America is a country of destiny and she is about to keep yet
another date with destiny. She is already a beacon to the world on freedom and
liberty and that imposes a heavy burden on her shoulders that her voters must
bear with grace and dignity. But the one beacon the United States cannot afford
to present to the world in this day and age is a beacon of racism and bigotry.
President Clinton tried to play the race card on behalf of his wife and it fell
flat on its face. It shows America has moved beyond race or so I prefer to think
at this juncture. The results of the Iowa caucus tend to validate this
assumption. They gave Obama the initial lift and since then there ain’t no
stoppin’ him. Since my last article, however, President Bill Clinton has chilled
out! He has apparently realized the enormous damage he has done to his wife’s
campaign and to the Democratic Party itself. It would be nice to keep that way
“Billary!” If Bill has called it quits it’s time for Hill to follow suit and not
stand in the way of Obama, needlessly, otherwise history will judge her and her
husband, harshly. After all it’s a Billary ticket, isn’t it? So, why is Hill
still standing defiantly when Bill is down? Hill should go down with her hubby
and graciously throw in the towel again, just like Edwards, before history
shoves both of them aside.
How about that for a CHANGE, Hillary? Oh, that word again! I feel it in the air
again. It’s coming on strong. I can smell it, feel it, touch it, and live it!
Oh, how I love it so!!
Change in the Air!!! Is America ready? She has no choice but be ready because
change is the only constant in nature. Change in the Air!!!
Franklin Otorofani, Esq. (USA)
Contact: mudiagaone@yahoo.com
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