Meditations: The False Hope of Kerry-Edwards

John Edwards beams before a press mob literally falling over themselves as he exits his Washington residence to enter the arena as John Kerry’s vice-presidential running mate. The ambitious, charismatic man from North Carolina, the embodiment of American optimism with his youthful mien, has won his goal. But will John-John defeat Dick and dummy?

Put more philosophically, has the November election already been metaphysically decided, as in 2000, needing only a few finishing touches by the Mephistophelian James Baker once again? Or will the world not be gored for four more years by sclerotic bulls in human clothing?

Sometimes the future is set, and sometimes things are uncertain until they happen. The idea that everything is undecided is as wrong as the idea that everything is predetermined.

Take the 2000 election between Bush and Gore for example. Half of America feels the election was stolen, though a much smaller percentage realize that it was rigged. Not rigged in a political, consciously conspiratorial sense, but with collective darkness pulling the strings nonetheless.

Here’s the history that will be written once darkness has been dethroned (whether that occurs at this point in human history, or not). The spymaster’s master, George the First, gave the green light to Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait, by signaling through the U.S. ambassador that his administration would not go to the mats if Iraq invaded.

Then the selfsame James Baker quickly cobbled together the mother of all coalitions, got United Nations approval, and the disgusting turkey shoot began.

In the run-up to the war, the vote in the main deliberative body in America, the Senate, was very close. Al Gore, then arguably the most influential senator, cast the swing vote. He carried enough of his fence-sitting colleagues with him to give Bush Senior the war resolution he said he didn’t need.

The UN gave its imprimatur to a war that could have been averted both before and after the invasion of Kuwait. That nearly eviscerated what was at the time the most respected international institution of emerging global governance.

The invasion by Iraq, while criminal and illegal, was already a fait accompli. The UN only has the legal and moral authority to authorize the use of force to defend against attacks in progress. When it authorized the Gulf War because Bush Senior said, “this will not stand,” the legal and moral authority of the UN was completely undermined.

But of course that was part of a larger plan. The debacle in Somalia (an attempt by Bush Senior to prove that he had a heart), the suppurating wound of the former Yugoslavia, and the horror of Rwanda all followed, inevitably.

The first Gulf War also led directly to the rise of the subterranean power of Osama bin Laden, resulting in the terrorist attacks on the United States, which supposedly ‘changed the world.’ The stage was set for Bush Junior.

Back in the yet to be identified “homeland” of America, Gulf War I was the straw that broke the spirit’s back. Simply put, that is the point where America lost its soul. Because Al Gore opposed the war but did the politically expedient thing and voted for it, I was certain he would never be president, and often said so. His future, and America’s, was decided in 1991.

I have a first cousin, born a few weeks after me, who used exactly the same words that John Edwards used the day after he was selected by Kerry to be his running mate. Like Edwards, my cousin is a successful lawyer with passionately progressive views. Over dinner together with other family members in my native Great Lakes state last fall, Mike was more upset than I’d ever seen him. “I want my country back,” he nearly shouted at one point.

Standing by Kerry’s side for the first time, Edwards also nearly shouted during his speech: “we’re going to take our country back.”

There are two problems with that noble sentiment. First, both Edwards and Kerry voted for the second Gulf War, which makes the first look tidy and above-board. Second, the darkness that rules America through Bush-Cheney, and seeks to destroy the human spirit (as its instrument Bush Senior destroyed the American spirit) will not be so easily defeated as Michael Moore and his minions suppose.

In short, the Bush-Cheney Administration is a boil on the body politic that has been growing for long time. So will they pop in November, or ooze for another four years?

Sometimes the future remains undetermined until the end, because the last act is still being written. Kerry-Edwards represents the false hope that America can recover its soul and stature without having to admit that it’s lost them.

Besides, the defeat of Bush-Cheney would mark a turning point in human history. And that will not begin, but end in America.

- Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He has been publishing in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe (and now New Zealand) for 20 years. Email: martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net. The author welcomes comments.

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